Designated in 2016 by President Obama and reduced to 85 percent of its original size one year later by President Trump, Bears Ears National Monument continues to be a flash point of conflict between ranchers, miners, environmental groups, states' rights advocates, and Native American activists. In this volume, Andrew Gulliford synthesizes 11,000 years of the region's history to illuminate what's truly at stake in this conflict and distills this geography as a place of refuge and resistance for Native Americans who seek to preserve their ancestral homes, and for the descendants of Mormon families who arrived by wagon train in 1880. Gulliford's engaging narrative explains prehistoric Pueblo villages and cliff dwellings, Navajo and Ute history, impacts of the Atomic Age, uranium mining, and the pothunting and looting of Native graves that inspired the passage of the Antiquities Act over a century ago. The book describes how the national monument came about and its deep significance to five native tribes. Bears Ears National Monument is a bellwether for public land issues in the American West. Its recognition will be a relevant topic for years to come.

With a New Afterword First published in 1989, Boomtown Blues examines the remarkable 100-year history of oil shale development and chronicles the social, environmental, and financial havoc created by the industry's continual cycles of boom and bust.

"Preserving Western History" is the first college reader to address public history in the American West. Andrew Gulliford's collection of essays explains the research and work that public historians do and the complicated issues of historic site preservation and interpretation.

The contributors' writings document the application of public history to specific Western themes, places, and personalities. Subjects range from the Little Big Horn Battlefield to Route 66 and from historic brothel buildings at the Mustang Ranch in Nevada to Nikkei removal from Bainbridge Island, Washington. Other chapters interpret the Ludlow Massacre Site, define Hispanic identity and lifeways in New Mexico, discuss wild land firefighter memorials and explain the Wilderness Act as a case study in western public history. Other studies focus on Sand Creek, Colorado and Western Mining Landscapes.

Each section begins with an introductory essay that surveys the literature and relevant publications, and each chapter includes endnotes and study questions. The appendix lists academic centers in the West.

Contributors to "Preserving Western History" include:

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, former Congressman and U.S. Senator from Colorado and member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe
James E. Fell, Jr., adjunct associate professor of history, University of Colorado, Denver
Art GA3mez, supervisory historian in the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service, Santa Fe
Jon Hunner, director of the public history program at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces
Jan MacKell, archivist at the Cripple Creek District Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado
Sally Mcbeth, professor of anthropology at theUniversity of Northern Colorado, Greeley
Thomas J. Noel, professor of history and director of public history at the University of Colorado, Denver
Douglas D. Scott, Great Plains Team Leader with the National Park Serviceas Midwest Archeological Center and is adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln
William Wroth, former Curator of the Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center