The Great American Desert Then and Now

by W. Eugene Hollon

Book by Hollon, W. Eugene

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[John E · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history is a fast overview of the conquest and frontier development of the "desert" between the 100th meridian and the Sierra Nevada/Cascade mountains. This history, The Then, is followed by an quick summary of a couple of trips around the region about 1960 and his outlook for the area at that time. Thus the later part is very dated and shows the problem of forecasting the future. The only real thing that has not changed is the anti-Federal Government attitudes of the residents of the most Federal Government dependent people in the United States; they are just now armed with AR-15s.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The full name of this classic "The Great American Desert" includes the subtitle "Then and Now," but since it was published 50 years ago(1966), it could now more appropriately be called "The Great American Desert, Then and Later."
W. Eugene Hollon encompasses a great area than I would think of as the Desert, including the Rocky Mountains - basically anything west of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana; and east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and coastal areas. By doing so, he follows in the tradition of Major John Wesley Powell and parallels Wallace Stegner's book about Powell, "Beyond the 100th Meridian,"(1954)
The first part of the book is an interesting recount of early inhabitants and explorers including the Spanish - history that you probably didn't learn in school since it was outside the boundaries of the United States until the late 1800s. The book ties together many of the pieces I have picked up living in Arizona for over 30 years.
It is interesting to see how perspectives have changed in the last 50 years. Hollon is very much a proponent of dams, the Bureau of Reclamation and taming this wild west. He talks about proposed projects that never came to be, and highly touted new technology - mainly desalination pilot plants - that never really took off. The Central Arizona Project did happen; without it the water problems we currently have would be much greater.Arizonans pat themselves on the back for their foresight with that one. Perhaps some of the other projects, such as the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA), will be dusted off and reconsidered. But now there is an awareness of the greater environmental impact of these huge projects. And, they require a huge investment which probably only the federal government can provide. Now that the population of west, particularly the Southwest and Southern California - is so much greater, and water shortages threaten once again, the investment may seem more reasonable.
Hollon's book is a time capsule of how thinking has progressed and circled back in many respects to the insights and wisdom of earlier explorers and inhabitants.