Review by Ed Quillen
History and horses – June 2003 – Colorado Central Magazin
Pike’s Peak Backcountry – The Historic Saga of the Peak’s Western Slope
by Celinda Reynolds Kaelin
Second Edition, published in 1999 by Caxton Press
ISBN 0-87004-391-9
Boomtown Blues – Colorado Oil Shale
by Andrew Gulliford
Second Edition, published in 2003 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN 0-87081-720-5
Beyond the Hay Days – Refreshingly Simple Horse Nutrition
by Rex A. Ewing
Second Edition, published in 2003 by Pixyjack Press
ISBN 0-9658098-4-6
Indian Reserved Water Rights – The Winters Doctrine in its Social and Legal Context, 1880s-1930s
by John Shurts
Published in 2000 by University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 0-8061-35451-7
MANY BOOKS are final products, but others evolve and appear in second editions. That creates something of a dilemma for the book section of a small publication like Colorado Central when we’ve reviewed the first edition.
After all, a second edition probably doesn’t rate a full-scale review, at least when we have trouble keeping up with the flow of first editions. But then again, people should know there is one, and how it differs from the first edition. Thus this assemblage of short reviews, which includes new editions, as well as a book that does not appear to be of general interest, but which still might fill a need for some of our readers.
Pike’s Peak Backcountry was first published in 1996. It was a good local history of the Florrisant area, but its offbeat design and typography were rather primitive and annoying.
The 1999 second edition, which we should have mentioned long ago, is in a standard book format, and thus much easier to handle and read. As for the content, it’s a gem. Most local histories just throw stuff at the reader, and don’t put local events in context with what was happening elsewhere. This one is organized well, written clearly with sparkling anecdotes, and connects an isolated but interesting part of Colorado to the rest of the world.
The original review was published in our December, 1996, edition, and it’s on the web at: www.coloradocentralmagazine.com/archive/cc1996/00340173.htm. It was good then, and it’s even better now.
BEYOND THE HAY DAYS is a layman’s guide to horse nutrition, covering proteins, minerals, supplements, and a lot more. The 2003 second edition adds scientific findings made since the first edition of 1997, such as how glucosamine has superseded chondroitin sulfates for improved joint mobility.
Margo Perschbacher, who keeps and feeds several horses near Salida, wrote that the first edition was a “horse-owner’s must,” as well as being “comprehensive, enjoyable, and easy to read.”
Her review appeared in our December, 1997, edition, and it’s on the web at:
www.coloradocentralmagazine.com/archive/cc1997 /00460192 .htm.
BOOM TOWN BLUES, now in a second edition, is an excellent book that was never reviewed in this magazine for the simple reason that it came out before we started publishing in 1994. It has been mentioned, though; Clint Driscoll commended it in a letter that was published in December, 1998, which is on the web at: www.coloradocentralmagazine.com/archive/cc1998 /00580221 .htm.
He was responding to a review of Peter Decker’s Old Fences, New Neighbors, and observed that Guilliford’s book offered an in-depth history of the affected area (Rifle, Parachute, and nearby towns on the Western Slope) and relies on more documentation. Both authors describe how important neighborliness and mutual support was in hard times — as opposed to the myth of the rugged individualist — and how that network was destroyed when a different economy took over.
To me, the lesson of the book was that a boom (in 1980, Exxon announced plans to spend $5 billion to develop oil shale) destroys the fabric of a community, and that the old ways do not and cannot return after the boom (in 1982, Exxon pulled the plug). It takes years to build the institutions, stores, cafes, saloons, etc., which are disrupted and displaced when big money arrives — and they don’t return when the big money departs.
Nothing in the new edition changes that, although as Gulliford points out, in 20 years people and communities do adapt. His book is a fine piece of research, drawing on both local oral histories and Exxon corporate archives, and it is sensibly organized. So even if we weren’t here to praise the first edition, I’m glad to commend the second, which also includes an informative forward by former Gov. Richard Lamm, who saw the oil-shale boom as the biggest challenge of his 12 years as Colorado governor.
INDIAN RESERVED WATER RIGHTS is a first edition. It’s about an important topic, but its limited focus means it is of limited local interest.
The topic is the “Winters Doctrine,” a century-old court case which holds that when the federal government reserves the public domain for a certain purpose, it is also deemed to have renewed sufficient water to fulfill the purpose of that reservation.
Historically, it began with a lawsuit in Montana. An Indian reservation had been set aside. Some years later, white farmers moved in upstream and started irrigating. The Indians needed to start farming, but they had no water, thanks to the upstream users. So they went to court, and the judges held that since one purpose of the reservation was to allow the Indians to settle down and become farmers, then they were entitled to enough water to do that.
This book traces this and related litigation, but always in the context of Indian claims. That’s not of much relevance here, however; where Winters shows up in issues like “How much water with a 1933 priority date will it take to serve the purposes of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park”?
So, this book is not going to provide much guidance to our state-federal water issues, even though it explains the legal and historical basis of those controversies in readable detail. A hard-core water buff like me will want it because it may be useful someday. I just hope I can find it when that day dawns.
— Ed Quillen
