Reflections of Grand Canyon Historians: Ideas, Arguments, and First-Person Accounts

In January 2007, hundreds of historians, witnesses to history, National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service employees, hikers, river runners, and history buffs gathered on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park for the second Grand Canyon History Symposium. The symposium came alive with thirty-six presentations on topics from new evidence about the Powell expedition to rarely published reflections on Hopi cultural connections to the Grand Canyon to a robust debate on whether James White did or did not raft through the canyon in 1867. Reflections of Grand Canyon Historians collects thirtytwo papers based on the presentations at the symposium, offering an offbeat anthology of Grand Canyon history. Readers will find this a thought-provoking and entertaining book, a unique collection of historical events tied to the Crown Jewel of the National Park System. Accessible to lay readers, Reflections of Grand Canyon Historians will challenge your thinking while filling your mind with cowboys, hermits, towering figures in conservation history, near-naked river runners, honored veterans, visionary naturalists, and shutter-happy mule wranglers. The book will fascinate anyone interested in the history of the Southwest and of America’s national parks.