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

If anyone has been to the Four Corners area, particularly the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, you will appreciate the author who takes you well beyond those more obviously known pleasures and takes you into more remote and attrarctive parts of the large four corners area giving the reader an introduction to geology while explaing in the initial chapyers how the land and continent was formed. The books goes on to discuss each area, its rock formations including mountains, plateaus and valleys and the vegetation that makes each area unique. The author includes interviews with numerous specialists throughout the book along his own personal journey through these ares that he hikes and camps and spends time in some very remote areas. His discussion of the people that once lived on the land and the ones that currently do provides a human linkage to present day. The mystery of the Anasazi is quite fascinating as these ancient cliff dwellers disappaered around 1400 AD but may have become part of the present day Hopi tribe. The description of their cliff like fortess dwellings and the archelogical studies is one of the most interestiung parts of the book. Why did they live along a cliffs in large communities and what happened to them? The book is not a quick read but one that deserves patience to appreciate the indepth descrptions that Brown provides. The only downturn, which is very slight, is that the author has little tolerance for tourists that in his opinion, along with the specialist he meets, strongly feel that tourists overwhelm these sensitive sites. However, for one who loves to travel these wonderful places with great respect for the sensitivity of the environment, we must all do our part to try to rein in those few that unfortunatey create a negative impact no matter where they visit or live.

Interesting but not the spellbinder I was anticipating. Very informative though - could use some diagrams along with the text I think.

Good buy!

If any book would benefit from pictures it would be this one. Too bad the author didn't feel the same way as there are very few pictures of all the beautiful places written about in this book.

The geology, the ecology, the human history of the Four Corners area, the Colorado Plateau surrounding the intersection point of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, is infinitely interesting. It teaches us that if we dig deep, we can learn so much about our whole world and how generations of peoples have interacted with it from a one single place. In “Four Corners,” Kenneth Brown attempts to give a sweeping perspective. He discusses:- the extraordinary geology of the Grand Staircase that begins at the Grand Canyon and ends at Bryce Canyon. This is the land that defined our modern knowledge of geology as the Earth’s history. It is literally the textbook definition of how land is created and evolves.- the life and times of the Ancestral Puebloans people who created the magnificent cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde and around the Four Corners area (until recently this group was called the Anasazi, meaning ancient enemy in Navajo which isn’t very nice). Why did these folks build such elaborate houses into the slides sides of mountains around 1200, abandon them in 1300, and never return? This is a great mystery of the America that we should all know about.- the Spanish who came later, then the American explorers like John Wesley Powell, the Navajo who were so adroit at mastering new skills like ranching and farming- the Mormans who made the desert bloom- the U.S. government who created the greatest national parks and giant dams and power plantsOverall, I learned that the Four Corners area is super fascinating, and I want to explore more by reading other books (Cadillac Desert about water in the Southwest, The Gathering of Zion about the Mormons, Code Talkers about the Navajo). By the way, I highly recommend reading Desert Solitaire, which is quoted at numerous times in this book.However, the narrative of this book is draining. Brown jumps from topic to topic with such speed such that it’s hard to put things into perspective. His many visits to speak with some local researcher or resident or his views during some backpacking or canoeing trip come out of nowhere. One minute, there will be a textbook-dense paragraph about a Pinyon-Juniper forest and the next he’ll be giving the backstory and resume of some park ranger or scientist that we then never hear from again.There are many classics that help us better understand the Four Corners. This is not one of them.

This is a fascinating account of the land and people of the Four Corners region of the southwestern US. Brown is as interested in the geology of the region as he is in the settlers of it. The book is basically divided into five large sections, one for each major point on the compass and a fifth entitled "Center." He begins each section with a thorough discussion of its geology. From there he proceeds to the peopling of each section, from the early hunters and gathers to the Anasazi, Spaniards, and Mormons. His long sub-section on the Anasazi is especially good. One thing Brown makes clear is that, unlike the "politically correct" view held by many today, the Americas were not a Garden of Eden before European contact was made. Native tribes fought ferociously with one another over land and resources; even slavery was practiced among the tribes. And after the disastrous Pueblo uprising of 1680 that virtually emptied the country north of the Rio Grande of all Spanish inhabitants, the Spanish realized they would have to cooperate with the Natives to insure security and success.Brown is an excellent writer and captures the uniqueness of the desert Southwest well without going into rapturous (and phony) doggerel. He is a "loner," however, relying on historical records or scientific textbooks for most of his information, and rarely brings along another geologist or historian to hash out information. (This being the case, it's surprising that there is no bibliography included.) Even his own personal observations, other than a few camping/hiking scenes thrown in here and there, are kept to a minimum. Some might object to this impersonal approach, but it didn't bother me at all. The book is interesting and informative - an excellent overview of the desert Southwest.