"A book like this from such seasoned and highly respected scholars as Robert McPherson and Susan Rhoades Neel is cause for rejoicing. It is timely in demonstrating that the headlong rush to development is not just a fact of contemporary life, but a fact of history as well. More than entertainment, this is a work of high literary art and scholarship, exactly the kind of gritty and dramatic western history sought by all types of readers, including backpackers, river runners, and tourists."–Gary Topping, Archivist of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and author of Utah Historians and the Reconstruction of Western History