Historic Adventures on the Colorado Plateau - (Transportation) by Robert Silbernagel (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Colorado Plateau is home to nearly thirty national parks, monuments and recreational areas. The unique geology, stunning rock formations, powerful rivers and numerous scenic canyons that compose such a striking region also made navigation difficult. Yet daring explorers braved the journey. Rock art and other artifacts are evidence of occupation thousands of years ago. Spanish explorers once trekked across this rugged terrain, seeking information on the native populace, religious converts and trade routes. In the frontier era, a trio of bandits discovered the value of good horses while fleeing for three hundred miles. Nearly a century after the gold rush, uranium fever brought another boom to the rugged reaches of the area in the 1940s. Supported by years of research, Bob Silbernagel traces the Colorado Plateau's intrepid inhabitants throughout history"--Publisher description

Book Synopsis

The Colorado Plateau is home to nearly thirty national parks, monuments and recreational areas. The unique geology, stunning rock formations, powerful rivers and numerous scenic canyons that compose such a striking region also made navigation difficult. Yet daring explorers braved the journey. Rock art and other artifacts are evidence of occupation thousands of years ago. Spanish explorers once trekked across this rugged terrain, seeking information on the native populace, religious converts and trade routes. In the frontier era, a trio of bandits discovered the value of good horses while fleeing for three hundred miles. Nearly a century after the gold rush, uranium fever brought another boom to the rugged reaches of the area in the 1940s. Supported by years of research, Bob Silbernagel traces the Colorado Plateau's intrepid inhabitants throughout history.

Review Quotes

Silbernagel's book, his third, is divided into eight sections, all of which carry essays roughly the length of a newspaper column. There are photos, maps and artist renderings culled from various museums and other sources, which help to detail inhabitants' "extensive travel" and their "restless nature."It's an enjoyable, fascinating book, complete with tales about people who rode with Robert LeRoy Parker, later to be known as Butch Cassidy; Antoine Robidoux, a French-Canadian trader and explorer who left, in French, on a rock near the present-day Utah-Colorado border an etching of his passing through the area in November 1837 (he may have meant 1831, the book says); and the invention of commercial river trips on the Green and Colorado by Norman Nevills. Aspen Daily News

About the Author

Robert Silbernagel was the editorial page editor for the Daily Sentinel newspaper in Grand Junction for nineteen years. Now retired, he continues to write a regional history column for the Sentinel. Mr. Silbernagel is the author of the book Troubled Trails: The Meeker Affair and the Expulsion of Utes from Colorado, published by the University of Utah Press in 2011. He also wrote Dinosaur Stalkers: Tracking Dinosaur Discoveries of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah, published by Dinamation International, the Bureau of Land Management and the Museums of Western Colorado in 1996. Mr. Silbernagel has written a number of history articles for periodicals, including the Wisconsin Magazine of History and Colorado Heritage. He and his wife, Judy, live near Palisade, Colorado.