Reading the Western Landscape Community Book Discussion
Schedule
Wed Jul 24 2024 at 07:00 pm
UTC-07:00Location
Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden | Arcadia, CA
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Last Water on the Devil's Highway by Bill Broyles; Gayle Harrison Hartmann; Thomas E. Sheridan; Gary Paul Nabhan; and Mary Charlotte Thurtle, Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2011. To be discussed Wednesday, July 24, 2024.ISBN: 9780816529643
The Book Group explores the portrayal of western North American landscape in fiction, non-fiction, letters, drama, graphic novels, poetry, etc. The group uses a modified version of the Shared Inquiry™ method developed by the Great Books Foundation. The chosen book of the month must be read in order to actively participate, although participants who only want to listen are welcome. Let the host know. New participants are welcome. When the weather is good and disease rates are low, the group meets outside in appropriate places in the gloriously, beautiful grounds of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden with appropriate social distancing and masking if you chose to. Currently the group is meeting In Person at the Arboretum or, very rarely, on Zoom. Be sure to check for In Person dates and Zoom dates.
New members are always welcome! For more information about the Book Group, please contact, Arboretum Librarian, Susan Eubank, at 626-821-3213 or [email protected]. Please RSVP to Susan if you plan to attend.
ABOUT THIS MONTH'S SELECTION:
Last Water on the Devil's Highway by Bill Broyles; Gayle Harrison Hartmann; Thomas E. Sheridan; Gary Paul Nabhan; and Mary Charlotte Thurtle, Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2011. To be discussed Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
ISBN: 9780816529643
“... [The book] is the story of a waterhole that...has kept travelers from death as they passed through the desert. Tinajas Altas...is a series of potholes filled with murky, smelly water in extreme southwestern Arizona... Five authors chronicle the history and ecology...from the days when Native Americans ground mesquite pods on the granite surrounding the water hole, to the Gold Rush, when the tinajas were a stopover on the infamous...prospectors’ trail from Mexico to California. Today, ...the silence, the scorching heat and the thirst that drive people to the spot continue.”— High Country News
The Devil's Highway--El Camino del Diablo--crosses hundreds of miles and thousands of years of Arizona and Southwest history. This heritage trail follows a torturous route along the U.S. Mexico border through a lonely landscape of cactus, desert flats, drifting sand dunes, ancient lava flows, and searing summer heat. The most famous waterhole along the way is Tinajas Altas, or High Tanks, a series of natural rock basins that are among the few reliable sources of water in this notoriously parched region. Now an expert cast of authors describes, narrates, and explains the human and natural history of this special place in a thorough and readable account. Addressing the latest archaeological and historical findings, they reveal why Tinajas Altas was so important and how it related to other waterholes in the arid borderlands. Readers can feel like pioneers, following in the footsteps of early Native Americans, Spanish priests and soldiers, gold seekers and borderland explorers, tourists, and scholars. Combining authoritative writing with a rich array of more than 180 illustrations and maps as well as detailed appendixes providing up-to-date information on the wildlife and plants that live in the area, Last Water on the Devil's Highway allows readers to uncover the secrets of this fascinating place, revealing why it still attracts intrepid tourists and campers today.
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Where is it happening?
Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, Historic Los Angeles Arboretum Tour, Arcadia, CA 91007, United States,Arcadia, CaliforniaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
