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  Featured Books: Geology
 
FROM DROUGHT TO DROUGHT
Hunting and Gathering Sites of the Galina Indians
By Florence Hawley Ellis, PhD

Photographs, Drawings, Diagrams, Bibliography, and Index

See PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK below.

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

How did ancient Pueblo Indian farmers survive in the American Southwest when drought all but prevented agriculture? In 1971, archaeological research began on one of these commonly hypothesized but least actually known survival strategies. The area: Northern New Mexico; the people: one of the least studied, those of the Gallina culture; the time: the 1200s when extended drought drove people south out of Mesa Verde, Chaco and the Four Corners area (southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico) in general toward areas of rivers or mountains in the hope of more rain.

The Gallina people established some of the highest camps known in the American Southwest where they spent the summer hunting, gathering, and possibly growing some corn or beans, returning home in the fall hopefully heavily laden with dry “jerky” meat, dried berries and medicinal plants. In the spring they would come back bearing camping equipment including pottery for cooking, eating and carrying water. They carefully hid these items probably intending to reuse them next year. But finally they ceased to return.

The pottery and camp sites waited quietly, unfound for centuries to be discovered and excavated by Dr. Ellis’s first excavation crew.

Florence Hawley Ellis, PhD, was one of the pioneer anthropologists of the American Southwest where she taught and published on her extensive excavations and related research in ethnology and such associated fields as tree-ring dating and pottery analysis. Her excavations include areas in Chaco Canyon, along the Chama, Rio Grande and Jemez river valleys and elsewhere in the Southwest. She published over 200 articles and monographs. She was trained at the University of Arizona and University of Chicago, and is also the author of San Gabriel del Yungue from Sunstone Press.

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=V2h0AAAAMAAJ&q=9780865341203&dq=9780865341203

Softcover:
8 1/2 x 11
ISBN: 978-0-86534-120-3
216 pp.,$29.95


HIKING NORTH AMERICA'S GREAT WESTERN VOLCANOES
A Guidebook
By Tom Prisciantelli

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

Here is an excellent opportunity to learn about the volcanic events and landforms of the American West while hiking ten trails through its most scenic mountains. Hikes in New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, California, Oregon and Washington reveal the fury of past events and demonstrate the power of volcanic activity today.

In hiking these trails, one can learn about the processes that form volcanoes and the contradictions scientists are still struggling to explain regarding certain volcanic upheavals. Interestingly, the energy released during the Mount St. Helens eruption can be compared to the atomic bomb that ended World War II--not just one but 20,000 of them. Yet Mount St. Helens was just a firecracker compared to others. And, Yellowstone Park sits within the remains of what was once a huge volcano. The rim surrounding the park is 50 miles across. Yellowstone is one of those contradictions, having been formed by the same process that brought the Hawaiian Islands out of the ocean. Both areas are still active and the hikes explore their disposition and prognosis.

In this book and on the trails, geology and archaeology intersect to tell a tale of landforms rising from the earth and the ancient people's struggle to persist and adapt. Geologists have died studying volcanic eruptions. Native Americans wrote gods into their history while watching fire burst from the ground. Hiking these mountains turns exercise into awe and respect for the energy still building under these massive ranges. The author explores the most interesting landforms, with some trails to summit craters and others through the innards of decapitated volcanoes still standing as high mountains.

For more than thirty years Tom Prisciantelli has driven the roads and hiked the trails of the American West. In his first book, Spirit of the American Southwest also published by Sunstone Press, he explored along hiking trails the geology of the Southwest and the arrival of the Native American's ancestors. From that exercise he was fascinated by a particular chapter in the geology lesson he learned on the road: that dealing with volcanoes. His research for this book took him along that path. The author and his wife live in a solar-powered adobe home in northern New Mexico, in full view and respect for one of the volcanoes about which this book was written.

Website: http://www.HikingNewRealities.com
Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=DWTs-Fk45oQC

Softcover:
6 X 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-432-7
224 pp.,$20.95


NEW LAWS OF THE MINES OF SPAIN
The 1625 Edition of Juan de Onate
By Homer Milford, Compiler

Spanish and English

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

The 1625 reprinting of the 1584 laws and ordinances for mines published here was written under the direction of Juan de Onate, one of the earliest writers on metallurgy and mining in the New World. He was the first person, who lived in what today is the United States, to write on these subjects. It is hoped that this book will help promote recognition of Juan de Onate's contributions to mining history, and stimulate further research to locate additional works by Onate in the archives of Mexico and Spain.

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=EpmzAAAACAAJ&dq=0865342911&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2QXIT8GaN4qc2QWv8ZHPDQ&ved

Softcover:
5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-86534-291-0
96 pp.,$8.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-929-5
96 pp.,$7.99


NEW MEXICO ROCKS & MINERALS
The Collecting Guide Including Maps
By F.S. Kimbler & R.J. Narsavage, Jr.

“…a long-needed guide to its [New Mexico’s] still profitable localities.” --Rocks and Minerals

Order from Sunstone: (505) 988-4418

It has been said that mineral and rock collecting is one of the most popular hobbies throughout the world and one that can be very rewarding and pleasurable for both the serious collector and for the weekend amateur. This guide was compiled to spread the collecting word and to share the localities in the “Land of Enchantment.” It has a detailed listing of collectable New Mexico minerals, agates and petrified wood and includes over 125 collecting sites and how to get to them as well as 32 county maps indicating collecting locations. The authors have also noted access problems, such as private property, government lands and the necessity for four-wheel drive vehicles, and they have provided the reader with collecting and safety tips.

The listings are divided by counties, then localities with the rocks and minerals that can be collected there. There is also a cross-referenced index of localities, maps and minerals.

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=S61x4JAqtfMC

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-91327-097-4
70 pp.,$14.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-288-3
70 pp.,$3.99


AN OIL GEOLOGIST ABROAD
Exploration With Family
By Eric Ericson and Libby Ericson

Memoirs of an oil explorer and his wife between 1956 and 1966 in Bolivia, Nigeria, and Spain.

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

This compilation of stories was written alternatively and chronologically by a couple who lived on three continents in the decade between 1956 and 1966. Eric Ericson writes of his search for oil in the jungles of Bolivia during communist agitation, the Basque mountains of northern Spain under the dictatorship of Generalissimo Franco, and Nigeria at the dawn of Nigerian Independence and prior to the Biafran War. Gulf Oil's Okan I was the first off-shore discovery in Nigeria and produced one billion barrels of oil by the year 2000. Libby Ericson tells of raising their two sons, and giving birth to their third, in difficult and challenging places and situations, and of the generosity and kindness always found in these very different cultures.

Eric Ericson retired from Gulf Oil in 1981, began his own consulting business in Boulder, Colorado, and continues his keen interest in the oil and gas industry. They moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1995 where Libby Ericson pursues her love of art. They spend their summers in the Colorado Rockies near where they met at the University of Colorado.

Sample Chapter
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Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=oYHe-UGEwtkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=9780865348240&hl=en&ei=UCTQTo_X

Softcover:
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-0-86534-824-0
222 pp.,$22.95


SAN GABRIEL DEL YUNGUE
The First Capital of New Mexico
By Florence Hawley Ellis, PhD

SEE "PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK" BELOW.

Order from Sunstone: (800) 243-5644

In 1598, the Spanish conquistador, Don Juan de Onate, founded the first capital of New Mexico in an old Indian settlement on the west bank of the Rio Grande river. This colony and others prospered until the Indians revolted, destroying this village which was then lost for centuries. But, in 1959, Florence Hawley Ellis, a famous pioneer anthropologist, was asked by San Juan Indian Pueblo to excate a ruin on their reservation, an unheard of request as Pueblos usually denied permission for excavations on their lands. A badly corroded Spanish archer's helmet had been found by an elder who was digging adobe clay. They wanted to know what they had. Her work returned San Gabriel del Yungue--the Spanish name for the first capital of New Mexico--and its five domed ovens, the first built in this land, to their rightful place on the map. This book is the story of that awakening.

Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=r1oMAAAAYAAJ&q=9780865341296&dq=9780865341296&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Y-PDT4D

Softcover:
5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-86534-129-6
96 pp.,$14.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-860-1
96 pp.,$5.99


SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST
Geology/Ancient Eras and Prehistoric People/Hiking Through Time
By Tom Prisciantelli

SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST is filled from cover to cover with a descriptive text which is enhanced with black-and-white photographs, forming a superb basis for an adventurous hiker's journey through the eras. From ancient sites once inhabited by Paleo-Indians millennia ago, to geological treasure troves that bespeak the history of the Earth itself, SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST is an impressive and confidently recommended guide for armchair travelers and on-site visitors, as well as an unusual and invaluable contribution to Native American Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists." (THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW)

Tom Prisciantelli spent many years driving and researching the American Southwest and documenting those geologic and archaeological facts he found most interesting and accessible via hiking trails. His first exposure to geology was in the mid-1960s while attending college in New Mexico where he graduated. After a two-year stint in the Army, he moved back and forth between the East Coast and Southwest. Having spent most of his working life in the computer field, he started his own contracting business, eventually leaving it in order to actualize his dream—to travel and learn about the land. This book is a result of that dream and the desire to share it.

Website: http://www.HikingNewRealities.com
Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=GkDj3eyHcEoC

Softcover:
8 1/2 X 11, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-86534-354-2
220 pp.,$22.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-903-5
224 pp.,$18.99


TURQUOISE & SIX GUNS
The Story of Cerrillos, New Mexico
By Marc Simmons

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

The rock-ribbed hills surrounding Cerrillos, New Mexico, are honeycombed with mineshafts and it is these mines that have shaped the history of the town and of the district over which it presides. The Pueblo Indians for untold ages took out turquoise; the Spaniards in their turn found gold, silver and lead; and finally, the Anglo-Americans exploited all of these in addition to copper, zinc and coal. Mining gave life to Cerrillos and to neighboring towns such as Bonanza City, Carbonateville, Waldo and Madrid. And when the boom passed and the mines closed, that life ebbed away. Scattered over the hills and in the valleys everywhere are skeletal remains of mining activity: deserted buildings, black and foreboding entrances to shafts, broken tools and equipment, fallen timbers from the windlasses, gallows and hoist houses, tailing dumps and slag heaps. These offer silent testimony to the once prosperous past of the Cerrillos mining district and are an appeal for all students of history. Includes Bibliography and Index.

MARC SIMMONS, the prominent author and historian, has received many awards for his research and writings on the American Southwest. He is known for his ability to record little-known episodes in New Mexico history and is also the author of another Sunstone Press book, YESTERDAY IN SANTA FE.

Website: http://www.marcsimmonsofnewmexico.com
Website: http://books.google.com/books?id=6GsTHyBvSnIC&dq=9780865340824&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Email: mail@marcsimmonsofnewmexico.com

Softcover:
5 1/2 X 8 1/2
ISBN: 978-0-86534-082-4
64 pp.,$16.95

eBook:
ISBN: 978-1-61139-173-2
64 pp.,$5.99


 
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