BOOKSHELF

BOOKSHELF THE TELLURIDE STORY,

by David Lavender; photography by George H. H. Huey. Wayfinder Press, Box 1877, Ouray, CO 81427. 1987. 68 pages. $14.95 softcover, plus $2.00 postage.

How many of them are there, scattered among new conifers on the slopes of mountains or nestled deep in dry gulches on a sun-soaked desert? Most of the places that evolved from campfires to boomtowns left no signs of where or what they were. The townscape is an unmarked grave. A few rotting timbers, pieces of old iron offer few clues to their demise.

Some hung on to their existence with a bear-trap grip when the high-grade ore ran out and the women went away. The Great Depression dealt them what would have been a deathblow if the 18th Amendment hadn't created a cottage industry assuring survival at least until the 21st Amendment brought repeal. Now, just their names attract tourists, artists, skiers, avant-garde types. Happy Camp, Bis bee, Aspen, Calico, French Gulch, Crown King, Sonora, Midas, Tin Cup, Bonanza, Jerome, and Telluride are but a few of the survivors that now live on scenery, sun, or snow.

Author David Lavender was born and spent his boyhood in Telluride. A writer-historian, he has produced some 30 books, most of which deal with the American West. His constant production of magazine articles barely meets the demand. He knows the history of the West in detail and writes in a clear, concise manner.

Telluride, high in the magnificent mountains of southwestern Colorado, had the same parentage most Western mining camps had: gold and silver. The pattern of parenthood was remarkably similar, whether the camp was Virginia City, Humbug, or Telluride.

When the first few bits of mineral wealth were washed, dug, or scratched from the earth, a territorial pride began to bloom, and the result was always the same: “This camp ought to be a town.” The Telluride Story holds the reader's interest as it spans the century from mining camp to ghost town to ski resort. The photographs travel the same trail. George H. H. Huey's spectacular color shots capture the town's seasons and events of today, while her yesterdays are brought to life with historic photos reproduced in sepia tone on a grained paper, giving them a wonderful antique quality. One such interior photograph of the Cosmopolitan Club clearly defines the social activity of the time and place. A roulette wheel, a brass-embossed mahogany bar, and a potbellied stove are the lodestones which once lured the devil-may-care hard rock mining men of the American frontier.

Huey's work has appeared in Arizona Highways, National Wildlife, and Sierra Club and Audubon calendars. The book was designed by Christina Watkins of Tucson. Her gifted eye and instinctive sense of scale and form add to the allure of the publication.

I SEE BY MY GET-UP, by Ron

Querry. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM 87131. 1987. 151 pages. $11.95 softcover, $19.95 hardcover, plus $1.00 postage.

The American educator Nicholas Murray Butler once described education as the ability of an individual to adapt to a given situation. Ron Querry was a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma until the oil money became scarce. When he was fired, he moseyed over to New Mexico and, as luck would have it, married an attractive young lady who was in need of cheap labor to help run her ranch. Making the transition from Professor 'enry 'iggins to Charlie Good-night wasn't easy. A lesser man would never have made it. That's what this book is all about.

I See By My Get-Up might best be described as sort of an updated Ranch Romances with all the realities of rural life in plain view of the reader. Ranchwoman Elaine was soon aware that she had not married a serious candidate for the Cowboy Hall of Fame, but love is tolerant.

In 151 pages, the author produces at least twice as many hilarious passages. The creative concepts he advances are fundamentally sound, as are the basic truths he sets forth: Humor is a blessing. The good guys don't always win. Cowboys, ranch or no ranch, will always be heroes.

(INSIDE BACK COVER) “Tlaquepaque Morning,” by Joan Burian Gibbons; oil on canvas, 24 by 20 inches. This third-generation artist was surrounded from an early age by the paintings of her mother and grandfather. A fine arts graduate of the University of Arizona, she later studied extensively with Lau Chun, whose strong abstract design and impressionistic approach have greatly influenced her work. Gibbons has received more than 40 special awards.

(BACK COVER) Spring flowers bloom near Pearce Ferry on the upper reaches of Lake Mead. JERRY SIEVE