- Table View
- List View
Se-Quo-Yah
by George Everett FosterPublished in 1885, this is the biography of famed Cherokee Indian, Se-Quo-Yah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet.
The Romance of the Colorado River
by Frederick S. DellenbaughIn 1871, seventeen-year-old Fred Dellenbaugh walked into a hotel room in Chicago, and with a “You’ll do, Fred,” began a lifetime of danger-fraught exploration. Under the lead of John Wesley Powell, a Civil War hero with only one arm, Fred journeyed into the Grand Canyon and its subsidiary canyons and rivers, with the intention of exploring, mapping, and recording description of the uncharted territory. The men found themselves battling the great force of the Colorado River, with its fatal, quick rapids and mighty waterfalls. Their small, frail boats were no match for the river, and as they began to capsize and as supplies were lost overboard, the expedition quickly became about survival. It was only through the steady command of Major Powell that the team prevailed. They went on to accomplish their mission, which has become historically significant today. <P><P> The Romance of the Colorado River is Dellenbaugh’s personal story, written thirty years after the great adventure. The volume includes twenty of the author’s original illustrations, as well as nearly 150 contemporary photographs, which provide an accurate image of what the explorers encountered during their expedition. Dellenbaugh also recounts previous attempts to explore the valley, by both Europeans and fellow Americans, adding a historical element to the story. Part adventure narrative and part geography survey of the Colorado River, this book offers a unique firsthand account of a fascinating scientific expedition.
Gardening Without Irrigation: or Without Much, Anyway
by Steve SolomonHighly informative book on gardening in arid areas.
The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw
by Patrick F. McmanusOutdoor recreation-United States-Humor. Short stories previously published elsewhere.
Running North: A Yukon Adventure
by Ann Mariah CookAlaska is more than just the largest state in the Union; it's also a state of mind, as Ann Mariah Cook found out. Together with her husband, 3-year-old daughter, and 32 purebred Siberian huskies, she moved there from New Hampshire in order to train for the legendary Yukon Quest, the most rigorous sled-dog race in the world. Her tough, thoughtful memoir, Running North, chronicles the ordeals as well as the rewards of their mushers' life. In the course of their transformation from cheechakos, or greenhorns, to sourdoughs, or seasoned Alaskans, Cook and her husband learned to defend themselves and their dogs from extreme weather, adapted to mushing in Alaskan conditions, and even absorbed the niceties of Yukon social customs (hint: always put on a pot of coffee for visitors). The book ends with a harrowing account of the race, complete with packs of wolves, howling blizzards, minus-60-degree temperatures, and a few narrow escapes. But this is as much Ann's story as it is her husband's, and as a result it goes far beyond the confines of a simple adventure story. Full of intriguing glimpses into sled-dog (and musher) psychology as well as lyrical observations about the beauty of the Yukon landscape, Running North is as much concerned with the who and why of adventure as with its how and when. Leaving behind the comfort and security of Cook's New England life required a multitude of adjustments, from the design of the dogs' booties to a new appreciation of interior decorating, Alaska-style. In the end, however, it was going home that proved hard: "Returning to New Hampshire, I saw my life as a stranger might view it. I could not get used to so many houses, so many neighbors, so many social demands. Everything in my life had been redefined in only seven and a half months."
Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter in the Bitterroot Wilderness
by Pete Fromm"The wardens climbed into their truck, ready to leave. 'You'll need about seven cords of firewood. Concentrate on that. You'll have to get it all in before the snow grounds your truck.'" "Though I didn't want to ask, it seemed important. 'What's a cord?'" So begins Pete Fromm's seven winter months alone in a tent in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness guarding salmon eggs. After blundering into this forbidding errand as a college lark, Fromm gradually come face to face with the blunt realities of life as a contemporary mountain man. Brutal cold, isolation, and fearful risks balance against the satisfaction of living a unique existence in modern America. This award-winning narrative is a gripping story of adventure, a rousing tale of self-sufficiency, and modern-day Walden. From either perspective, Fromm lives up to his reputation as one of the West's strongest new voices.
Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and Other Papers
by John BurroughsFrom the Biographical Sketch:<P> "Probably no other American writer has a greater sympathy with, and a keener enjoyment of, country life in all its phases--farming, camping, fishing, walking--than has John Burroughs. His books are redolent of the soil, and have such "freshness and primal sweetness," that we need not be told that the pleasure he gets from his walks and excursions is by no means over when he steps inside his doors again. As he tells us on more than one occasion, he finds he can get much more out of his outdoor experiences by thinking them over, and writing them out afterwards."<P> Mary E. Burt
The Grasshopper Trap
by Patrick F. McmanusThe bestselling author of They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? is at it again with more of his zany spoofs of The Great Outdoors.
The Sea Hunters I: True Adventures with Famous Shipwrecks
by Clive CusslerA nonfiction work by the creator of Dirk Pitt, this book tells thirteen tales of searches for shipwrecks. The circumstances surrounding each are described in detail along with the searches. This book reads like a novel. Among the shipwrecks are the C.S.S. Hunley, a confederate submarine-- the first to sink a ship in battle, The Leopoldville, a troop transport torpedoed by a German U-boat on Christmas eve, 1944 and the discovery of U-20, the German sub that sank the Lusitania in 1915.