Author: Brett A. LeComptePublisher: Swallow Heart Books
ISBN: 9780925685346
Category : Four Corners Region
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Southwest Circle Quest
Author: Brett A. LeComptePublisher: Swallow Heart Books
ISBN: 9780925685346
Category : Four Corners Region
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Southwest Circle Tour Roads and Bridges
Author: Quest for the Golden Circle
Author: Arthur R. GómezPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Until World War II, the Four Corners Region—where New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona meet—was a collection of isolated rural towns. In the postwar baby boom era, however, small communities like Farmington, New Mexico, became bustling municipalities with rapidly expanding economies. In Quest for the Golden Circle, Arthur Gomez traces the development of the Four Corners' two industries, mining and tourism, to discover how each contributed to the economic and urban transformation of this region during the 1950s and 1960s. Focusing on four cities—Durango, Colorado; Moab, Utah; Flagstaff, Arizona; and Farmington, New Mexico—Gomez chronicles how these towns played key roles in the West's dramatic postwar expansion. Cities such as Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, and Salt Lake City all grew through use of the abundant petroleum, uranium, natural gas, timber, and other natural resources extracted from the Four Corners region. But the energy boom in these towns was not to last. With the arrival of foreign oil bringing economic growth to a halt in the early 1970s, town leaders turned again to the land to stimulate their economy. This time, the resource was a seemingly inexhaustible one—tourism. Gomez examines how business-minded citizens marketed the area's scenic wonders and established the entire region as a tourist destination. Their efforts were further assisted by the selection of stunning federal lands—Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, and Arches National Parks—as treasures protected and promoted by the National Park Service. Both mining and tourism, however, were beset by complex new problems and issues. Extensive highways, for instance, were planned to bisect a Navajo reservation. As Gomez illustrates, the growing cities in the Four Corners region felt tremendous competing pressures between outside business powers and local needs as their extractive economy boomed and busted and as they then struggled to attract tourism dollars. In addition, he highlights the prominent roles played by federal agencies like the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Park Service in shaping regional destiny. An outstanding analysis of the complexities of postwar development, Quest for the Golden Circle successfully illuminates the history of one region within the larger story of the modern American West.
Western Lives
Author: Richard W. EtulainPublisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 9780826334725
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 468
Book Description
The life stories of many individuals are woven together to tell the history of the American West from the earliest days of westward expansion to the twentieth century.
The World of the American West
Author: Gordon Morris BakkenPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136931600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 665
Book Description
The World of the American West is an innovative collection of original essays that brings the world of the American West to life, and conveys the distinctiveness of this diverse, constantly changing region. Twenty scholars incorporate the freshest research in the field to take the history of the American West out of its timeworn "Cowboys and Indians" stereotype right up into the major issues being discussed today, from water rights to the presence of the defense industry. Other topics covered in this heavily illustrated, highly accessible volume include the effects of leisure and tourism, western women, politics and politicians, Native Americans in the twentieth century, and of course, oil. With insight both informative and unexpected, The World of the American West offers perspectives on the latest developments affecting the modern American West, providing essential reading for all scholars and students of the field so that they may better understand the vibrant history of this globally significant, ever-evolving region of North America.
Historic Preservation and the Imagined West
Author: Judy Mattivi MorleyPublisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700617604
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 215
Book Description
Stroll through Larimer Square in Denver or through Pioneer Square in Seattle and you feel that you're stepping into history while browsing the expensive boutiques and tourist shops. But are you? In this intriguing study of some of America's favorite places, Judy Morley takes a fresh look at adaptive reuse efforts in cities of the former frontier. Focusing on urban preservation resulting from the competing interests of architectural preservationists, city planners, chambers of commerce, and boosters, she shows how developers have often taken artistic license to refashion the western past into shopping centers and tourist traps-in ways that privilege an imagined "heritage" over a more complex history. Examining Old Town Albuquerque, Larimer Square and LoDo in Denver, and Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market in Seattle, Morley describes the creation and marketing of western heritage under the guise of historic preservation. She draws on extensive interviews, city council proceedings, and historic plats and photographs to construct a detailed picture of how these districts originally looked and were used, how they were renovated, and to what ends they were marketed. This is the first book to systematically address issues of historic preservation and western urban growth, examining the interplay of identity, preservation, and tourism. It identifies the economic, political, and social issues that transformed each historic district into a place that resonated with the popular imagination. Along the way, Morley exposes the ironies that have attracted criticism to historic districts, such as Old Town Albuquerque's celebration of Hispanic heritage-even though Hispanic residents were displaced during the renovation-or Larimer Square's hiding of its actual skid-row past beneath a veneer of more tourist-friendly history. But while critics charge that historic preservation often celebrates a sanitized past, Morley suggests that these locales offer both residents and visitors a window on a shared romantic history and a sense of belonging, serving as vital locations for community festivals, holiday events, and even public gatherings in times of tragedy. Historic Preservation and the Imagined West argues that, although these districts did not so much preserve history as create mythic identities for their cities, they have in their way reconciled the past with the needs of the future.
Quest for Flight
Author: Gary B. FogelPublisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806187816
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
The Wright brothers have long received the lion’s share of credit for inventing the airplane. But a California scientist succeeded in flying gliders twenty years before the Wright’s powered flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903. Quest for Flight reveals the amazing accomplishments of John J. Montgomery, a prolific inventor who piloted the glider he designed in 1883 in the first controlled flights of a heavier-than-air craft in the Western Hemisphere. Re-examining the history of American aviation, Craig S. Harwood and Gary B. Fogel present the story of human efforts to take to the skies. They show that history’s nearly exclusive focus on two brothers resulted from a lengthy public campaign the Wrights waged to profit from their aeroplane patent and create a monopoly in aviation. Countering the aspersions cast on Montgomery and his work, Harwood and Fogel build a solidly documented case for Montgomery’s pioneering role in aeronautical innovation. As a scientist researching the laws of flight, Montgomery invented basic methods of aircraft control and stability, refined his theories in aerodynamics over decades of research, and brought widespread attention to aviation by staging public demonstrations of his gliders. After his first flights near San Diego in the 1880s, his pursuit continued through a series of glider designs. These experiments culminated in 1905 with controlled flights in Northern California using tandem-wing Montgomery gliders launched from balloons. These flights reached the highest altitudes yet attained, demonstrated the effectiveness of Montgomery’s designs, and helped change society’s attitude toward what was considered “the impossible art” of aerial navigation. Inventors and aviators working west of the Mississippi at the turn of the twentieth century have not received the recognition they deserve. Harwood and Fogel place Montgomery’s story and his exploits in the broader context of western aviation and science, shedding new light on the reasons that California was the epicenter of the American aviation industry from the very beginning.
Outdoors in the Southwest
Author: Andrew GullifordPublisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806145544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 439
Book Description
More college students than ever are majoring in Outdoor Recreation, Outdoor Education, or Adventure Education, but fewer and fewer Americans spend any time in thoughtful, respectful engagement with wilderness. While many young people may think of adrenaline-laced extreme sports as prime outdoor activities, with Outdoors in the Southwest, Andrew Gulliford seeks to promote appreciation for and discussion of the wild landscapes where those sports are played. Advocating an outdoor ethic based on curiosity, cooperation, humility, and ecological literacy, this essay collection features selections by renowned southwestern writers including Terry Tempest Williams, Edward Abbey, Craig Childs, and Barbara Kingsolver, as well as scholars, experienced guides, and river rats. Essays explain the necessity of nature in the digital age, recount rafting adventures, and reflect on the psychological effects of expeditions. True-life cautionary tales tell of encounters with nearly disastrous flash floods, 900-foot falls, and lightning strikes. The final chapter describes the work of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, and other exemplars of “wilderness tithing”—giving back to public lands through volunteering, stewardship, and eco-advocacy. Addressing the evolution of public land policy, the meaning of wilderness, and the importance of environmental protection, this collection serves as an intellectual guidebook not just for students but for travelers and anyone curious about the changing landscape of the West.
The American West
Author: Site Selection & Industrial Development
Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Industrial location
Languages : en
Pages : 2014
Book Description