Four Corners: History, Land and People of the Desert Southwest

From Publishers Weekly
With its spectacular ancient rock formations, high plateaus and desert valleys, its Native American multistory cliff dwellings, its confluence of Mormon, Spanish, Navajo, Ute, Anglo and other cultures, the Four Corners region?the intersection of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah?is a world unto itself. Nature writer Brown (Cycles of Rock and Water) takes readers on a wondrous odyssey through this sparsely inhabited region in a seamless mix of travelogue, geology, biology and history. He visits the hanging gardens and alcove pine forests hidden in Utah's canyons; takes us into lava fields near the Zuni Mountains; and joins an archeological dig of an ancient village in New Mexico built by Archaic hunters and gatherers perhaps 7000 years ago. We stumble upon rock paintings depicting giant, ghostlike figures and tour pueblos of several hundred rooms built by the Anasazi, a sophisticated people who abandoned their homes some 600 years ago. Brown's reports on Arizona Hopi struggling to preserve traditional ways, on a Spanish village cooperative in New Mexico and on geophysicists' mapping of the Colorado Plateau's paleomagnetic fields inspire awe and reverence for the earth. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
In this masterful tour de force of nature writing, Kenneth Brown explores one of the most awe-inspiring regions on earth -- the Four Corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Weaving together its geological, ecological and human histories, he presents a unique portrait of this ruggedly beautiful landscape that goes beyond mere description to give readers a true sense of the land in all its richness. Here are rock croppings that are 2 billion years old and broad desert valleys where rivers of lava cooled to form floors of solid rock. Here ancient hunter-gatherers stalked the woolly mammoth, four-story pueblos were carved by the Anasazi from sheer stone cliffs and an ancient midnight Holy Week ceremony is still practiced in a modern Spanish village. Providing a fresh perspective on a region currently enjoying an upwelling of interest, Four Corners is a fascinating study of one of the world's great wonders -- compelling reading for all science, nature, anthropology and travel aficionados.


From the Publisher
A fascinating, eloquent study of the ancient people and terrain of the dramatic high rock plains of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, from the author of Cycles of Rock and Water.


About the Author
Kenneth A. Brown's work has appeared in Newsweek, The Christian Science Monitor, and Discover. He lives in Kettering, OH.


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It is one of the most awe-inspiring regions on earth. Bottomless canyons, fierce rivers, sky-scraping mountains, and ancient peoples populate the United States desert Southwest in a stunning and seemingly random collage. In Four Corners, Kenneth Brown embarks upon a fascinating odyssey through this mysterious and beautiful region, writing about the people who rose and fell there, the subtle geological forces that sculpted the landscape, and the delicate yet enduring ecosystem that sustains life across the often brutal terrain. Brown journeys across the Four Corners region on foot and by air, weaving a fascinating portrait of the cultural, natural, and geological histories that have created the unique landscape that exists today. From four-story pueblos carved into sheer stone cliffs and a mountain peak where snow covers the ground for all but three months a year to an ancient midnight Holy Week ceremony in a modern Spanish village, Four Corners is a compelling exploration of one of the world's great treasures.


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