Stories and Stone: Writing the Ancestral Pueblo Homeland

Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Hovenweep …For many, such historic places evoke images of stone ruins, cliff dwellings, pot shards, and petroglyphs. For others, they recall ancestry. Remnants of the American Southwest’s ancestral Puebloan peoples (sometimes known as Anasazi) have mystified and tantalized explorers, settlers, archaeologists, artists, and other visitors for centuries. And for a select group of writers, these ancient inhabitants have been a profound source of inspiration. Collected here are more than fifty selections from a striking body of literature about the prehistoric Southwest: essays, stories, travelers’ reports, and poems spanning more than four centuries of visitation. They include timeless writings such as John Wesley Powell’s The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Tributaries and Frank Hamilton Cushing’s Life at Zuni, plus contemporary classics ranging from Colin Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked Through Time to Wallace Stegner’s Beyond the Hundredth Meridian to Edward Abbey’s The Great American Desert.
Reuben Ellis’s introduction brings contemporary insight and continuity to the collection, and a section on reading in place invites readers to experience these great works amidst the landscapes that inspired them. For anyone who loves to roam ancient lands steeped in mystery, Stories and Stone is an incomparable companion that will enhance their enjoyment.