Customer Reviews

Best of Grand Canyon Nature Notes 1926-1935

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If you love the Grand Canyon, you will be delighted with this selection of naturalists articles written in the first half of the past century (!). Easy to read, most of the writing consisting of articles of a few lines to a few pages, you can open the book anywhere and transport yourself on or below the rim, at a time when a lot fewer tourists visited the canyon.The book is divided in three parts, Earth sciences (geology, river, sky and seasons), Life science (flora, fish, birds, mammals,) and Human history (archaeology, ethnobotany and history). Nice little B&W drawings throughout the book, this is a very good complement to a visit to the Grand Canyon or to any coffee table picture book on the Grand Canyon usually thin on writing.

Imagine being able to invent one of the great natural wonders of the world. This was practically the opportunity of the first park rangers to live at the canyon. Famous explorers and scientists had come and gone from the Grand Canyon and written their reports, but they seldomed stayed there any length of time. The rangers who came with the establishment of Grand Canyon National Park in 1919 were the first naturalists to live their lives there, and there was still plenty to explore, plenty of unknown geology, biology, and botany. Within a few years after 1919 these rangers were writing down their discoveries and experiences at the canyon, basically figuring out what this place was all about and how visitors could best experience it. 1919 was also much closer to the age of Humboldt and Muir, when natural historians were adventurers and heroes and seers, expected to speak both science and poetry. The "notes" in this book are the record of those first park naturalists as they come to terms with a great natural wonder, and they are also notes in the sense of musical notes, a song of celebration.