Arizona has stories as peculiar as its stunning landscapes. The Lost Dutchman's rumored cache of gold sparked a legendary feud. Kidnapping victim Larcena Pennington Page survived two weeks alone in the wilderness, and her first request upon rescue was for a chaw of tobacco. Discover how the town of Why got its name, how the government built a lake that needed mowing and how wild camels ended up in North America. Author Marshall Trimble unearths these and other amusing anomalies, outstanding obscurities and compelling curiosities in the state's history.
Saguaro cacti, desert landscapes, and the Grand Canyon may stand out as prominent Arizona features, but this scorching state is also home to bizarre places, personalities, events, and phenomena. These unique and quirky aspects are humorously displayed in Arizona Curiosities, a cross between a wacky news gazette, an almanac, and a humorous travel guide.
Each fun and intriguing volume offers more than 250 illustrated pages of places where tourists usually don't venture, including oddball curiosities, local legends, crazy characters, and peculiar roadside attractions.
State Oddities takes a different kind of look at the American nation, spotlighting the fun foibles, peculiarities, and twists in each of the 50 states that are (mostly) united under the Stars and Stripes. State Oddities is a fascinating trip through the 50 states for students studying America, teachers planning classroom activities, and general readers who will enjoy an eye-opening journey through the nation's fun side. It offers a compelling look at the character of America through the individuality of 50 very distinct states that together form the USA. This book paints a picture of the broad sweep of the American story, offering a gateway to the country as it developed into one nation filled with individual states that can be remarkably different from each other, yet unified under such national symbols as the American flag and "The Star-Spangled Banner." The author of State Oddities has become known as a master of "painless history," telling America's story in a sparkling style along with the historian's eye for fascinating detail. On the book's cross-country journey, the reader will find that it differs from other works by taking a fresh look at stories we think we know.
Arizona Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Arizona’s history, like the story of Pearl Hart or the ghosts that live in the Hotel Vendome. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Arizona history.
The bestselling author of Dispatches from Pluto and The Deepest South of All turns his sharp wit and observational powers on the epicenter of America’s most divisive issues: Arizona. When Richard Grant and his wife moved with their four-year-old daughter back to Tucson, Arizona, where the couple first met, he expected to easily rekindle his love of the region. Instead, he found a housing market gone haywire, rampant election conspiracies, and right-wing political violence alarmingly close to his home and family. Undocumented immigration was surging, and the state was also on the front lines of climate change, breaking heat and drought records, and running out of long-term water supplies. Under these circumstances, Grant wondered how he might raise a happy, well-adjusted child who believes in the future. Yet these concerns weren’t keeping people away: Arizona was simultaneously experiencing some of the nation’s highest population growth. In A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Grant mixes memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place. He visits the world’s largest machine-gun shoot; takes a sunset boat cruise with a US Congressman and a group of far-right patriots; rides through the desert with a Border Patrol agent; and goes camping with his family in breathtaking mountain ranges that rise out of the desert like islands in the sky. Interspersed with these adventures are recollections of his previous stint in the state, including his friendship with cult writer Charles Bowden and years living off the grid with smugglers, dope farmers, and outlaws on the Mexican border. Ultimately, Grant arrives at the conclusion that Arizona has always been a scattershot improvisation, with bizarre and extreme behavior in its DNA. This book is an entertaining, illuminating, and essential guide to understanding modern America at its most overheated.
This bestselling author of High Crimes explores what causes forest fires and captures their danger and the heroism of those who fight them. In Megafire, a world-renowned journalist and forest fire expert travels to dangerous and remote wildernesses, as well as to the backyards of people faced with these catastrophes, to look at the heart of this phenomenon and witness firsthand the heroic efforts of the firefighters and scientists racing against time to stop it—or at least to tame these deadly flames. From Colorado to California, China to Canada, head to the frontlines on the ground and in the air, as well as in the laboratories, universities, and federal agencies where this battle rages on. Through this prism of perspectives, Kodas zeroes in on some of the most terrifying environmental disasters in recent years—the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona that took the lives of nineteen elite “hotshot” firefighters, the Waldo Canyon Fire that overwhelmed the city of Colorado Springs—and more in a page-turning narrative that puts a face on the brave people at the heart of this issue. Megafiredescribes the profound global impact of these fires and will change the way we think about the environment and the precariousness of our world. “I don't know any writer better equipped to explain what's gone wrong than Michael Kodas, who shines a light both on the astonishing bravery of the hotshots on the front lines and on the waste and ineptitude of the politicians and bureaucrats who too often fail them, sometimes with fatal consequences.”—Dan Fagin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
Devoted to travellers with a taste for the unique, this easy to use guide will help you discover the unsung, unspoiled and out of the way finds that liven up a vacation, a day trip or an afternoon.'
An easy-to-follow guide from a longtime local, offering up 12 unique road trips that will take you into the heart of the Grand Canyon State. From the deserts near the U.S./Mexico border to the pine tree forests along the Mogollon Rim, and back to the west “coast,” where the Colorado River runs its wild course, Arizona resident Jackie Dishner is your guide to all the wonders this state has to offer. Arizona’s quirks, colors, spectacular landscapes, and serene spots set the tone as you explore the Grand Canyon State. Dishner will introduce you to old-timers, take you inside Native American ruins, and share the stunning vistas to be found if you venture off the beaten path. You’ll find adventures you’ll never forget on every page.