Lost Legends of the West

by Brad Williams, Choral Pepper

From the book jacket "Most legends have their roots in fact, although they may evolve into adult fairy tales as they are kept alive through retelling. The writers have taken legends which are known to be based on truth and often substantiate them with new facts."

Genres: History

Mass Market Paperback

Published July 12, 1973

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A million year old skull in Calavaras county
Pancho Villa's lost severed head
Missing Army payrolls
Giant art discovered before Nasca
Mysterious meteorites
Rainmaking gone wrong
Missing Missions

All these and more are to be found within the pages of this volume. Entertaining and informative; and considering how relatively recent some of these occurrences are, scary that so much can be so easily lost or forgotten.

[Roy Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow start, better at 3/4's, weak ending. Disappointing.

[Zach]

This is an interesting book filled with the marginalia of the history of the American west. From Charles Hatfield's rainmaking & the crushing floods in San Diego, to the short lived United States Camel Corps, to the lost Port Orford Meteorite (possibly a part of the Pallas Meteorite), to lost treasures & lives in the lava flows south of Mount Taylor, it's all here. The time the US Navy lost track of an entire squadron for three years seemed straight out of the funny pages. The 62lb prehistoric minnow found in the 1960s was curious. And the detailed accounts of the giant sea serpents were intriguing.

Not the first book about margins of American history I would recommend (see any of Jack Kutz's books), but definitely worth a read -- if the subjects strike you in any way.