Book Reviews

A Place Called Grand Canyon: Contested Geographies.

By BARBARAJ MOREHOUSE (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996.viii + 202 pp. Cloth, $40.00; paper $19.95.)

Geographer Barbara J. Morehouse defines the contested geography of "the greater Grand Canyon" as a much larger region than the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park, the Grand Canyon that most people conceptualize This area's story "is neither singular nor unique. Rather, it is representative of one of the most fundamental processes of human existence: society's organization of geographical space" (p. 6).

Three concepts of space are compared and contrasted in a chronological discussion of changing perceptions and practices regarding creation and expansion of Grand Canyon National Park: absolute space, and its boundaries, "a defined area within which certain ideas and ways of behaving dominate"; relative space, "an area that supports multiple definitions and uses . . . relative to particular attributes," with changing boundaries "depending on the characteristics of the space and the expectations of those giving it definition"; and representational space, or a "sense of place," which "enfolds symbols, values, experiences, histories, and traditions—many of which are intangible and unquantifiable—that give someone a sense of attachment to that location" (p. 7).

Time and again, Morehouse documents the many political considerations in the progress, or lack thereof, toward establishing or expanding protection for the Grand Canyon Federal agency infighting and competition, between the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service in particular, continue to the present and are arguably as large a deterrent to preservation of the ecosystem as are conflicting values and agenda of ranchers, timber interests, miners, hunters, recreationists, environmentalists, and Native Americans.

The most interesting topic for this reviewer was the ongoing struggle over boundary issues, including the shared Colorado River boundary, with Native American tribal entities Although the Navajo reservation delineation in 1868 was the first example of lands set aside for political purposes by the federal government in the greater Grand Canyon region, it is ironic that boundary problems continue and that reservation enlargement struggles for the most part resulted in futility. The Havasupai battle leading to the 1975 reservation enlargement by transferring park lands to the tribe occurred only after ninety years of effort.

The perpetual fight between and among federal agencies and various use-groups continues the tradition of contestation Morehouse documents. The author's reference list is extensive, containing much more than just secondary sources She makes impressive use of primary source material from the Grand Canyon National Park Archives as well as the Morris Udall Archives at the University of Arizona References to these and other primary sources will lead those so inclined to more specific topics.

The short discussions of "space" at the end of most chapters appear to be add-ons in order to satisfy Morehouse's premise regarding space These entries would better fit into the last two chapters: "Toward a (Re)definition of Grand Canyon" and "Looking Backward—and Forward."

Controversial issues that the author does not cover in much detail (or at all, for some are post-1995, the last year of coverage) set the stage for the future: General Management Plan implementation; release of the California condors; possible uranium mining renewal; the Colorado River and the backcountry management plan revisions; Tusayan Environmental Impact Statement; salvage logging on the North Rim; the operation of Glen Canyon Dam and its possible removal; draining of Lake Powell; discussions concerning limits and reservations for park visitation; carrying capacity, limits of acceptable change, and visitor contact and perceptions studies; the Park Service and FAA tug-of-war with scenic overflights; and wilderness designation. The list is virtually endless.

Readers concerned with the West will find an excellent summary of the struggle and controversy surrounding the changing perceptions regarding protection of the space that is Grand Canyon. Morehouse is well qualified to add future chapters, for this struggle is seemingly increasing. Let us hope that she keeps us apprised of the events and perceptions concerning the "grander" Grand Canyon area.

RICHARD D QUARTAROLI Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona

Gila Monsters and Red-Eyed Rattlesnakes: Don Maguire 's Arizona Trading Expeditions, 1876-1879.

Edited by GARY TOPPING (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1997 xviii + 245 pp $34.95.)

If you met Don Maguire at a social gathering, you would be well advised to pull up a chair and sit a spell Maguire (1852-1933) had been places and done things during his long life and, judging from this account of his trading days in Utah and Arizona in the 1870s, he knew how to tell a rollicking good story. The challenge to historians, as editor Topping cautions in his introduction, is finding the paydirt buried beneath a mountain of exaggeration and outright fabrication. Sticklers for demonstrable fact should be prepared to dig deep.

On October 12, 1876, Maguire set out from Ogden, Utah, with two companions, fourteen mules, and three horses on the first of three expeditions to sell merchandise to the mining camps, Indian reservations, and frontier communities of southern Utah, Arizona, and northern Mexico College educated and recently returned from travels in Europe and North Africa, the twenty-five-year-old entrepreneur read Telemachus in French by the campfire, hunted wild game with remarkable prowess, gleefully collected artifacts from ancient ruins and cliff dwellings, and made piles of money. He also kept sketchy diaries from which, in 1883, he wrote a narrative of his adventures. Following a fire in 1929 that destroyed his home, library, and much of his manuscript materials, in 1931 Maguire—now nearing eighty years of age—hired a secretary who completed the typescript that Topping has edited for publication. Clearly, by this time Maguire had given his imagination full rein as he recreated adventures of fifty years past in a "region of romance.... danger.... and death" (p xvii).

Even casual students of southwestern history will find it annoyingly easy to catch Maguire in lies both large and small Army officers that Maguire claims to have visited at Forts McDowell and Verde never existed, Morris Goldwater becomes Moses in Maguire's recollections, he twice mentions that Padre Eusebio Kino was martyred by Apaches, and states that Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith captured Tucson. In other instances, as editor Topping points out, he has fabricated stories of an accordian-playing Mrs. Killfor and her oddball library; French prospector Jean La Bruyere; a 1776 visit to Cane Springs by the peripatetic missionary-explorer Francisco Garces; and his own visit to the Petrified Forest, including supposedly firsthand, but demonstrably erroneous, observations of Navajo customs Readers more skeptical than Topping may reasonably question the old peddler's descriptions of prosperous Paiute, Mohave, and Hualapai Indians and his wild tale of trading guns with Mexican smugglers in a cave somewhere in the so-called Santa Cruz mountains near Tucson. Checking Prescott and Tucson newspapers for Maguire's coming and goings, and greater familiarity with standard secondary sources on the history and geography of southern Arizona, might have hoisted additional red flags for Topping.

What then does Gila Monsters and Red-Eyed Rattlesnakes provide that justifies its publication? Topping is right when he describes Maguire's narratives as "original and colorful contributions to the literature of the American West" (p vii) They also introduce us to Maguire—an entertaining traveling companion who knows intimately nineteenth-century business practices and is always loath to let fact get in the way of a good story. Allowing for hyperbole, a faulty memory, and an anti-Mormon bias, readers will find knowledgeable descriptions of life and customs in the tiny communities that dotted southern Utah and the valley of the Little Colorado in Arizona In the end, Maguire's reminiscences may be of greatest value to folklorists, who will read them for insight into frontier customs and beliefs. Historians, on the other hand, would be well advised to heed Topping's warning not to "yield too easily to the temptation to take at face value Maguire's descriptions" and, rather, to view their shortcomings as challenges "to our own intelligence and creativity" (p xiii) They are indeed.

BRUCE J. DINGES Arizona Historical Society Tucson

Images of an American Land: Vernacular Architecture in the Western United States.

Edited by THOMAS CARTER (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997. xvi + 337 pp Cloth, $50.00; paper, $29.95.)

The field of vernacular architectural history—an "awkward term," (xiii) as editor Thomas Carter of the University of Utah admits—is the study of ordinary buildings in their historic contexts. As artifacts, such structures tell us much about everyday life throughout American history. Although scholars have written extensively about the built environment of the eastern United States, publications about western vernacular traditions have been skimpy and scattered. In this anthology, Carter has begun to remedy that imbalance by bringing together some of the best of these writings and presenting the first truly useful theory for interpreting the western built environment.

As does no other scholar of western material culture, Carter centers his anthology firmly within the historiography of New Western history. This is reflected in his selections of essays that cover a variety of structures over a broad spectrum of time Though Carter includes three essays on rural agricultural buildings—the common topic of folklorists—the rest deal with ethnic groups such as Chinese and Hispanics, women, urban environments, and industrial landscapes. Three specifically examine the West's twentieth-century built environment, an overlooked area of material culture studies. Carter has organized the twelve articles into pairs relating to six themes: building traditions that moved from East to West, structural innovations that illuminate western distinctiveness, architectural convergence of different cultures, diversity and gender distinctions in the built environment, urbanization in the West, and production of landscapes centered on exploiting resources.

Taken individually, the anthology's essays seem quite divergent. Carter's introduction, however, provides an overarching unity and a way to think about the West's diverse architecture and subregions. Borrowing from geographers' core-periphery theory, Carter argues that western vernacular traditions share a "peripheral relationship to an increasingly industrialized and urban American core culture" (p. 11).

Although local circumstances produce distinctive subcultures, they are all bound within the larger historic context of industrialization and capitalism. This is a much more practical and satisfying method for interpreting the western built environment than the commonly used diffusion theory.

Some of the essays succeed at utilizing Carter's general theory For instance, Chris Wilson's "When a Room Is the Hall: The Houses of West Las Vegas, New Mexico" clearly shows how Anglo-American values began to influence regional Hispanic architecture. Other chapters, however, are purely descriptive, a common problem of architectural studies. This may reflect an earlier, less analytical stage of the field, as many of these works rely on research from the 1970s and 1980s Seven of them have been published previously injournals or anthologies.

Carter's book, and especially his introduction, marks a turning point in the study of western vernacular architecture. By placing landscapes within the context of current western historiography, Carter has given new relevance to western material culture. Thus, scholars of both disciplines will benefit from reading this anthology. But perhaps more importantly, those who love and know the West as a place will gain new perspectives on this complex and fascinating region.

JANET ORE Colorado State University Ft. Collins

A New Significance: Re-Envisioning the History of the American West.

Edited by CLYDE A. MILNER II. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. xiv + 318 pp. Cloth, $49.95; paper, $19.95.)

One of the few complaints that western historians will have about A New Significance is that it has been a long time coming The conference at Utah State University, where the volume's essayswere first aired, took place in the summer of 1992 (marking, albeit a year early, the centennial of Turner's frontier thesis) The essays then appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly in 1993 and 1994. For most readers, though, the end-product will prove well worth the wait. In addition to the book's core essays—by Allan G. Bogue on historiography, William Deverell on the West and U.S. history, David G. Gutierrez on Mexican Americans, Susan Rhodes Neel on the environment, Gail M Nomura on Asian Americans, Anne F. Hyde on perceptions of the West, David Rich Lewis on Native Americans, and Susan Lee Johnson on gender—there are two commentaries for each essay, a brief essay by Quintard Taylor on African Americans, and a concluding statement by Deverell and Hyde.

While space does not permit substantive discussion of each of the essays, it is worth noting that they can be divided into two broad categories: "informational" and "theoretical." Lewis's superb overview of Native Americans in the twentieth-century West, "Still Native," and Gutierrez's nicely structured analysis of Mexican American historiography, "Significant to Whom?," typify the former category. Gail Nomura's overview of Asia and Asian Americans, "Significant Lives," Bogue's sweeping historiographic survey of "The Course of Western History's First Century," and Taylor's piece on "The Meaning of AfricanAmerican History in the West" also fall into the informational category. Deverell's "Fighting Words," Neel's "A Place of [environmental] Extremes," Hyde's "Cultural Filters," and Johnson's "The Significance of Gender" are all more theoretical. While these theoretical pieces will seem quite accessible to scholars in the field, students at the undergraduate level will find them difficult reading compared with the informational pieces.

But important as the core essays are, special mention must be made of the commentary pieces that augment the volume's usefulness. Particularly memorable are Richard Maxwell Brown's overview of the "new western literature"; Arnoldo De Leon's and Vicki Ruiz's comments on Mexican Americans; Dan Flores on the environment; Sucheta Mazumdar and Gary H. Okihiro on Asian Americans; Elliott West's "The Shadow of Pikes Peak," a response to Hyde's essay and an important essay in its own right; and Peter Iverson's and Barre Toelken's excellent additions to the foundation constructed by Lewis for the study of Native Americans These commentaries add to the original essays rather than seeking to detract from them—a healthy and welcome phenomenon in a field that has recently been characterized more by confrontation than collegiality.

With its general readability, numerous insightful arguments and frameworks, and up-to-date bibliographic references, A New Significance willjoin a distinguished and influential group of anthologies published this decade, including Trails: Toward a New Western History (Limerick, Milner II, and Rankin, eds.), Under an Open Sky (Cronon, Miles, and Gitlin, eds.), and Writing Western History (Etulain, ed.) However, as one might expect from a project involving so many individuals in the various sub-fields of western history, the end result is not "A New Significance" (if by that phrase the reader expects a single over-arching framework). Instead, the volume offers a set of fresh but varied approaches which together illuminate the healthy reality that the field's strength comes from its diversity.

DAVID M WROBEL Widener University Chester, Pennsylvania

The Archaeology of the Donner Party.

By Donald L. Hardesty. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997 xii + 156 pp $27.95.)

During the winter of 1846-1847, a group of overland emigrants known collectively as the Donner party became marooned in the snow while attempting to cross the Sierra Nevada of California By the time the snow trapped them, the party found themselves divided into two primary groups Unable to advance further, each group prepared a camp—one at Donner Lake and the other several miles away along Alder Creek. There, hoping to protect themselves from the elements, they waited for the weather to clear and a chance to finish their journey. For nearly half the party, that chance never came They died from starvation in their snowbound winter camps The tragedy of their ordeal has subsequently become one of the best-known stories in the history of the American West.

While secondary accounts of the tragedy abound, there are few actual eyewitness accounts describing the location of cabins and other camp features or the details of camp life Consequently, questions about these topics still lie unanswered Attempting to define the location of specific structures and shed new light on the nature of life in the Donner party camps, the author sought another avenue of investigation—archaeology. This book chronicles his search and documents the discoveries his team made. Surprisingly short, the book is divided into six well-documented chapters and three appendices, combining contributions from a variety of prominent scholars. Fortunately, more illustrations are used here than in some of the author's previous work.

Hardesty begins the work with a detailed overview of the Donner party's experience, which is integrated into the larger context of overland migration, by historian Michael Broadhead Following this introduction is an account of the archaeological investigations and the discoveries which Hardesty's team made about the Donner party's emergency shelter, baggage, social status, and beliefs. Since only a small sample of the sites were investigated, the author concludes with a chapter on suggestions for future research An intriguing appendix by Donald Grayson explores the effects which gender, age and family group size may have had on the Donner party survivors.

Both general audiences and scholars will find The Archaeology of the Donner Party a welcome addition to the existing accounts of that great ordeal in the Sierra Historians and archaeologists will also find that the book contributes new data to the archaeology of nineteenth-century overland travel and the study of immigrant behavior.

BRUCE HAWKINS Rochester, ML

Science, Values, and the American West.

Edited by STEPHEN TCHUDI. (Reno: Nevada Humanities Committee, 1997. xiv + 256 pp. Paper, $14.95.)

Science, Values, and the American West is, in the words of its editor, a professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, an exploration of "the multivariate connections between science and ethical systems" (xii) As often happens with such collections, the essays vary in the quality of their contribution.

Some of the offerings, such as Michael A Bryson's "Controlling the Land: John Wesley Powell and the Scientific Management of the American West," are particularly stimulating Equally worthy are Brett Zalkan's "Automation and Apocalypse in the Octopus" and David Kirsch's "Project Plowshare: The Cold War Search for a Peaceful Nuclear Explosive" which looks at the efforts of the Atomic Energy Commission to develop and test peaceful nuclear explosives.

Treatises such as "The Paths of Unjust Profit: John Keeble's Portrait of the American West," were tempting, at least in title, to a Utah western environmental historian like myself But the essay does not quite deliver. Another study, "Mock Turtle Arithmetic," a rather confusing title for a somewhat perplexing piece about nuclear stockpiles in the deserts of Nevada, is obviously written by an expert in the field but is loaded with technical jargon which makes for demanding reading Admittedly these criticisms could relate to the reviewer's own preferences; but by whatever criteria employed, some of the essays in Science, Values, and the American West will be judged shallow or poorly conceived.

Is this the result of questionable editing, poor judgment in the selection process, or some other factor? On the positive side, the book does provide some insightful ideas on science and technology in the West. It is a tantalizing and important subject, and this work has much to offer by way of a beginning. But a book of this type can only be as good as the individual essays will allow, and in this case too many of those selections do not live up to their promise.

M. GUY BISHOP Woods Cross, Utah