Review of “The Geology, Ecology, and Human History of the San Luis Valley”
The Geology, Ecology, and Human History of the San Luis Valley. Edited by Jared M. Beeton, Charles N. Saenz, and Benjamin J. Waddel. University Press of Colorado, 2020. 501 pages. Maps, pictures, diagrams, footnotes, index. Paperback $35.00.
Like, after reading “Spoon River Anthology”, there is not much more that the reader can ask about Edgar Lee Master’s mythical Spoon River. So it is with the San Luis Valley after reading “Geology, Ecology, and Human History” -- what else could you want to know? I have driven the length and breadth of the San Luis Valley dozens of times over the last decades but, till reading this book I did not realize that bedrock was about two miles below my car tires or that I was driving by mastodon archology sites or that Ord’s kangaroo rats are “as cute as a rodent can get”. Everything you could want to know about the San Luis Valley is in this book. The book is a compendium of scientific papers that cover how and when the valley was formed; where the water tables reside; where the minerals were/are mined; what animals lived/live there; what plants call the valley home and as a bonus, a very comprehensive history of the peopling of the valley. If you are comfortable with academic writing laced with footnoting and containing researchers jargon such as “a subset of porphyry deposits is often found in rift settings, with a wide variety of geologic structures including breccias”, then there is a wealth of reading about the natural wonderment found in this valley.
The maps are extensive, the pictures beautiful, the research is comprehensive. The ecological papers paint a picture of valley residents forming multiple organizations ostensibly to preserve the environmental health of their valley. The suspicion slips to the reader that preserving the ecological health translates into preserving farming and ranching to assure that not a drop of valley water escapes to Colorado’s Front Range communities. This book did add to my ‘bucket list”. I must now go look at the La Garita caldera (the largest volcano ever), see evidence of the ancient Lake Alamosa whose escape led to the formation of the Rio Grande, revisit the GRSA (which translates into Great Sand Dunes National Monument), and see those Ord kangaroo rats. BTW, did you know that the west side of the San Luis Valley is moving westward .6 mm faster each year than the east side? The editors included a particularly concise and well written history of the native resistance to valley settlements along with the subsequent Land Grant controversies.
This book will reward lovers of the San Luis Valley with insights they can contemplate on their next trip through the valley to Alamosa or Taos. Note to Westerners. This is the most requested book by the Posse book reviewers in 2021 and the second most requested in the past two years.
— Dan Shannon
