David Roberts

The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest

Filed Under: Books Read

The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest

The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest by David Roberts
on April 13, 2015
Pages: 368
Format: ebook
Genres: Natural History, Nonfiction, People's history
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Synopsis

In this thrilling story of intellectual and archaeological discovery, David Roberts recounts his last twenty years of far-flung exploits in search of spectacular prehistoric ruins and rock art panels known to very few modern travelers. His adventures range across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado, and illuminate the mysteries of the Ancestral Puebloans and their contemporary neighbors the Mogollon and Fremont, as well as of the more recent Navajo and Comanche.

Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest

Filed Under: Books Read

Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest

Escalante's Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest by David Roberts
on July 16, 2019
Pages: 360
Format: hardback
Genres: Native American, Nonfiction, People's history, United States
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Synopsis

Famed adventure writer David Roberts re-creates the extraordinary 1,700-mile journey of the eighteenth-century Domínguez-Escalante scouting expedition.
In late July 1776, fathers Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Francisco Vélez de Escalante set out from Santa Fe to chart a route to the new Spanish missions in California. The Fransiscans planned to scout the country for mineral wealth and locate the Ute and Navajo tribes for conversion. In present- day Utah, however, the dangers of starvation and hypothermia forced them to turn back. By November the friars were reduced to survival mode: stymied by the raging Colorado River, they had to kill their horses for food. At last they succeeded in fording the river at a place later known as “Crossing of the Fathers.”
In this adventure- history, David Roberts travels the Spaniards’ forgotten route, using Escalante’s first- person report as his guide. Blending personal and historical narrative, he relives the glories, catastrophes, and courage of this desperate journey.