Name: Route 66 in Arizona
Brand: Joseph R. Sonderman
SKU: 9780738579429
Price: 23.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Joseph R. Sonderman

Route 66 in Arizona

9780738579429

$23.99

Route 66 in Arizona is a ribbon tying together spectacular natural attractions such as the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, the Painted Desert, and the Meteor Crater. There were plenty of man-made diversions along the way, too. Roadside businesses used Native American and Western imagery to lure travelers to fill up their gas tank, grab a meal, or spend the night. Roadside signs featured shapely cowgirls and big black jackrabbits, or warned of killer snakes and prehistoric monsters. Between wails of Are we there yet? children pleaded to stay at motels shaped like wigwams, explore the Apache Death Cave, or pick up a rubber tomahawk at a trading post.

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Joseph R. Sonderman

Route 66 in Oklahoma

9780738590516

$24.99

Oklahoma is where East and West collide on Route 66, where the rolling hills that reach across its borders from Missouri and Arkansas give way to red earth and Big Sky Country. It is a land of agriculture, oil, and Native America. Route 66 stamped itself into the landscape here in 1926, extending from the state's northeast corner through Tulsa and Oklahoma City to the Texas Panhandle in the west. It was Oklahoma Highway commissioner Cyrus Avery, now known as the Father of Route 66, who originally championed a major route stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles. Today, its pathway in Oklahoma is rich with small-town ambiance and landmarks, including many of the route's most popular attractions. From the magnificent Coleman Theatre in Miami to the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, the Mother Road across the Sooner State is an explorer's feast.

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Wes J. Sheffield

Helicopter Training at Fort Wolters: Mineral Wells and the Vietnam War

9781467161473

$24.99

Originally a World War II infantry training center, followed by a brief stint as a US Air Force base, Camp Wolters was redesignated a US Army installation in July 1956, and its primary mission was to train helicopter pilots.

Mineral Wells offered an ideal climate and terrain for flight training with predominately clear skies, rolling open ranch land, high bluffs, and the Brazos River valley. An integral part of Mineral Wells’ economy, the flight school expanded in the 1960s due to escalation of the Vietnam War. During the war, with the exception of the US Navy, all helicopter pilots receiving primary flight training passed through Fort Wolters. During its 17 years of operation, over 40,000 pilots were trained, which included international students from 33 countries. The last Fort Wolters pilots graduated in 1973, and it was formally closed in 1975 and was converted into an industrial center.

Wes J. Sheffield is an aviation/aerospace professional and historian. He has taught history at Dallas Baptist University and is an active member of the West Texas Historical Association, serving as the organization’s social media editor. His interest in Fort Wolters began while employed with Bell Helicopter, where he met and later interviewed former Vietnam War helicopter pilots while writing a narrative history of Fort Wolters, US Army Helicopter School.

Cover image for Helicopter Training at Fort Wolters: Mineral Wells and the Vietnam War, isbn: 9781467161473

Joseph Bernardo

Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley

9781467162203

$24.99

From stories and photographs of longtime residents and community leaders in the San Fernando Valley, Joseph Bernardo pieces together a largely fragmented, hidden, yet rich history of Filipino Americans in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley.

Filipinos comprise the largest Asian American community in the place that some have deemed “America’s Suburb.” Although a small number of Filipinos formed farm laborer communities in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley beginning in the 1920s when the area was largely an agribusiness hub, most Filipinos settled in the valley when the post–World War II bedroom community largely integrated beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. From the postindustrial age to the present, thousands of Filipinos flocked to the San Fernando Valley seeking affordable homeownership and a suburban quality of life, helping to change the makeup of communities, neighborhoods, schools, and even suburbia itself. Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley traces the historical and cultural shifts of this quintessential suburb through the lens of generations of Filipinos who made the valley their home.

Dr. Bernardo is a native and current resident of the valley thanks to his immigrant parents, who settled in Northridge in the 1970s. He also cohosts the podcast This Filipino American Life with other Valleyites.

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Joseph R. Sonderman

Route 66 in Texas

9781467130042

$24.99

Route 66 stretches across 178 miles and through seven counties in the Texas Panhandle. To a traveler on Interstate 40, the road may seem like an endless expanse, with the horizon interrupted only by the occasional grain elevator. But there is history, scenery, and adventure waiting on Route 66, which follows the trail of the Native Americans, conquistadors, cattle and oil barons, cowboys, and Dust Bowl refugees. With such sites as the blazing neon sign at Shamrock's U-Drop Inn and the quiet ruins of Glenrio, Route 66 in Texas is still The Main Street of America. The traveler who leaves the franchised blandness of the interstate will see motels with Western and Native American imagery, good old-fashioned tourist traps, some bizarre sculptures (such as cars stuck in the ground at Cadillac Ranch), and beautiful Art Deco structures. These images and stories tell of mom-and-pop establishments that still thrive today and those that are crumbling in the swirling dust and tumbleweeds of the notorious Jericho Gap.

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Mark Lardas

The Battleship Texas

9781467123938

$24.99

The USS Texas was built when dreadnought battleships were kings of the seas. It was the world's most powerful battleship when first commissioned in 1914, and for over a century it fought many battles. Some took place while the Texas served as a warship in the US Navy in World Wars I and II. Since becoming a museum ship and war memorial in 1948, it has fought a longer and more difficult struggle as it combats the ravages of time for its very survival. Throughout its existence, the Texas has made history, leaving a wealth of fascinating stories in its wake.

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Martin Gonzales

Atascosa County

9781467108836

$24.99

A rural area in Texas, Atascosa County is located directly south of San Antonio. The old roads traveled through this land were en route to missions, forts, and places of importance to natives, explorers, settlers, wildlife, and battle-tested armies. Atascosa County was created in 1856 by the Texas Legislature, and since the land grants were distributed in the late 1800s, the population has increased substantially as settlers dealt with Indian raids, drought, and the hardships of farming and ranching. As the rest of America embraced the machine age and technical wonders, Atascosa County has evolved along in stride. Initially, wagons, plows, and mules toiled for rural Atascosa County; today, vehicles, tractors, and modern machinery keep the county moving forward. Coined “The Birthplace of the Cowboy” by historian Dr. Ben Parker, the land continues to be dominated by the cattle industry. In modern history, country stars such as Willie Nelson and George Strait have blazed a path through Atascosa County with deep ties and humble beginnings.

Martin Gonzales is the chairman of the Atascosa County Historical Commission. He and his fellow volunteers have carried on the great work of appointed commissions of the past by recognizing and continuing to study local history. This publication was made possible with contributions from Atascosa County citizens who gladly answered the call for historical pictures and the stories that went with them.

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Joseph R. Sonderman

Route 66 in New Mexico

9780738580296

$24.99

New Mexico is The Land of Enchantment, offering a fascinating blend of Native American, Spanish Colonial, and Western American cultures. The travelers from the East knew they had arrived in the great Southwest when they entered New Mexico—the towns along Route 66 were ablaze in neon, and the motels lured travelers with Western themes, Pueblo Revival architecture, and Native American trading posts. An adventure still awaits the traveler today who takes the time to exit I-40 and leave the franchised blandness behind. The neon still flickers at the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, and at the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup. The Fat Man still smiles at Joseph's Bar and Grill in Santa Rosa. The stories behind those landmarks are here, as well as the stories behind establishments that are lost forever or slowly crumbling to dust among the tumbleweeds.

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Marc Wanamaker

San Fernando Valley

9780738571577

$24.99

The Mission San Fernando was founded on September 8, 1797, as an outpost of New Spain, in the vast expanse between the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains.

Northwest over the Hollywood Hills from downtown Los Angeles, this land was developed into a vital farming and citrus breadbasket. After 1900, real estate developers began subdividing the Valley, as it is popularly known, and by 1940, communities of Los Angeles proper and new cities formed into models of suburbia: Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Burbank, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Northridge, Roscoe (Sun Valley), Tarzana, Canoga Park, Chatsworth, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, San Fernando, Glendale, Canoga Park, Pacoima, Toluca Lake, and Woodland Hills. The film industry built studios, location ranches, and support facilities in the valley. The aviation industries grew too, and the Hollywood, Ventura, and Golden State Freeways redrew the map. Songs, movies, and television shows have helped ingrain the Valley into L.A. lore.

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Mark Doty

John F. Kennedy Sites in Dallas-Fort Worth

9781467130332

$24.99

November 22, 1963, is a date that will forever live in the minds and hearts of those who were witness to or touched by the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza. Surprisingly, the majority of sites associated with events surrounding that day still stand along the streets and in the neighborhoods of the greater Dallas–Fort Worth region. From Fort Worth's Hotel Texas to the Texas Theater and the Old Municipal Building in Dallas, John F. Kennedy Sites in Dallas–Fort Worth explores and documents the buildings, neighborhoods, and places with a direct connection to the assassination and its figures, both major and minor, in one of the darkest chapters in American and Texan history.

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Jeremy Rowe

Southern Arizona Mining

9781467109758

$23.99

The mines that were founded in the last half of the 19th century brought an international spotlight to Southern Arizona. Silver, placer gold, and the rich mineral wealth first drew adventurous prospectors, but soon came the settlers and major investors who built the mines that fed the world demand for copper. Arizona mines became unique test beds for new technology after the turn of the 20th century, as mining companies sought more economical and productive ways to extract precious metals. Some mining towns in Southern Arizona came and went, leaving no trail other than historic photographs. A few left scattered dilapidated buildings that remain today as ghost towns. Others grew into communities with stable populations and amenities like opera houses and theaters that joined the stores and saloons as they prospered.

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Darren L. Court

White Sands Missile Range

9780738558783

$24.99

Since the official flag raising on July 9, 1945, the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) has become an integral part of global defense for the United States. A mere week after formation, Project Trinity tested the first atomic bomb at an isolated site, which was 100 miles north on what was then part of the Alamogordo Bombing Range—a test site for B-17 pilots. Back at White Sands Proving Ground, as it was then named, personnel were unaware of the massive new weapon tested to their north. Instead their focus was upon the arrival of what would be 300 railroad cars of captured German V-2 rockets and associated equipment. Later that year, over 100 captured German scientists, among them Werner von Braun, would arrive at White Sands to assist in V-2 technology, launching America's race to space; tens of thousands of rockets and missiles have since been fired on the range. Thousands of family members also lived and worked at the range, and their stories can be found inside as well.

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Jane Eppinga

Tombstone

9780738520964

$23.99

Tombstone sits less than 100 miles from the Mexico border in the middle of the picturesque Arizona desert and also squarely at the heart of America's Old West. Silver was discovered nearby in 1878, and with that strike, Tombstone was created. It soon grew to be a town of over 10,000 of the most infamous outlaws, cowboys, lawmen, prostitutes, and varmints the Wild West has ever seen. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral made Wyatt Earp and John Henry Doc Holliday legendary and secured Tombstone's reputation as The Town Too Tough to Die. In this volume, more than 200 striking images and informative captions tell the stories of the heroes and villains of Tombstone, the saloons and brothels they visited, the movies they inspired, and Boot Hill, the well-known cemetery where many were buried.

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Malana Bracht

Midwest City

9781467162326

$24.99

Longtime Midwest City resident and author Malana Bracht joins efforts with key historical leaders of Midwest City and institutions such as the Midwest City High School History Center, Rose State College Foundation, and Atkinson Heritage Center to deliver this city’s rich story to the new generation of Midwest City residents looking to understand the heart behind the model city and its founders.

In the early 1940s, a visionary developer named W.P. “Bill” Atkinson set out to find the perfect location for an incoming air depot to be built in Oklahoma by the US War Department. With a hunch and a wink, he purchased a large plot of land and later incorporated Midwest City in 1943 with the purpose of attracting and supporting Midwestern families and businesses relocating to work at the new plant. The plant later became the iconic Tinker Air Force Base. Awarded as the “Model City of the Midwest,” Midwest City became a city of hope for families looking to have a better life while supporting the nation’s military efforts. Using creative marketing strategies such as selling ponies with homes, intentional city planning for family living, and cultivating Norman Rockwellian culture, Midwest City grew and positioned itself as an innovative leader in the region.

Having many familial ties to Midwest City and Tinker Air Force Base, Bracht tells the story of Midwest City from its founding, continuing its legacy for generations to come.

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Jane Eppinga

Tucson, Arizona

9780738507743

$24.99

The history of Tucson and its people is long and distinguished. Archaeological records demonstrate that Tucson was inhabited from about 300 to 1300 A.D. by a people called the Hohokam. Through the centuries the flags of Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, and the United States have flown over Tucson. Images of cowboys and Indians, preachers and gamblers, miners and gunslingers, ladies of the night and churchmen, leave an indelible imprint on the history of this town. From remote Spanish presidio outpost, to Mexican village, to modern metropolis, Tucson has endured. After Mexico's revolution against Spain in 1821, Tucson became part of Mexico. With the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, Tucson joined the United States as part of the Arizona Territory, achieving statehood in 1912. After California's gold rush, many disappointed prospectors (the famous 49ers) stopped and stayed in Tucson. The expansion of the railroad brought many more immigrants. After World War One, many veterans with tuberculosis sought relief in Tucson's warm dry climate. After World War Two, veterans remembered their training during warm winters and moved to Tucson permanently.

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Sr. Collins David

African Americans of Round Top

9781467160742

$24.99

Round Top’s African American pioneers came into Texas in 1825 when Stephen F. Austin brought in 300 Anglo-Americans, and the people they enslaved, for the purpose of colonizing the area. Soon afterward, more slaves were bought in from other slaveholding states. After the Civil War ended, the descendants of these original Round Top pioneers began building their own community. Many earned money by toiling away in the cotton fields for the very men who had once enslaved them. Others earned money working as cowboys, washerwomen, barbers, or blacksmiths. In 1867, the group founded the Concord Missionary Baptist Church as a communal space for them to come together and pool their resources to buy their own land, build their own homes, and hire teachers, which led to the creation of the Concord Missionary Baptist Church Colored School. For generations, this school successfully educated freedmen, their children, and their descendants before finally closing its doors due to desegregation. Despite many challenges, they overcame obstacles that grew into a prosperous community.

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Donovin Arleigh Sprague

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

9780738541471

$24.99

Choctaw are the largest tribe belonging to the branch of the Muskogean family that includes the Chickasaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole. According to oral history, the tribe originated from Nanih Waya, a sacred hill near present-day Noxapater, Mississippi. Nanih Waya means productive or fruitful hill, or mountain. During one of their migrations, they carried a tree that would lean, and every day the people would travel in the direction the tree was leaning. They traveled east and south for sometime until the tree quit leaning, and the people stopped to make their home at this location, in present-day Mississippi. The people have made difficult transitions throughout their history. In 1830, the Choctaw who were removed by the United States from their southeastern U.S. homeland to Indian Territory became known as the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

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Toni Michnovicz Gibson

Los Alamos

9780738529738

$24.99

Forever linked with World War II and America's entrance into the Atomic Age, Los Alamos was a small ranching community and the site of an exclusive boys' school until 1943. As the Manhattan Project unfolded, Pvt. J.J. Michnovicz—first assigned to Los Alamos as a photographer by the military but later working as a civilian—recorded the everyday spirit of the people and the events that shaped this mountain town into a home . . . and secret scientific hotbed. This comprehensive view of the social and professional world of Los Alamos is the photographic journal of a singular period, as seen through the eyes of one soldier.

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Scott Hammerstedt

Spiro Mounds and WPA Archaeology in Oklahoma

9781467160032

$23.99

The Land Run of 1889 and the oil boom in the early 20th century cemented Oklahoma’s reputation as a place where fortunes could be made and lost seemingly overnight. In eastern Oklahoma, a group of men formed the Pocola Mining Company to loot the Spiro Mounds and make a fortune selling their finds. Their remarkable discovery was billed in newspapers as “King Tut’s Tomb in Oklahoma.” With only profit in mind, the looters gave little care to the archaeological value of their finds, allowing many valuable and perishable items to be destroyed. A handful of young archaeologists from the University of Oklahoma and crews of local men were left to salvage what they could at Spiro; their work was funded by relief money provided by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. In three years, the team excavated dozens of sites in eastern Oklahoma. The photographs in this volume tell the story of the looting of Spiro and professional archaeological excavations in eastern Oklahoma.

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Chuck Parsons

The Texas Rangers

9780738579825

$24.99

The Texas Rangers. The words evoke exciting images of daring, courage, high adventure. The Rangers began as a handful of men protecting their homes from savage raiding parties; now in their third century of existence, they are a highly sophisticated crime-fighting organization. Yet at times even today the Texas Ranger mounts his horse to track fugitives through dense chaparral, depending on his wits more than technology. The iconic image of the Texas Ranger is of a man who is tall, unflinching, and dedicated to doing a difficult job no matter what the odds. The Rangers of the 21st century are different sizes, colors, and genders, but remain as vital and real today as when they were created in the horseback days of 1823, when what is today Texas was part of Mexico, a wild and untamed land.

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John Slate

Lost Austin

9780738596136

$24.99

Known to some as Capitol City, River City, and Groover's Paradise, Austin is a diverse mix of university professors, students, politicians, musicians, state employees, artists, and both blue-collar and white-collar workers. The city is also home to the main campus of the University of Texas and several other universities. As Austin has grown to become more cosmopolitan, remnants of its small-town heritage have faded away. Austin's uniqueness—both past and present —is reflected in its food, architecture, historic places, music, and businesses. Many of these beloved institutions have moved on into history. While some are far removed in the mists of time, others are more recent and generate fond memories of good times and vivid experiences. Images of America: Lost Austin explores, through the collections of the Austin History Center and others, where Austinites once shopped, ate, drank, and played.

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Kenneth D. Shields Jr.

The Grand Canyon

9780738500317

$23.99

Exploring the people who shaped and survived the Grand Canyon.

Unlike appreciating America's other natural wonders such as waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, or prairies, one must struggle to absorb, assimilate, and comprehend the Grand Canyon's tremendous scale. Captured here in over 250 vintage images is the human drama of survival and coexistence in the canyon, from the native tribes who struggled with life on the rim, to the pioneers who came to foster and manipulate the early tourist industry in America's oldest natural resource. Covering the tribes that called the canyon home and the seekers who flocked to the area to find their fortune in gold and tourism, author Kenneth Shields exposes the human layers so often overlooked. Seen here are the native tribes who survived the harshest conditions of the canyon, including the Hopi, Havasupai, Navajo, and Paiute. Readers will recognize the images of popular tourist spots like the El Tovar Hotel and the Navajo Bridge, as well as the early conservationist faces of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft.

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Anne I. Woosley

Early Tucson

9780738556468

$23.99

Tucson is a history of time and a river. The roots of prehistoric habitation run deep along the Santa Cruz River, reaching back thousands of years. Later the river attracted 17th-century Spanish explorers, who brought military government, the church, and colonists to establish the northern outpost of their New World empire. Later still, American westward expansion drew new settlers to the place called Tucson. Today Tucson is a bustling multicultural community of more than one million residents. These images from the photographic archives of the Arizona Historical Society tell the stories of individuals and cultures that transformed a 19th-century frontier village into a 20th-century desert city.

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Bill O'Neal

Frontier Forts of Texas

9781467128599

$24.99

With its vast size and long frontier period, Texas was the scene of more combat events between Native American warriors and Anglo soldiers and settlers than any other state or territory. The US Army, therefore, erected more military outposts in Texas, a tradition begun by Spanish soldados and their presidios. Settlers built blockhouses and even stockades, the most famous of which was Parker's Fort, the site of an infamous massacre in 1836. Successive north to south lines of Army forts attempted to screen westward-moving settlers from war parties, while border posts stretched along the Rio Grande from Fort Brown on the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Bliss at El Paso del Norte. Texas was the site of the first US Cavalry regiment employed against horseback warriors, as well as the experimental US Camel Corps. From Robert E. Lee to Albert Sidney Johnston to Ranald Mackenzie, the Army's finest officers served out of Texas forts, and 61 Medals of Honor were earned by soldiers campaigning in the Lone Star State.

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Midge Steuber

Jerome

9780738558820

$23.99

The rugged mining community of Jerome has thrived by the hard work and hard play of tough men and women pitted against an equally hard mountain. William Murray solicited funding for the Black Hills mining camp from his uncle, a New York lawyer and financier named Eugene Murray Jerome, who reportedly was not interested. However, his independent wife was delighted at the prospect and raised $200,000 in development capital for Murray. In 1882, Frederick F. Thomas, Jerome's first postmaster, named the mining camp Jerome in honor of the family. Jerome boomed, ultimately reaching a reported population peak of 15,000 in the 1920s, then dwindling to a ghost town after the mines closed. In 1967, the town was designated a National Historic Landmark, and today it is a flourishing artist community, as well as a motorcycle and travel destination.

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Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

Sedona

9780738548005

$24.99

Little more than a century ago, when only a handful of families lived in what is now Sedona, in Oak Creek Canyon, none would have dreamed it would become such a popular destination. The matchless
combination of bright blue skies and red rocks has inspired artists of every medium to attempt to capture the mystic formations. Fortunately some began almost before the town was named after the wife of early settler T. C. Schnebly, who organized the first post office, at the beginning of the 20th century. From early apple growers to artists, what has united the diverse residents of Sedona over time is the conviction that they have found one of the earth's great treasures.

Cover image for Sedona, isbn: 9780738548005

Karen R. Thompson

Austin, Texas

9780738508320

$24.99

When General Sam Houston's Texas army defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, the Republic of Texas was born. Austin, located on the banks of the Colorado River, was laid out as the capital city in 1839, and has remained the capital since statehood in 1846. Featured here in over 200 vintage photographs is the history of this independent city, and the people who made it what it is today. Land agent Stephen F. Austin brought the first Anglo settlers to the Spanish territory in 1821 and guided them until independence in 1836. Seen here are the images that capture the spirit of those original pioneers and their achievements, including the French Legation, the construction of the capitol, and the Texas governor's mansion, the oldest governor's residence west of the Mississippi. Also pictured are the familiar faces of Austin's long history, including Austin's first mayor, Edwin Waller, and past governor Alan Shivers.

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Bill O'Neal

Texas Gunslingers

9781467132718

$24.99

Images of America: Texas Gunslingers presents the concept of Texas as the Gunfighter Capital of the West. Indeed, after the cowboy—a Texas creation—the most colorful and romanticized frontier figure is the gunfighter. Nothing is more dramatic than life and death conflict, and the image of men in big hats and boots brandishing six-shooters and Winchesters has been portrayed in countless Western novels, movies, and television shows. Texas made an enormous contribution to gunfighter lore. Texas Rangers were responsible for the evolution of Sam Colt's revolving pistol, key weapon of gunfighters. More shoot-outs occurred in Texas than in any other state or territory. More gunfighters were from Texas, including kill-crazy Wes Hardin and Killin' Jim Miller, the West's premier assassin. There were more blood feuds in Texas than in any other state. Frequently, gunplay erupted in towns such as Tascosa, El Paso, Fort Worth, and Lampasas, where four lawmen were killed in an 1873 saloon battle.

Cover image for Texas Gunslingers, isbn: 9781467132718

Mark Megehee

Fort Sill

9781467129640

$24.99

Established in 1869, Fort Sill initially hosted cavalry regiments, including buffalo soldiers, charged with pacifying native tribes in portions of Texas, Kansas, and Colorado. Replete with old West sagas, heroes, and villains, accounts from the post fascinate enthusiasts even today. Its namesake was chosen by Maj. Gen. Little Phil Sheridan to memorialize Brig. Gen. Joshua Sill, who gave his life in the Civil War. Similarly, the lasting impressions of great Americans are commemorated within the fort at Henry Post Army Airfield, Flipper's Ditch, Ambrosia Springs, Sherman House, and of course, Geronimo's Guardhouse. Even the city of Lawton was named after the Prince of Quartermasters, Gen. Henry W. Lawton. Fort Sill's reputation as the premier artillery training and development center for the US Armed Forces has endured, preparing servicemen for every significant American conflict since its inception.

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Bill O'Neal

West Texas Cattle Kingdom

9780738596488

$24.99

Images of America: West Texas Cattle Kingdom relates the frontier saga of cowboys and longhorn cattle, of trail drives and great ranches. Cattle and horses were introduced to the Western Hemisphere by Spanish conquistadores and colonizers while Mexican vaqueros handled cattle from horseback, developing special techniques, equipment, and attire. Half-wild longhorns multiplied into the millions in the unpopulated brush country above the Rio Grande. After the Civil War, a hungry market for beef developed in the north. Texas cow boys learned the vaquero skills of roping and branding and adapted heavy-duty Mexican saddles, wide-brimmed hats, high-heeled boots, jingling spurs, leather chaparejos, and colorful bandanas. The adventure of driving large herds of cattle up the Chisholm Trail and other famous trails captivated America. Vast Texas ranches included the fabled King Ranch, the three-million-acre XIT, Charles Goodnight's JA Ranch, and El Rancho Grande of legendary Shanghai Pierce, who described himself as Webster on cattle, by God.

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William Ascarza

Southeastern Arizona Mining Towns

9780738585161

$24.99

Southeastern Arizona has one of the most diverse mining localities in the state. Towns such as Bisbee, Clifton, Globe, Miami, Ray, Silverbell, and Superior have earned reputations as premier metal producers that are most notably known for their copper. Other mining towns that have made their marks in the region include Dos Cabezas, Gleeson, Harshaw District, Helvetia, Patagonia District, Pearce, Ruby, and Tombstone. Mining in southeastern Arizona has significantly influenced the development of mines in northern Sonora, Mexico. The foundation of Mexico's largest copper mine in Cananea was financed by American capital, specifically under the direction of miners and investors from southeastern Arizona. Overall, the process of mining has established the economy of southeastern Arizona, making it a viable source of copper-related minerals in the 21st century's global market.

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Glenn Davis

College Station

9780738579559

$24.99

The first land-grant college in Texas—called the Agricultural and Mechanical College—was predominantly a military school, built in 1876 in a then-remote area of Central Texas. Like other developments, the institute was a result of the expanding railroad, so a station named College was erected to service the new school. Drawing newcomers to the area, the city of College Station was incorporated in 1938, and its size soon rivaled that of neighboring Bryan—the Brazos County seat. The College Station area offers a surprisingly diverse mix of attractions, including the George Bush Presidential Library, the Texas Motor Speedway, and Kyle Field. During the last century, the college has grown from a few hundred students into a major university with more than 49,000 students, making Texas A&M the seventh-largest school in the nation. Today College Station is home to some 100,000 people.

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Alan Kania

Grand Junction

9780738580685

$24.99

The Ute Indians were hardly out of western Colorado when their land was opened to Anglo settlers. It was on September 26, 1881, when George A. Crawford, William McGinley, R. D. Mobley, M. R. Warner, and others went to the junction of the Gunnison and Grand (later renamed the Colorado) Rivers to claim 640 acres. In the semiarid confluence of the two rivers, a city developed, fruit orchards were planted, and a college grew out of the seeds of a single-room school with a dirt floor. Several newspapers opened, providing news and information to a business community that included coal mining, railroads, dry goods, and even a toffee factory whose products have graced the tables of royalty. How Grand Junction was able to develop into a progressive community of entrepreneurs, educators, and community-minded citizens is a story best told in a small sampling of pictures. None of the founders are still here, but their legacy, stories, and pictures have survived to speak for them.

Cover image for Grand Junction, isbn: 9780738580685

Mike Butler

High Road to Taos

9781467116053

$24.99

The High Road to Taos, listed in the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties in 1975, covers 52 miles from just north of Santa Fe to Ranchos de Taos at the southern boundary of the town of Taos. In addition to spectacular mountain scenery, the High Road contains Pueblo Indian settlements dating back to the 1300s and Hispanic settlements dating back to the 1600s. Historic adobe Catholic churches can be seen in each village, with the church at Las Trampas having been constructed in 1760. Today, artist communities have grown in and around the villages. Photographers from the federal Farm Security Administration extensively photographed the villages along the High Road in the 1930s and 1940s. These photographs provide an exceptional record of Hispanic village life in northern New Mexico and will be of interest to travelers along the High Road as a basis of comparison to what they are viewing today.

Cover image for High Road to Taos, isbn: 9781467116053

Kristi Nedderman

Dallas's Radio Station WRR

9781467161749

$24.99

Radio station WRR, the United States’ first fire and police dispatch network, originated in 1920 thanks to the innovative thinking of Dallas police and fire signal superintendent Henry Garrett, who realized the potential of communicating via the then brand-new medium of wireless radio transmission. When dispatchers began broadcasting music between fire alarms, citizens listened on their homemade sets, and the Dallas, Texas, radio station was born. In August 1921, operating with 50 watts, WRR became the first federally licensed radio station west of the Mississippi River and the second in the United States. During the last 103 years, the WRR call letters have been at the heart of both an AM and an FM station, and North Texas listeners eagerly tuned in to both frequencies.

Cover image for Dallas's Radio Station WRR, isbn: 9781467161749

Richard Melzer

Fred Harvey Houses of the Southwest

9780738556314

$23.99

The Fred Harvey name will forever be associated with the high-quality restaurants, hotels, and resorts situated along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway in the American Southwest. The Fred Harvey Company surprised travelers, who were accustomed to dingy beaneries staffed with rough waiters, by presenting attractive, courteous servers known as the Harvey Girls. Today many Harvey Houses serve as museums, offices, and civic centers throughout the Southwest. Only a few Harvey Houses remain as first-class hotels, and they are located at the Grand Canyon, in Winslow, Arizona, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Cover image for Fred Harvey Houses of the Southwest, isbn: 9780738556314

George Hartz

Arizona's National Parks and Monuments

9781467130424

$23.99

Arizona's 20 national parks and monuments celebrate the natural wonders and rich heritage of Arizona, preserved through the efforts of countless citizens and the American Antiquities Act of 1906. Aggressively implemented by eight US presidents, this legislation permits the president to unilaterally proclaim sites as national monuments without congressional action. The Antiquities Act was applied in Arizona 23 times, more so than any other state in the union. Using more than 200 historical photographs, many of which have never been published, this book contains the stories of the creation of each of Arizona's national parks and monuments, emphasizing the importance of the landscape and cultural heritage to Arizona's identity.

Cover image for Arizona's National Parks and Monuments, isbn: 9781467130424

Rick Thomas

South Pasadena's Raymond Hotel

9780738559193

$24.99

Built in lavish Victorian style in 1886 atop Bacon Hill, the Raymond Hotel was the most regal feature on the skyline in the San Gabriel River Valley—a sundown silhouette of the wealth and prominence that had coalesced in the Pasadena area. It became the base of activities for Eastern tycoons' families enjoying the balmy Southern California climate, even fostering the development of the winter mansions on Orange Grove Avenue. After the original 200-room hotel with 80 chimneys burned down on Easter Sunday in 1895, the second 300-room Raymond Hotel opened in 1901. The pioneering orange groves on the sprawling grounds gave way to a golf course. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Chaplin are just two examples of the early-20th-century celebrities who stayed there. This visually stunning collection of images is a mere sample of the vintage professional photography that exists of South Pasadena's iconic landmark.

Cover image for South Pasadena's Raymond Hotel, isbn: 9780738559193

Melinda Jo Ray

Granbury and Hood County

9781467161169

$24.99

Granbury and Hood County’s history is both an American pioneer saga and a 20th-century rags to riches story. In the 17th century, Spanish explorers and the Comanche were vying to control the land carved across Texas by the mighty Brazos River. By the mid-19th century, white settlers came, led by visionaries like fiery preacher “Fighting” Joe Robinson in Acton, lawyer and legislator Abel Landers, the Nutt brothers, and Quaker-raised farmer Amon Bond in Granbury as well as education-minded Campbellite Pleasant Thorp in Thorp Spring and the Sears family in Lipan. Soon small settlements dotted the area. Once the Civil War passed and Hood County was formed in 1866, Granbury and the towns across the county became thriving centers of commerce fed by nearby farms and ranches. The 20th century brought hard times, but the creation of Lake Granbury in 1969 opened a new era of possibilities. Newcomers joined founders’ descendants to create a multifaceted renewal inspired by echoes of the past.

Cover image for Granbury and Hood County, isbn: 9781467161169

Dan W. Messersmith

Kingman

9780738579306

$24.99

Kingman, county seat of Mohave County in northwestern Arizona, owes its beginning and subsequent prosperity to the building of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1882. The city was named for the project's chief engineer, Lewis Kingman. The initial railroad siding quickly became a supply center for mining and ranching operations that dotted the beautiful surrounding valleys and mountain ranges. Through the years, Kingman has been at the crossroads of rail, highway, and air transportation routes. A B-17 bomber gunnery training base brought changes by exposing the area's potential to thousands of soldiers during World War II, many of whom would later return. Actor Andy Devine grew up here, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married here, and Charles Lindbergh would establish a route for Transcontinental Air Transport through here. Today Kingman is the Heart of Historic U.S. Route 66 and is located in the middle of the longest remaining stretch of the Mother Road, making it a must-see destination for thousands of tourists each year.

Cover image for Kingman, isbn: 9780738579306

Joy Montgomery

Conroe

9781467105996

$24.99

This comprehensive collection of historic photographs illustrates why “The Miracle City,” with its luscious pine forests, public-minded citizenry, rich tradition of innovation, and remarkable resilience is the fastest growing city in the United States.

Conroe, largely a product of intersecting railroads and timber, was founded in 1881 and, by 1889, was the county seat of Montgomery County, Texas. Named for timber magnet and former Union officer Isaac Conroe, with its resilient spirit, Conroe eventually became one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. At one point during the oil boom in the 1930s, Conroe was home to more millionaires per capita than any other town in the United States. Innovative individuals from all walks of life have graced the community, lending fodder to the community goal of becoming the cultural capital of Texas. One of those individuals, oil magnet George Strake, laid the foundation for Conroe’s slogan, “The Miracle City.” The community has survived and overcome many obstacles in its 150-year history, including several fires and floods, and continues to live up to that motto to this day.

Managing this enterprise is the features editor of the Courier of Montgomery County newspaper, Sondra Hernandez, working in concert with executive director of the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County and author Joy Montgomery. Rounding out the author team is Dr. Robin Montgomery, author of numerous books and articles and columnist for the Courier of Montgomery County, along with Larry Foerster, an author, chair of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, and former Montgomery County attorney and city attorney for multiple county cities.

Cover image for Conroe, isbn: 9781467105996

Joan Marston Korte

Downtown San Antonio

9780738584911

$24.99

With its diverse cultural background and down-home atmosphere, San Antonio resounds with a vivacious spirit and rich history. Founded in 1691 by Spanish explorers and missionaries, the city later served a vital role in the Texas War for Independence when, in 1836, many brave, passionate men gave their lives at the Alamo. Downtown San Antonio is home to this sacred site and to the nearby River Walk as well as to other historic structures, plazas, parks, modern-day hotels, flourishing businesses, and a thriving nightlife. The rare photographs found between the covers of this book provide extraordinary glimpses back through time to the true building blocks of today's beautiful, historic downtown San Antonio.

Cover image for Downtown San Antonio, isbn: 9780738584911

Sheryl Rascher

Erath County

9781467108454

$23.99

Carved from central Comancheria, Erath (EE-rath) County was created by stock raisers and settlers with little to lose but hopes and dreams.

Bisected by Grand Prairie and Western Cross Timbers, this is where East Texas ends and West Texas begins. The Bosque and Paluxy Rivers welcomed ranchers, farmers, millers, and ginners. Rustlers, deserters, train robbers, vigilantes, lawmen, and Texas Rangers soon followed. Faith, education, life, and death cultivated villages with churches, schools, stores, and cemeteries in walking distance. Bridges, roads, and railways meant the life or death of a township. This volume commemorates the people, places, and events of lost communities that made the “Cowboy Capital of the World” what it is today.

An eighth-generation Texan and sixth-generation Erathian, Sheryl Reed Rascher has over 30 years of experience with Lockheed Martin business and program management. Currently serving as president of the Erath County Genealogical Society, she is also a member of San Angelo Genealogical and Historical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society, and The Daughters of the Republic of Texas and a past member of Fort Worth Genealogical Society Board of Directors. This book contains photographs generously shared by the Ralph and Dossie Rogers Historic Images Collection, the Stephenville Historical House Museum, Dublin Historical Museum, and numerous friends.

Cover image for Erath County, isbn: 9781467108454

Ana Pacheco

Pueblos of New Mexico

9781467129428

$23.99

As early as 1851, photographers journeyed along the arduous Santa Fe Trail on horseback and in covered wagons on a quest to capture the magnificent vistas on film. In the ever-changing light of New Mexico's landscape, they photographed the faces of the Pueblo People and helped to document their ancient, unimaginable world. They became witness to millennia of history. New Mexico's first inhabitants are believed to have descended from the Anasazi, the largely nomadic group that settled along the Colorado Plateau around 200 AD. Most likely, drought conditions brought the population centers of the Anasazi villages located in the Four Corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico to settle along the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico and the Mogollon Rim of Arizona in 1300 AD.

Cover image for Pueblos of New Mexico, isbn: 9781467129428

Douglas Lee Braudaway

Railroads of Western Texas

9780738507668

$24.99

The Southern Pacific Railroad was the second transcontinental line built in America, and the first that was open year-round. Railroads of Western Texas brings to life the days of frontier towns, the open range, and the building of the state of Texas. This part of the state's railroad history includes politicians and movie stars, train wrecks and robberies, shoot-outs and gun-running. Railroads of Western Texas reveals engaging stories of San Antonio and El Paso during their boomtown years. It tells of the creation of communities out of whole cloth including Hondo, Sanderson, Marfa, and Sierra Blanca. Other towns-villages really-blossomed when the iron rails came through: Uvalde, Del Rio, Alpine, Valentine, and Judge Roy Bean's town Langtry (the man known as The Law West of the Pecos). The railroad featured the third highest bridge in the world (the High Bridge over the Pecos River), and the fourth largest man-made lake in the United States (Medina Lake). These rails carried men and munitions during the Spanish American War and the Punitive Expedition, and many more\ during the First and Second World Wars.

Cover image for Railroads of Western Texas, isbn: 9780738507668

Anne Dunphy Becker

Houston

9780738566832

$24.99

In an area that was little more than a thick forest lining Buffalo Bayou, Houston was founded in 1836 by the Allen brothers and named after the Republic of Texas's beloved general Sam Houston. By 1860, there were 5,000 residents in Houston, wooden sidewalks, a few shell-paved roads, and five railroads. Out of the mud and mayhem of Houston's humble frontier beginnings arose men like Thomas W. House, Alexander P. Root, Edward Hopkins Cushing, Thomas Bagby, and William S. Swilley. The sleepy little bayou that wound from Main Street and emptied into Galveston Bay would soon become one of the largest ports in the south. By 1900, the founders' grandchildren were ready to strike out on their own and would play their part in building a great Texas city, a railroad nexus for the Gulf Coast, and an international port of call.

Cover image for Houston, isbn: 9780738566832

Carolyn O’Bagy Davis

Arizona's Historic Trading Posts

9781467132497

$24.99

On the sparsely settled Arizona reservation lands, trading posts were important centers for commerce as well as social gathering destinations. With a subsistence economy, the posts offered opportunities to trade sheep, wool, and crafts for necessities such as flour, coffee, sugar (known as sweet-salt), and tools. Most often, traders were Anglos, living as partners among their Indian neighbors. They often were the only contact with the outside culture, and their stores provided an outlet for local arts such as rugs, pottery, baskets, and jewelry. Traders helped with correspondence, transportation, and sickness, and they even buried the dead. Trading posts were the sites of marriages and murders; they were destinations for artists, scientists, and adventurous tourists. With the coming of roads and automobiles, trading posts have all but disappeared, but the stories and photographs shared in this volume offer a glimpse into a vanishing time in the Southwest.

Cover image for Arizona's Historic Trading Posts, isbn: 9781467132497

Bill O'Neal

East Texas in World War II

9780738584645

$24.99

Texas made a remarkable contribution to the American war effort during World War II . Almost 830,000 Texans, including 12,000 women, donned uniforms, and more than 23,000 Texas fighting men died for their country. America's most decorated soldier, Lt. Audie Murphy, and most decorated sailor, submarine commander Sam Dealey, both were Texans. Texas A&M, an all-male military college, placed 20,000 men in the armed forces, of which 14,000 were officers--more than any other school in the nation, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied Forces in Europe, was born in Denison in northeast Texas. Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, was born and raised in Texas. Almost 1.5 million soldiers, sailors, and fliers trained at scores of Texas bases. Texas oil fueled the Allied war effort, while Texas shipyards and defense plants provided a flood of war machines and munitions during the war effort.

Cover image for East Texas in World War II, isbn: 9780738584645

Carolyn O’Bagy Davis

Kayenta and Monument Valley

9780738586304

$24.99

In December 1910, Indian traders John and Louisa Wetherill opened their trading post--with a tent for supplies (and sleeping) and a store counter of boards laid across two barrels. From that modest beginning, Kayenta became the center of Navajo gatherings and exploring expeditions to Rainbow Bridge, Monument Valley, and the grand cliff dwellings in Tsegi Canyon. Soon came a parade of visitors, including authors, painters, and archaeologists, as well as cowboys, miners, traders, and tourists. The Kayenta Township today is home to descendants of the early inhabitants and the hub for thousands of annual visitors from around the world who come to see the magnificent region known as Monument Valley.

Cover image for Kayenta and Monument Valley, isbn: 9780738586304

Lubbock Hist Soc (Author)

Lubbock

9780738596082

$24.99

For 12 millennia, people were drawn to a water source located in the region Spanish conquistadores named the Llano Estacado, a vast plateau 3,000 feet above sea level and 300 miles long and wide. Near this site in 1890, settlers combined two fledgling communities to create the town of Lubbock. Finally incorporated in 1909 and soon promoted as the Hub City, Lubbock doubled its original population of 1,900 in each of its first six decades, nurturing growth through civic cooperation, small business enterprise, higher education, and health care services. Today, almost 240,000 people call Lubbock home, and the city serves as the socioeconomic center of the Llano Estacado.

Cover image for Lubbock, isbn: 9780738596082

Deborah L. Duvall

The Cherokee Nation and Tahlequah

9780738502892

$24.99

The Cherokee Nation, world-famous for its turbulent and colorful past, is home to the second-largest American Indian tribe in the United States. This fascinating visual history spans 14 counties of northeast Oklahoma, from the Arkansas River to the Kansas border,
and features the capital, Tahlequah. The U.S. government's harsh treatment of the Cherokees culminating in the notorious Trail of Tears is documented here. In Indian Territory, the Cherokees quickly established systems of democratic government, education,
and communication. Many lived in the same manner as their white counterparts of the time, as wealthy plantation owners and ranchers. They were completely literate in their own written language, printing newspapers, magazines, and books. Devastation struck as the Civil War split the Cherokees into factions, dividing families and neighbors and destroying communities and homes. Again, the resilient Cherokees rebuilt their nation,
enjoying growth and renewed prosperity until land allotment and statehood stripped away their self-governance. The progressive, accomplished character of the Cherokees is evidenced by the pictures and stories in this book. Here you will meet the leaders who helped rebuild the great Cherokee Nation, legendary figures like Sequoyah and Will Rogers, and the patriots and artisans who have kept the tribe's culture and tradition alive throughout history.

Cover image for The Cherokee Nation and Tahlequah, isbn: 9780738502892

Mark Lardas

Texas Shipwrecks

9781467116176

$24.99

The Texas coastline and offshore waters are flat, shallow, featureless, and filled with shoals. Texas waters are subjected to extreme weather, not just hurricanes and tropical storms but also northers and seasonal gales. This, combined with two centuries of naval warfare off Texas waters, produced many shipwrecks of all sorts, from Spanish treasure fleets to simple working boats. The ships of pirates, navies, cotton traders, immigrants, fishermen, and oil shippers line the Texas coast, cover the sea bottom off Texas, and blanket the bottom of Texas rivers. Each wreck has a story, romantic or repellent, prosaic or unusual, but all intriguing.

Cover image for Texas Shipwrecks, isbn: 9781467116176

Kathleen Garcia

Early Phoenix

9780738548395

$24.99

Like the mythical bird it is named after, Phoenix rose from the desert heat to become a prosperous and vital city. Settled on the lands of the ancient Hohokam Indians, Phoenix began as an agricultural community in the 1860s. It was appointed county seat
of Maricopa County in 1871 and territorial capital in 1889. By 1900, town boosters were calling Phoenix an "Oasis in the Desert" and the "Denver of the Southwest." By 1920, Phoenix was on its way to being a metropolitan city with a population of 29,053 and sporting an eight-story "skyscraper." Many farsighted individuals documented this development through photographs, allowing today's residents to see the community's amazing growth from small town to big city.

Cover image for Early Phoenix, isbn: 9780738548395

Ethel Jackson Price

Bisbee

9780738528946

$24.99

In the early 1900s, it was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco, bustling with the raw material of Wild West legends. Bisbee's infamous Brewery Gulch once supported 47 saloons and was considered the liveliest spot between El Paso and San Francisco. By the 1970s, opportunists had relieved Bisbee's Mule Mountains of billions of pounds of copper, 102 million ounces of silver, 2.8 million ounces of gold, and millions of pounds of zinc, lead, and manganese. The ore reserves were depleted, and when the last pickaxe struck plain old dirt, a mass exodus of miners collapsed the real estate market. But the lure of cheap land was a magnet for retirees, hippies, and artists. Boarding houses were converted into charming bed and breakfasts. Antique stores, galleries, cafes, and restaurants replaced the saloons. These days, a vibrant and eclectic community of ranchers, politicians, and free spirits; a well-preserved architectural and historic heritage; and the most perfect year-round climate make Bisbee, the county seat, a one-of-a-kind gem.

Cover image for Bisbee, isbn: 9780738528946

Deborah A. Galloway

Portal of the Chiricahuas

9781467115148

$24.99

Coronado scorned this region as unpopulated when he labored through southeastern Arizona in 1540, but he could have found 12,000-year-old spear points in the remains of giant bison near Cave Creek Cienega, grinding hollows in boulders, and shamanic figures in high caves of the Chiricahuas towering above valleys and grasslands. Searing drought forced people to abandon their villages by 1400, but Apaches wandered down from Canada about the time Spaniards passed by. Thousands of forty-niners traveled in sight of the mountains on their race to California. The Chiricahua Apaches were exiled to Florida in 1886; even earlier, their lands were opened to settlement. Portal began in 1902 as a rest stop between the railroad and the boom town of Paradise. Since 1956, the Southwestern Research Station of the American Museum of Natural History has attracted countless researchers. The present community is a vibrant mix of biologists, birders, astronomers, writers, artists, and ranchers, united by love for this unique canyon.

Cover image for Portal of the Chiricahuas, isbn: 9781467115148

Jon Hunner

Las Cruces

9780738520971

$24.99

The city of Las Cruces, situated under blue skies in the Chihuahuan desert, boasts a wealth of Native American and Wild West history. As New Mexico's second largest city, it is a modern metropolis that has held fast to its picturesque past. Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s in search of the Seven Cities of Gold, and after the United States conquered the territory, the area became a transportation hub, blossoming from its adobe beginnings into a permanent, important city. The photographs contained in this volume tell the unique story of this town of contrasts, where historic plazas sit next to modern office buildings and subdivisions sprawl alongside old Indian trails. Many of the original buildings are now restaurants, galleries, and shops, but here readers see them as they once stood, making this book a fascinating reference for those familiar with the city or exploring it for the first time.

Cover image for Las Cruces, isbn: 9780738520971

Carolyn O’Bagy Davis

Silver City

9780738599946

$24.99

Silver City is located at the southern boundary of the vast Gila Wilderness in a region of soaring mountains, lush river valleys, and bountiful mineral deposits. Ancient ruins give evidence of prehistoric occupation, followed by a historic parade of Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, miners, outlaws, and settlers, resulting in a community celebrating a rich cultural blend. When silver was discovered in 1870 at La Cienega de San Vicente, prospectors rushed in despite the danger from Apache Indians who traditionally occupied that land. Newcomers flooded into southwestern New Mexico Territory, and Silver City became the county seat the following year. Soon there were businesses, saloons, and homes. Silver City became the supply center for the widespread mining district with a brick plant and lumberyard. By 1883, a narrow-gauge railroad connected the town with the outside world.

Cover image for Silver City, isbn: 9780738599946

Donna Blake Birchell

Carlsbad and Carlsbad Caverns

9780738578842

$24.99

Created by the visionary Charles B. Eddy, Carlsbad rose from the humble beginnings of a tent city to become a vital community on the banks of the Pecos River. One of the largest irrigation projects known at that time made the transformation possible. The Carlsbad Caverns, discovered by James Larkin White and documented by local photographer Ray V. Davis, introduced the world to the wonders that lay beneath the desert surface. World War II saw Carlsbad members of the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery units being thrown into the midst of the Bataan Death March. With the discovery of a large deposit of potash east of town, agriculture flourished nationwide and prosperity returned to the town. As the country moved into the nuclear age, Carlsbad once again played a significant role. The detonation of the Gnome Project in 1961 and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant of the present day have provided the country with vital knowledge and nuclear waste storage.

Cover image for Carlsbad and Carlsbad Caverns, isbn: 9780738578842

Baldwin G. Burr

Historic Ranches of Northeastern New Mexico

9781467115490

$24.99

In 1866, Charles Goodnight and his partner Oliver Loving began rounding up feral cattle in Texas, forming herds to be driven north into the immense unoccupied grazing land in northeastern New Mexico. The counties of Colfax, Mora, Harding, Union, and San Miguel became the location of some of the great historic ranches of the West. From the 11,000-acre Chase Ranch in Colfax County to the 650,000-acre Bell Ranch in San Miguel County, these ranches have been home to several generations of ranching families. Pioneer ranchers such as Manley M. Chase, Frank and Charles Springer, Samuel Watrous, and Albert K. Mitchell established a tradition of perseverance, self-sufficiency, and sustainable range management that continues to the present day.

Cover image for Historic Ranches of Northeastern New Mexico, isbn: 9781467115490

Ryan Barnhart

McKinney

9780738586670

$24.99

McKinney's very first settlers began arriving from Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee in the early 1840s. Collin County was created by the Texas legislature on April 3, 1846, and due to a provision violation requiring the county seat to be within 3 miles of the center of the county, McKinney replaced Buckner as the seat in 1848. The vote deciding the new seat, however, went in McKinney's favor primarily because flooding kept many citizens from casting ballots. On March 16, 1848, the state legislature passed an act to name the new town in honor of Collin McKinney, one of five original draftees of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Today McKinney is one of America's fastest growing cities and has seen a population boom from approximately 16,000 residents in 1985 to more than 120,000 in 2010.

Cover image for McKinney, isbn: 9780738586670

Lyn Bleiler

Santa Fe Art and Architecture

9780738595986

$24.99

The oldest capital city in the United States is Santa Fe, which has a rich and varied cultural history as well as the oldest public building still in use. Ancestral Puebloan Indians inhabited the area as early as 500 AD, and Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1540s. When Mexico gained independence from Spain, Santa Fe became the capital of Nuevo Mejico. It was not until 1912 that New Mexico achieved statehood. In the late 19th century, the Southwest became a haven for tuberculosis patients, and a number of sanatoriums were built in Santa Fe. Many creative individuals, including poets, artists and architects, stayed and significantly contributed to the city's cultural and architectural development. In 2005, Santa Fe received the distinction of being the first America community to be designated a Creative City by UNESCO.

Cover image for Santa Fe Art and Architecture, isbn: 9780738595986

JNell L. Pate

Fort Worth Stockyards

9780738558608

$23.99

As early as 1867, Fort Worth held promise as an ideal stockyards. Making their way to northern markets, cattle passed through the city on what became the Chisholm Trail. By 1876, local businessmen urged railroad development, and the establishment of local packing facilities and animal pens followed in the 1880s. The first stockyards opened in 1889. It was not until the nation's two largest meatpacking giants, Armour and Swift, bought into the local market in 1902, however, that the stockyards began to thrive. Fort Worth became the largest stockyards in the Southwest and ranked consistently from third to fourth nationwide. Most major stockyards have now closed, including Fort Worth in 1992. Of these, only Fort Worth has successfully turned its former livestock market into a tourist site, attracting nearly a million visitors annually.

Cover image for Fort Worth Stockyards, isbn: 9780738558608

John Hamilton

Fort Bliss

9781467129152

$23.99

Established as one of many frontier Army posts in 1849 following the Mexican-American War, Fort Bliss, Texas, has endured as an Army installation when most other frontier posts have faded from memory. From a small collection of adobe buildings, it has seen growth, decline, two closures, and ultimately survival as the major Army maneuver post that it is today. The post, named for West Point math prodigy and soldier William Wallace Smith Bliss, has served many roles in America's conflicts and has seen the march of technology in war fighting. Its role today includes training for the Army's only armored division, known as 1st Armored Division; training for major Army air and missile defense forces; serving as a mobilization platform for Army soldiers and civilians to deploy to support America's missions overseas; and testing of major equipment to be adopted for military use.

Cover image for Fort Bliss, isbn: 9781467129152

SueAnn Martell

Coal Camps of Eastern Utah

9780738556451

$24.99

Nestled between the Wasatch Plateau and the Book Cliff Mountains, hundreds of feet underground, vast coal deposits make up the heart of Utah's coal country. This high-grade bituminous coal attracted the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to the area, and small, company-owned towns sprang up everywhere coal could be accessed. Life in these camps was difficult at best, as the mines were dangerous and the threat of disaster was never far away. In spite of these hardships though, the residents, many of whom were foreign-born, enjoyed recreational activities at the local baseball diamonds, amusement halls, and confectioneries. Their lives were shaped by coal, but the coal camps shaped their souls. Eastern Utah's coal mining legacy continues today, and while most of these camps have disappeared, many of the people who lived there still call them home.

Cover image for Coal Camps of Eastern Utah, isbn: 9780738556451

Dawn Youngblood

Fort Worth

9781467103848

$24.99

Fort Worth exudes a vivacious Western spirit founded upon a rich history. In 1849, four years after the Republic of Texas became the 28th state, the Army built a fort to keep native tribes west of the Trinity. That fort grew into a focal stop on the Chisholm Trail and later became the western terminus of the railroad. In World War I, Fort Worth housed one Army and three aircraft training bases, while Fort Worth Stockyards, which became one of the largest in the nation, provided multitudes of horses and mules. From pianos on dirt floors to the Van Cliburn Competition, from the earliest portraits by itinerant French artists to world-class art museums, Fort Worth has always been home to high culture. Groups such as the Woman’s Wednesday Club made sure art and libraries stood in the old fort town once more famous for its saloons. No matter the era, and no matter the many reasons, Fort Worth will always be “where the West begins.”

Cover image for Fort Worth, isbn: 9781467103848

Donna Scarbrough Josey

Georgetown

9780738584508

$24.99

Before 1840, the land along the three forks of the San Gabriel River attracted trappers, traders, and frontiersmen. The town of Georgetown, situated at the confluence of these forks, was founded and named the Williamson County Seat in May 1848. It quickly grew as an agricultural center. Well-known cattlemen such as future Nevada governor John Sparks and the Snyder Brothers lived in Georgetown, and thousands of cows were driven right through downtown to the famed Chisholm Trail. Economic forces lined up favorably for this small village as cattle, cotton, and railroads combined to set off a boom in growth. Southwestern University, established here in 1873, further influenced the character of Georgetown. The wild cowboy town full of saloons and gambling halls soon developed great opportunities for education and business. Today the courthouse square from that earlier era is one of the most intact Victorian town squares in Texas. Georgetown is now recognized for its outstanding quality of life, vibrant business community, and award-winning historic preservation efforts.

Cover image for Georgetown, isbn: 9780738584508

Lisa Anderson

Mesa

9780738548425

$24.99

From the prehistoric Native Americans to the first wave of pioneers in 1877 and all who came later, the desert lands east of Phoenix have been a rich and fertile home to a wide diversity of people. Surmounting the early challenges of settling the mesa top and moving water uphill gave rise to a resilient agricultural community famous for cotton, citrus, grapes, and other crops. The boom years that began in the 1950s ushered in a new wave of industry and change to the city of Mesa. Large corporations created jobs, new freeways formed a corridor into the heart of the community, educational and health care facilities improved and expanded, and the advent of air conditioning brought tourists from all over the world. Now boasting a population of over 450,000, Mesa has truly evolved from its pioneer beginnings to a modern city in the Valley of the Sun.

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Brian M. Davis

Lost Galveston

9780738566849

$24.99

For nearly 200 years, a permanent settlement at the mouth of Galveston Bay has welcomed pirates, sailors, immigrants, and visitors from around the world. As Galveston grew, its buildings were visible signs of the city's prosperity and the talent of its craftsmen. For many, this city was a gateway to America and an inspiration of what other communities in Texas and the Southwest would become. Although Galveston has thousands of historic buildings remaining, many have been lost to the elements and development over the years. Buildings such as the ones found within these pages define the character of our city and its culture.

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David R. Butler

San Marcos

9781467133500

$24.99

San Marcos, Texas, permanently settled in 1846, was founded by former members of John C. Hays's company of Texas Rangers. The town was designated the county seat of Hays County by the Texas legislature in 1848 and was formally laid out in 1851. A center for local commerce associated with cattle and cotton production, San Marcos became an educational center with the chartering in 1899 and subsequent opening in 1903 of the Southwest Texas State Normal School. The normal school is now Texas State University, the fourth largest university in Texas with more than 36,000 students. This volume tells the story of a formerly sleepy college town on the edge of the Texas Hill Country that has become the fastest-growing city in the United States.

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Steph McDougal

Lighthouses of Texas

9781467130912

$24.99

Not long after winning their independence from Mexico in 1836, Texans began clamoring for lighthouses. Hundreds of miles of barrier islands, shifting sandbars, and shallow bays made the Texas coast treacherous at a time when few overland routes provided access to the new republic. Beginning in 1852, twenty-eight lighthouses were built along the Texas coastline, on land and over water. Lighthouse service was often a family affair, with husbands, wives, and children working together as keepers and assistants. For nearly 70 years, construction continued as coastal erosion, hurricanes, and wars regularly damaged or destroyed those lighthouses already built. These sentinels of the sea lessened but did not eliminate the chance of shipwreck, so lifesaving stations, manned by able seamen with unsinkable surfboats, were established as well. As Texas's lighthouses were gradually automated throughout the 20th century, many were sold to private owners or abandoned. Today, several have been restored, and two—at Aransas Pass and Port Isabel—still function as aids to navigation.

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Cecilia Gutierrez Venable

The Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate

9781467129244

$24.99

For 125 years, the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate served the poor and, in particular, people of color. They are the first order of sisters founded in Texas. Their foundress, Margaret Mary Healy Murphy, built the first Catholic African American school and church in San Antonio, the second in the state of Texas. The sisters carried their mission and work beyond the Lone Star State's borders and included most of the South and a few metropolitan areas of the North. They crossed the Rio Grande and had several missions in Mexico and traversed a new continent when they opened a learning center in Zambia. The sisters were primarily known as educators and, in later years, worked in religious education and pastoral ministry. They have also operated orphanages and nursing homes and served in hospitals, homeless shelters, incarceration facilities, and immigration residences. The school they built over 100 years ago, now known as the Healy Murphy Center, serves the community as an alternative high school, and the sisters still teach there.

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Alfred Rogers

Ranger

9780738584591

$24.99

Ranger began in the 1870s near a Texas Ranger camp in northeastern Eastland County. It remained a farming community of about 700 people until October 17, 1917, when an oil well on the McCleskey farm, south of town, ushered in one of the best-known oil discoveries. Within months, Ranger's population had surged to approximately 30,000, including investors, speculators, wildcatters, oil field workers, curious onlookers, and the usual criminal element attracted to oil boomtowns. Crime became so rampant that the Texas Rangers eventually were called in to intercede. Oil production peaked in 1919 before tapering off. Images of America: Ranger covers a period of about 75 years from the town's beginnings to 1950.

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Linda L. Stampoulos

Visiting the Grand Canyon

9780738528809

$24.99

How the Grand Canyon became America’s ultimate travel destination.

The Colorado River began carving a course to create the Grand Canyon some four to six million years ago, but organized tourism to the natural wonder is fairly young, geologically speaking. Getting to the view along and below the rim has not always been as convenient as packing up the family car and hitting the road. The El Tovar Hotel, celebrating its centennial in 2005, had just opened to lodgers when the Canyon was declared a National Monument in 1908. Between the 1890s and the 1920s, horses, mules, river rafts, stagecoaches, and later railroads and automobiles permitted increasing access to the area. Recreation areas, businesses catering to tourists, and federal preservation programs would eventually mark the Grand Canyon as the ultimate American travel destination.

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Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa

The Hopi People

9780738556482

$23.99

The diverse people of the Hopi, whose name means "the peaceful ones," are today united on the Hopi Reservation, which is composed of 12 villages on more than 2,500 square miles in northeastern Arizona. In fact, the village of Orayvi is considered the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States, dating back more than a millennium. Often referred to as a "corn culture," the Hopis have developed dry-farming techniques that have sustained them in the harsh, arid landscape, where annual precipitation is often only 12 inches or less. The Hopi people are hardworking and spiritual, and their lifestyle has survived for centuries, only minimally changed by influences from the outside world.

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Mark Doty

Lost Dallas

9780738585086

$24.99

Although founded in 1841, Dallas did not experience significant growth until 1873 when the Texas and Pacific (T&P) Railroad crossed the Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) near downtown. Securing these railroads led to a prolific building boom that has never fully ended, even during the Great Depression and subsequent world wars. Dallas's ability to sustain growth and development as a banking and commercial center led to the demolition of much of the early built environment, a trend that continues even today. Lost Dallas explores and documents those buildings, neighborhoods, and places that have been lost and even forgotten since the city's modest antebellum beginning.

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Mr. Joseph T. Page II

Holloman Air Force Base

9780738595283

$24.99

Since its initial construction as a British overseas training base on February 6, 1942, Holloman Air Force Base has been at the forefront of cutting-edge technology for national defense. Throughout the last 70 years, Holloman has been known to push the envelope in regards to training, research, and military operations. Some of the amazing accomplishments performed at Holloman include the Fastest Man Alive, Col. John P. Stapp's record-setting runs down the rocket test track; the Highest Step in the World, taken by Capt. Joseph Kittinger at 102,800 feet over the New Mexico desert, and training for the first chimpanzee in space, Ham, in preparation for manned spaceflight. The isolated desert base would also become identified with the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter, made famous during the opening hours of Operation Desert Storm.

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Larry Upton

The Historic Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix

9780738585178

$24.99

Phoenix's Manzanita Speedway, the last of the big dirt tracks located near the central corridor of a major metropolitan area, is now gone. The track opened in the early 1950s when Jack Holloway, president of the Arizona Jalopy Racing Association, along with Avery Doyle and Gene Gunn, set about convincing Rudy Everett and Larry Meskimen to convert their unprofitable dog-racing operation into a quarter-mile dirt track. On August 25, 1951, Everett and Meskimen beamed with excitement as Manzy opened to an overflowing crowd. They had tapped into America's post–World War II craze for automobiles and found their own Lost Dutchman Gold Mine in the process. Manzanita Speedway dominated dirt-track racing in Phoenix and was heralded as one of the top five dirt tracks in the United States. Manzy became an integral part of the racing culture in Phoenix, and its sale and closure in 2009 created a sense of lingering disappointment.

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Wayne McCombs

J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum (50th Anniversary Edition)

9781467104043

$24.99

In 1929, a transplanted Arkansas sawmill owner named J.M. Davis decided to put his collection of 99 firearms on display in the lobby of his Claremore, Oklahoma, hotel. Some 40 years later, on Davis’s 82nd birthday, the artifacts found a permanent home at the Claremore’s J.M. David Arms and Historical Museum, an internationally known tourist attraction celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019. Today, thousands of visitors a year marvel at exhibits featuring statuary, knives, swords, saddles, American Indian artifacts, political buttons, World War I posters, and many other items—all in addition to the most extensive private collection of guns on the face of the earth. With words and pictures, this book tells the behind-the-scenes story of the museum and John Monroe Davis—the man, his times, and his amazing acquisitions.

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Sue Seibert

Mineral Wells

9780738579856

$24.99

The family of James Alvis Lynch headed west from Denison, Texas, to find a dry climate that would alleviate Lynch's symptoms of malaria and his wife Amanda's rheumatism. They traveled as far as the Brazos River, where U.S. 180 crosses today, when one of their oxen drowned, and the other was struck by lightning. To make matters worse, the Lynches learned of hair-raising tales of the struggles between Comanches and settlers. So on Christmas Eve in 1877, the Lynch family decided to settle 4 miles east of the Brazos in the beautiful valley between what are the East and West Mountains in present-day Mineral Wells. There, the Lynch family discovered the mineral-rich water that mended their maladies and brought tourists from far and wide to take the healing cure. The geology of the area also brought oil, gas, and brick plants, while the attacks on local settlers brought a military presence to the region. The history of Mineral Wells is alive today, as many descendants of early pioneers still live and work in the community, full of pride for their families' contributions to the area.

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Carl P. Baggese

Modesto

9780738571508

$24.99

Settled in 1870 by the Central Pacific Railroad, Modesto is located in California's agriculturally rich Central Valley. The new town was to be named after the prominent California banker W. C. Ralston, but, as city lore and legend tell it, his modest refusal led to the name Modesto. Originally a wheat-producing region, the city blossomed with the arrival of irrigation, and fruit orchards and vineyards soon grew in abundance. The county seat of Stanislaus County, Modesto became an agricultural hub, with the motto Water Wealth Contentment Health emblazoned on an iconic arch at the town's entrance. California's original junior college is located here along with E. & J. Gallo Winery, the world's largest privately held winery, family run since 1933. Twice named an All American City, Modesto inspired native son George Lucas when he made his classic American Graffiti in 1973.

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Shannon Gillette

Bowie and Montague County

9780738596501

$24.99

Bowie, the Little Wonder of the West, grew from a tent city to the largest town in Montague County in just one year's time. This entrepreneurial spirit led to ideas such as the Chicken and Bread Boys, the M. Johnson Poultry Ranch, and Second Monday Trade Days. Bowie, Montague, Saint Jo, Nocona, Ringgold, Sunset, and Forestburg, along with the other hundred or so communities that made up Montague County, offered a unique slice of Americana and individualism. Their history collectively provides a unique look at the taming of the Western frontier, including a proud Native American culture, the Chisholm Trail, the Butterfield Stage, and promises of streets paved with gold. Over time, the smaller communities of the county faded and merged with the larger ones, leaving only memories of places such as Uz, Gladys, and Rip.

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John Slate

Dealey Plaza

9781467130226

$24.99

Dealey Plaza is famous for many things, both locally and nationally. Considered the front door of Dallas, the park rests on a bluff near the Trinity River, where Dallas's founder, John Neely Bryan, identified a natural low-water crossing in 1841. This ford was the site of Bryan's cabin and was also the site of the first ferry and bridge over the Trinity River. Home to several Dallas County buildings and other historic structures, Dealey is not just the birthplace of Dallas; it is also the site of Dallas's first large-scale city planning solution, a traffic diverting triple underpass, and a beautiful downtown park built in the 1930s. The park was launched into national history when Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated here on November 22, 1963. Today, the site is visited by over two million annually. To preserve Dealey Plaza and its surrounding buildings, the federal government designated it a National Historic Landmark District in 1993.

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Robert Thomas Marcell

Laughlin Air Force Base

9781467107099

$23.99

Today, Laughlin Air Force Base is one of the busiest pilot-producing bases in the world. Named after Jack Thomas Laughlin, the base traces its history back to 1942. During World War II, the base was called Laughlin Field and trained bomber pilots in the B-26 Marauder. The base closed in 1945, after the war, but reopened again as an Air Force base in 1952 to train fighter pilots for the Korean War. It then took on a Cold War mission from 1957 to 1963. During this time, the base was home to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, which flew the U-2 spy plane. The 4080th played a key role in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. From 1961 onward, however, Laughlin has served primarily as an undergraduate pilot training base, helping hundreds of brave men and women, every year, earn their wings as military aviators.

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Peter Eidenbach

Alamogordo

9780738584515

$24.99

In 1898, the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad established New Mexico's first preplanned development community at Alamogordo. This city and its satellite communities of Tularosa, La Luz, and Cloudcroft are the only urban settlements in an area almost as large as Connecticut--the vast deserts and mountains of the Tularosa Basin are where people "climb for water and dig for wood." Alamogordo became the county seat after Otero County was created to modify the trial venue for the murder of Albert Fountain and his son Henry. West Texas ranching families moved into the Tularosa Basin in the 1880s and depended on ranching, farming, and tourism until World War II led to the creation of the Alamogordo Army Air Field (Holloman Air Force Base) and White Sands Proving Ground, the birthplace of the U.S. space and missile program. The first atomic explosion, Trinity, took place in White Sand's northwest corner on July 16, 1945. Col. John Stapp, pioneer of aerospace medicine, rode rocket sleds at the Holloman Test Track, leading to modern automotive seat belts.

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Karl Anderson

The Oklahoma Music Trail

9781467109277

$23.99

The Oklahoma Music Trail is a pictorial essay that features the music genres, performers, and songwriters of Oklahoma. There are literally hundreds of artists who have made their home in Oklahoma. The cowboy ballads of Gene Autry, Western swing that originated with the fiddle of Bob Wills, the Tulsa Sound of Leon Russell and gospel songs of Albert E. Brumley have paved the way for generations of Oklahoma musicians and performers. This book tells the story of country music legends who have traveled along the Oklahoma Music Trail.

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Steve Clem

Route 66 in Tulsa

9781467162197

$24.99

Tulsa has always been vital to Route 66. In 1920, as the automobile was altering American life, good roads were nonexistent. Tulsa businessman and civic leader Cyrus Avery led the charge to transform the patchwork of dirt and mud trails that linked cities into a national system of paved highways, culminating in the creation of Route 66 in 1926.

For this, Avery is known as the “Father of Route 66.” Through the Great Depression, World War II, and the country’s postwar prosperity, the “Main Street of America” permeated culture through song, literature, movies, and even a television show. All the while, Tulsa—the “Magic City” with a petroleum pedigree—hosted travelers with big-city services and shopping in an Art Deco setting. And then, the road was gone. It was replaced by the faster, straighter interstate highway system in 1985. The signs came down and the double sixes disappeared until another Tulsan, Michael Wallis, brought them back. In 2024, Tulsa officially became the “Capital of Route 66.” Travelers from around the globe get their kicks at exciting attractions from Buck Atom Space Cowboy to Meadow Gold Mack and Mother Road Market to Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza. Again, neon dances in the Capital of Route 66.

Steve Clem is a Route 66 “roadie” (aficionado) and a trustee at Sand Springs Cultural and Historical Museum. Becky Hatchett is president of the Southwest Tulsa Historical Society and volunteers at the Route 66 Historical Village. Rhys Martin serves on Tulsa’s Route 66 Commission and is president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association.

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Juan Jose Ibarra

Franciscan Friars of Hebbronville

9781467160728

$24.99

The arrival of Franciscan friars of the Jalisco Province in Mexico escaping religious persecution in 1926 to Hebbronville, a rural community in South Texas, is an enduring story that still resonates in the hearts of many. Since then, Franciscans have been dedicated to the cultural, educational, and spiritual needs of Hebbronville and surroundings communities that have supported them over the years.

One of the many remarkable contributions of the Franciscan legacy in Hebbronville is the Scotus College, a majestic four-story seminary building considered a Texas historic treasure and a preeminent local architectural landmark. This book is the pictorial account of these events that led a group of Franciscans to offer their lives, full of unwavering faith and boundless hope, to a community that embraced them. It is an inspiring story that becomes a lesson about love, devotion, and sacrifice in appreciation to the people of Hebbronville that helped persecuted Franciscan friars survive.

Fr. Juan Jose Ibarra, OFM, founder of the Franciscan Museum of Hebbronville whose archives have contributed to this book, has worked closely with the Archivo Histórico Franciscano de Zapopan in Mexico and the Jim Hogg County Historical Commission. He currently serves as pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and guardian of the Franciscan Friary in Hebbronville, Texas.

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Paul J. Lawton

Old Tucson Studios

9780738556291

$24.99

In 1939, Columbia Pictures based a film on Clarence Kelland's book Arizona, set during the Civil War in Arizona Territory. To accurately portray the novel's landscape, Columbia selected a spot about 10 miles from what is now downtown Tucson in the middle of a large Pima County park for the filming. In 1959, Bob Shelton, a Kansas City developer, purchased the lot, determined to build an active movie studio and tourist attraction. His vision was successful, and Old Tucson Studios has set the stage for over 200 movies and television shows. As Western movies regain their popularity in the box office, the future looks bright for Old Tucson Studios to become a premier filming site in Arizona.

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Joan Fudala

Scottsdale

9780738548753

$24.99

Just a century ago, the now-tony tourist destination of Scottsdale was a tiny farming village in the pristine desert east of Phoenix. Named for its 1888 homesteaders—U.S. Army chaplain Winfield Scott and his wife, Helen—Scottsdale remained a farming and ranching community through World War II. After the war, businesses and families flocked to Scottsdale for its climate and unlimited opportunities—creating a place they branded The West's Most Western Town. Throughout the decades, residents and visitors alike have enjoyed adventures in the desert; a thriving arts, crafts, and cultural community; a healthful climate and healthcare industry; and fun-packed events and outdoor sports. Residents have had the additional benefits of living and working in a great hometown, with excelling schools, an international reputation for environmental preservation, and a diverse economy that boasts an eclectic array of businesses.

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Richard Melzer

New Mexico in World War II

9781467106702

$24.99

In 1941, New Mexico was an agrarian state with just over half a million people, many of whom lived without electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, or paved roads. However, the state provided more military volunteers per capita—including eight Medal of Honor winners—than any other state and had the highest casualty rate per capita in the country. New Mexico provided essential resources ranging from oil and coal to potash and copper. The state is often remembered for being the location where the first nuclear weapon was designed and tested in 1945, but more important at the time were the development of the proximity fuze and the testing of the top-secret Norden bombsight. The state also housed German and Italian prisoners of war, and, in one of the darkest moments in US history, incarcerated American citizens of Japanese descent in several concentration camps.

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Allan J. McIntyre

The Tohono O'odham and Pimeria Alta

9780738556338

$24.99

The Tohono O'odham have lived in southern Arizona's Sonoran Desert for millennia. Formerly known as the Papago, the people, acting as a nation in 1986, voted to change the colonial applied name, Papago, to their true name, Tohono O'odham, a name literally meaning "desert people." Living within a region the Spanish termed Pimeria Alta, the Tohono O'odham, from the time of Spanish Jesuit Kino's first missionary efforts in the late 1680s, have been witness to numerous governmental, philosophical, and religious intrusions. Yet throughout, they have adapted and survived. Today the Tohono O'odham Nation occupies the second largest land reserve in the United States, covering more than 2.8 million acres. The images in this volume date largely between 1870 and 1950, a period that documents great change in Tohono O'odham traditions, culture, and identity.

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M. David DeSoucy

Arizona Rangers

9780738548319

$24.99

Established in 1901, the Arizona Rangers have protected and served the citizenry for over 107 years. Though the initial organization was short lived, lasting only until 1909, the company--with an authorized strength of just 26 men--became the scourge of outlaws within the Arizona Territory and along the Mexican border where, like today, criminal activity was prevalent. In 1957, the Arizona Rangers were reestablished, and for the 50 years since, these modern rangers have continued the tradition of service that was established by their territorial predecessors. Today's Arizona Rangers are officially recognized by state legislation as a volunteer civilian law enforcement auxiliary. In keeping with their motto, "Few But Proud Then and Now," they assist numerous law enforcement agencies and help keep the peace within their communities and state.

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Daniel Gibson

Skiing in New Mexico

9781467107020

$23.99

Explore New Mexico’s long and distinguished skiing history with this collection of historic photographs.

New Mexico’s skiing history began with the miners of the late 19th century and its pioneer settlers. Ski area development was launched in the 1930s in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque and quickly spread to the southernmost range of the Rocky Mountains—the Sangre de Cristos, north of Santa Fe. Students of a boarding school, the Los Alamos Ranch School, took up the sport in the Jemez Mountains, and when the school was occupied in the 1940s by American and international scientists like Neils Bohr working to create the world’s first atomic bomb, they enthusiastically pursued skiing in their rare spare time. Taos Ski Valley’s founding in 1955 elevated the scene to world-class status, and today, there are eight major downhill ski areas and one cross-country center stretching from the deserts of south-central New Mexico to the Colorado border.

Daniel Gibson is an editor, journalist, and author. The author of Skiing New Mexico: A Guide to Snow Sports in the Land of Enchantment, he has written a regional weekly column for almost 30 years called Snow Trax. Jay Blackwood is a committee member of the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame and curator of the New Mexico Ski Museum. He was the manager of Sandia Peak Tramway for many years.

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James Collett

The Old Spanish Trail Highway in Texas

9781467106924

$23.99

At the dawn of automobile travel in the United States, visionary entrepreneurs proposed a Southern transcontinental route called the Old Spanish Trail (OST) that would stretch across eight states from Florida to California. The central third of the road spanned more than 900 miles and traversed Texas. The collaboration of communities, both large and small, that worked to bridge rivers and pave primitive roads made the OST a reality during the 1920s. As travelers ventured forth on the route, a diverse crop of businesses—filling stations, autocamps, tourist courts, motels, and myriad eating establishments—sprang up to meet the needs of tourists, wanderers, migrants, and truckers while also fueling economic growth. For over 50 years, the OST continuously underwent construction and redesign that transformed a small roadway into a multilane interstate highway carrying a constantly increasing flow of goods, services, and people. Although the OST identity is gradually growing fainter amidst the standardization of businesses and rerouting of numbered highways around (instead of along) city streets, it still survives among many Texans who dwell along the Trail.

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San Benito Historical Society

San Benito

9780738580241

$24.99

San Benito was built on the banks of a dry riverbed of the Rio Grande, called a resaca. Long ago, Coahuiltecan Indians made their home here, and Spanish land grant ranches flourished in the 1700s. The arrival of the railroad in 1904 brought a diverse group of pioneers from the Midwest in search of cheap and fertile land. These early settlers, together with descendents of Spanish colonizers, began an agricultural community. During his engineering surveys in 1903 for the proposed railroad connection to the rest of Texas, Sam Robertson realized the potential of the land. He envisioned an irrigation plan that would utilize the resacas to bring water from the Rio Grande and thus make arid ranch land into a garden. It was with this history and this dream that the little town of San Benito was created. San Benito is also home to entertainment—Conjunto Music began here—and it is the hometown of international singing star Freddy Fender and Olympic athlete Bobby Morrow.

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Gail Saunders

Ouray

9780738580340

$24.99

Situated in a spectacular basin surrounded by 13,000-foot peaks, the city of Ouray has captured the eye of adventurers from its beginnings, while the glitter of gold and silver brought prospectors to its mountains. The Uncompahgre Utes hunted and soaked in their sacred hot springs for generations, but about one year after Chief Ouray's death, they were removed from their homelands to a reservation in Utah. Mines and mining camps proliferated in the harsh, remote high country, where rugged terrain hampered the transportation of ore and supplies, even after toll roads and railroads lessened isolation. Ouray (pronounced Yurr-AY) developed into a Victorian community with families, churches, and schools contrasted with rowdy saloons and so-called fancy ladies. Ouray further embraced tourism after mining waned, and heritage preservation remains an ongoing concern.

Cover image for Ouray, isbn: 9780738580340

Mike Vance

Brenham

9781467108621

$23.99

While “Born in Brenham” is a local badge of honor, thousands of people who are not originally from the area have been welcomed into the charming city and nearby rural communities of Washington County. Visitors and newcomers will discover a relaxed atmosphere infused with the better aspects of the past. Even in the face of modern change and growth, history occupies a place of value, and traditions in Brenham still reign. Maifest, the spring celebration spawned by German immigrants, has been an annual tradition since 1881, and young and old alike line downtown streets to cheer on the royal courts. The Washington County Fair is the oldest in Texas, honoring the family farms and ranches that still abound. The streets surrounding the courthouse square have remained largely intact for the past century. Once fueled by cotton and railroads, Brenham’s economy now reflects a diversity that ranges from artists to ice cream, and historic buildings are seen as treasures to be adapted and reused.

Cover image for Brenham, isbn: 9781467108621

Williamson County Historical Museum

Williamson County

9780738578651

$24.99

The area now known as Williamson County has attracted humans for over 13,000 years. The Tonkawa Indians called the area takachue pouetsu, which means land of good water. In 1848, the Texas Legislature carved a county out of a southwestern portion of the Milam District. They named it after Robert McAlpin Williamson, a judge, lawmaker, and Battle of San Jacinto veteran who was widely known as Three-legged Willie. Just as the Native Americans before them, settlers were drawn to the area for its abundant water and fertile soil, and the population quickly grew. While agriculture has been a driving force behind the local economy for decades, the county has witnessed a shift from the small farmer and rancher to the larger agribusiness. In addition, Williamson County is a center for education and the high-tech industry and is home to institutions and companies including Southwestern University, the Round Rock Higher Education Center, and Dell.

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Jim Babbitt

Flagstaff

9780738571157

$24.99

On July 4, 1876, immigrants from Boston traveling to California were camped at Antelope Spring in a valley just south of the San Francisco Peaks. To celebrate the nation's centennial, the pioneers stripped the branches off a tall pine tree and ran up Old Glory. This event gave Flagstaff its name. Six years later, in 1882, the Atlantic and Pacific Railway reached Flagstaff, and a small settlement was born. Railroad construction crews used local ponderosa pine trees for rail ties, beginning a timber industry that thrived in the region for the next century. Flagstaff also became a center of tourism as visitors came to see spectacular natural sights in the surrounding territory, including the Grand Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, and Sunset Crater, and to experience the Native American cultures of the American Southwest. This volume traces the establishment and early development of Flagstaff and depicts many facets of life in Arizona's Mountain Town.

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Lyn Bleiler

Taos

9780738579597

$24.99

Located in the Land of Enchantment, Taos has a long history that predates the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth Rock. Anasazi Indians first inhabited the Taos Valley in 1000 A.D., and the Taos Pueblo (both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Historic Landmark) has been continuously inhabited for more than 1,000 years. Spanish conquistadors explored Taos in 1540, and by 1615 many Spanish families had settled in the region. Taos later became a crossroads for French and American trappers, and by the early 1800s it was a bustling headquarters for mountain men, including the legendary Kit Carson. When artists Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein passed through in 1898, a broken wagon wheel delayed them and ultimately resulted in another wave of newcomers, who established an art colony. In 1917, New York socialite Mabel Dodge became enthralled with Taos, and during the next four decades she invited many highly regarded creative people to visit, including Ansel Adams, Carl Jung, Georgia O'Keefe, Willa Cather, D. H. Lawrence, and Aldous Huxley. Taos continues to attract adventurous, spirited individuals.