"A book of great sweep and of sharp and shifting focus. It portrays the hugeness, harshness and magnificence of the land and the stamin and ardor of the men who took its measure."--New York Times After the Civil War, four geological and geographical surveys, later called the Great Surveys, Undertook the massive task of finding out what lay west of the hundredth meridian in the vast American wilderness. Parties led by Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, medical doctor turned geologist, Clarence King, aristocrat and intellectual, John Wesley Powell, conqueror of the Colorado River, and Lieutenant George M. Wheeler, determined military man and scientist, roamed over the wild country during the years 1867-79, observing, analyzing, mapping, and at the end of each season, returning to Washington to publish their results. For the first time in book form, Richard A. Bartlett has recreated for the reader the hardships, both physical and financial, the discoveries, and the high adventures of the bold, headstrong, and often brilliant men of the Great Surveys as they climbed the Rockies, explored the Yellowstone, or battled the Colorado. Richard A. Bartlett, Professor Emeritus of History in Florida State University is a well-known writer in the field of western history. Bartlett was educated at the Universities of Colorado and Chicago and became interested in the Great Surveys while in the mining camps of Boulder County, Colorado.

During the first fifty years of the twentieth century, ham radio went from being an experiment to virtually an art form. Because of the few government restrictions and the low monetary investment required, the concept of ham radio appealed to various people. More than just a simple hobby, however, ham radio required its operators to understand radio theory, be able to trace a schematic and know how to build a transmitter and receiver with whatever material they might have available. With the advent of World War II and the increased need for cutting-edge communications, the United States government drew upon the considerable knowledge and skill of these amateur ham radio operators, validating the fact that ham radio was here to stay. This book explores the history of ham radio operators, emphasizing their social history and their many contributions to the technological development of worldwide communications. It traces the concept of relays, including the American Radio Relay League, from contacts as close as 25 miles apart to operators anywhere in the world. The book highlights the part played by ham radio in many of the headlined events of the half century, especially exploration and aviation ""firsts"". The ways in which these primarily amateur operators assisted in times of disaster including such events as the sinking of the Titanic and the 1937 Ohio River flood, are also examined.

From borax mule trains to the canoe stop that was Chicago in the 1830s, this book vividly recreated the tale of the westward movement of pioneers into the heartland of North America. With nearly a century separating historian Richard Bartlett from the end of the movement, Bartlett's broad perspective stresses the continuity and inevitability of this greatest element of America's Golden Age. The book focuses on the settlement of the country, the racial and ethnic composition of the people, agriculture, transportation, developments of the land, the growth of towns and cities, and the nature of frontier society as it brilliantly brings to life the frontier experience as lived by millions of Americans. Bartlett concludes that the pioneer's freedom from restrictions in a new country resulted in the unprecedented burst of energy that settled America in some 114 years.

Since 1908, the corporate giant now known as Champion International has operated a pulp and paper mill along the banks of the Pigeon River in Canton, North Carolina. As a result, during most of those years, this once-sparkling Appalachian stream has been virtually useless except as an industrial sewer - foamy, foul-smelling, molasses-colored. By polluting the river, the mill that brought prosperity to Canton stunted the economic growth of the downstream communities in Cocke County, Tennessee. Although public pressure to clean up the Pigeon surfaced intermittently, it has been only in the years since 1985 that two organizations - the Pigeon River Action Group and the Dead Pigeon River Council - have mounted a sustained drive against the ongoing pollution. Today, following a multimillion-dollar upgrading of the Champion mill, the Pigeon River is cleaner but hardly pristine. Moreover, there is little evidence that Champion carried out its modernization for any reasons other than economic ones.