BOOKSHELF

by John V. Young. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131. 1986. 204 pages. $11.95, softcover; plus $2.00 postage and handling.

Arizona has twenty-two national parks, monuments, recreation areas, and historic sites, more than any other state in the Union. Considering this magnificent offering, one would think that a state parks system would go unseen and unsung. Such is not the case. Because of discriminating selection and development, the state parks of Arizona host nearly two million visitors a year.

The enabling legislation to create a state parks system for Arizona was passed in 1957, and the first state park designated was the Tubac Presidio, a centerpiece of Arizona history. Tubac was the first European community in what is now Arizona, the site of the first Spanish land grant, the location of the first public school, and it was here that the first newspaper in the territory was published. Each of the twenty-one state parks in Arizona is classified as recreational or historic. Together they offer both the sportsman and the weekend scholar a wide choice of rewarding remissions from a forty-hour week and the anxieties that go with an asphalt society. Arizona parks represent a four-century span of history as well as the dramatic range of climate zones that exists in the state. They are as diverse as the state itself, from the ancient petroglyphs of Painted Rock State Historic Park to the transplanted London Bridge at Lake Havasu State Park. While the bridge is obviously not

The State Parks of Arizona

a native, it is symbolic, for it, too, came to Arizona to become part of it.

John V. Young, author of The State Parks of Arizona, has done an exemplary job of work in compiling this invaluable guide. Indexed and illustrated with current photographs, it will prove a useful tool of travel for both the resident and the tourist. Aside from the facilities offered in or near each park, Young includes a brief history of the area and colorful personalities of the past identified with the local scene.

The three-hundred-acre Lost Dutch-man State Park, set in the foothills of the fabled Superstition Mountains, assures Jacob Walz and his "lost" mine of a continuing immortality, nourished almost daily by writers de-voted more to romance than research. Other Arizona characters, more substantive but less celebrated, parade through the pages of the book: William Boyce Thomp-son, philanthropist and amateur botanist, Juan Bautista de Anza, Spanish explorer, Charles D. Poston, "Father of Arizona," and Old Bill Williams, a restless mountain man of the mid-nineteenth century who gave his name to an Arizona town, mountain, and river. Old Bill loved soli-tude and believed in evolution, which today seem equal-ly difficult to come by.

John Young's The State Parks of Arizona goes more than the extra mile beyond ordinary guidebooks. It is a crash course in both the natural and social history of the state. It is a quality publication at a modest price. To my mind, that makes it a rare find.

THE ROLL AWAY SALOON: COWBOY TALES OF THE ARIZONA STRIP,

by Roland W. Rider as told to Deirdre Murray Paulsen. Utah State University Press, Logan, Utah 84322. 1985. 114 pages. $9.95, softcover; plus $1.75 postage and handling.

Those comfortable companions, the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, and the Arizona Strip, have since 1540 been the homeland of both true and tall tales. When the two kinds are intermingled, they create a little cream to pour on dehydrated history. We call this folklore.

Roland W. Rider was born in the little town of Kanab, Utah, near the eastern edge of the Arizona Strip, in 1890. During his ninety-three years of life he made his living in many Ways, but he will be remembered as a master storyteller. Rider's granddaughter, Deirdre Murray Paulsen, listened to his stories, taped them, and took notes. The Roll Away Saloon is the result. Roland Rider's life, wanderings, and recollections about the Colorado River country have left us an engaging selection of yarns on western life and lore.

GULLIBLE COYOTE/UNA'IHU: A BILINGUAL COLLECTION OF HOPI COYOTE STORIES, by

Ekkehart Malotki. University of Arizona Press, 1615 East Speedway Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85719. 1986. 180 pages. $35, hardcover; $19.95, softcover; plus $1.00 postage and bandling.

The Hopi people living on their mesas in northern Arizona are masterful mimics and satirists. In this volume, Ekkehart Malotki, an associate professor of modern languages at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, has collected with the assistance of Michael Lomatuwayma twelve Hopi coyote stories, rendered here in both Hopi and English.

The coyote is a prominent character in much Indian folklore. In this delightful collection, the Hopis use him to reflect the flaws and foibles of humankind. The book has special value, for it preserves some of both the lore and the language of Hopi tradition.