For many, these mountains represent the Apache stronghold of Geronimo. For others, they are a birdwatcher's paradise. But the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona are more than this. They are a classic "sky island" of the desert, a rich storehouse of biologic diversity. On a journey undertaken in search of a pair of rare short-tailed hawks, Ken Lamberton takes readers on an excursion through these mountains, from their riparian canyons to their highest peaks. The Chiricahuas comprise the largest single range in southern Arizona, crisscrossed by more than 300 miles of trails. Lamberton is your guide along these trails, and his knowledge of the mountains and their natural history makes him a perfect hiking companion while Jeff Garton's stunning photographs enrich your visit. Lamberton shares insights about the geology, habitats, and diversity of wildlife in a place of such isolation that species must either adapt or become extinct. The Chiricahuas are one link in a chain of mountains connecting the Rockies to the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, and some Madrean species reach the northernmost extension of their ranges here: birds like sulphur-bellied flycatchers, mammals like jaguarundis, and trees like the Apache pine. But this is not an untraveled wilderness. We learn why the Chiricahuas are so popular with birders, who flock to these mountains from around the world in the hopes of spotting some of the nearly four hundred avian species found here. We also learn something of the Chiricahua's rich human culture, from Apache warriors to European settlers. Gracing the text are more than a dozen black-and-white photographs by Jeff Garton that offer views of the Chiricahuas different from those usually found in tourist brochures: landscapes and riparian settings, rock formations and plant studies that give readers a lasting impression of the beauty and tranquility of this wilderness. Together words and images convey an intimate view of one of the Southwest's most exotic locations—stronghold, paradise, and everlasting island in the vast and rolling desert.
I was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on November 8, 1958, and moved to Tucson, Arizona, at the age of nine. In Tucson, I slowly and painfully learned to become a child of the desert, taking my first lessons in the front range of the Santa Catalina Mountains. In 1980, I graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in biology and for the next five years taught science. In 1987, I went to prison, where I joined the creative writing workshop of poet and author Richard Shelton and soon began publishing articles and essays about two subjects I knew well: prison and the natural history of the Southwest. It was only a matter of time before I would connect the two subjects on the page.
During my incarceration while mentoring with Richard Shelton, my articles and essays began appearing in national magazines and literary journals like Arizona Highways, Bird Watcher's Digest, Manoa, Northern Lights, Alligator Juniper, Puerto Del Sol, and the Gettysburg Review. Several of these essays, in turn, were selected for anthologies such as American Nature Writing, Getting Over the Color Green, and David Quammen's anthology The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000. Editors have nominated two of my essays for Pushcart Prizes, and Robert Atwan of The Best American Essays series listed my work in "Notable Essays of 1998" and again in "Notable Essays of 1999."
In January 2000, Mercury House published my first book, Wilderness and Razor Wire: A Naturalist's Observations from Prison, to critical acclaim. The San Francisco Chronicle called it, "...entirely original: an edgy, ferocious, subtly complex collection of essays...". The book won the 2002 John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing.
After my release from prison that same year, I completed my MFA in creative writing at the University of Arizona, and continued writing and publishing essays and books about the Southwest. In 2010, The University of Arizona Press will publish my fifth book, Dry River, which deals with southern Arizona's Santa Cruz River, its nature, my family, and the people past and present who live alongside it. Today, I live with my wife in an 1890s stone cottage near Bisbee, Arizona.
