The Jemez Mountains are a quintessential New Mexico landscape. For centuries, Pueblo, Spanish, and Anglo cultures have mixed and melded here. Many ancient villages are scattered across the mesas and in the canyons below the Valles Caldera-the crater of a giant, slumbering volcano. Rocks and trees of this landscape tell stories of past eruptions, lava flows, droughts, floods, forest fires, and hot springs damming a river. People tell stories of conquistadores, pueblos, and priests, of battles for land and water, of farming and sheep herding, and of raiders, rustlers, forest rangers, and hippies. This book recounts some of these fascinating stories in forty brief chapters, with more than a hundred photographs, maps, and drawings. Matched photographs of the same views taken up to 150 years apart attest to striking change and apparent stasis. Major alterations have occurred in some places over the past two centuries due to human activity, and increasing climate change threatens further transformation. For those new to the Jemez Mountains, these stories and images will provide an introduction to the cultural and natural history of the area. Residents and longtime aficionados of the Jemez will find both familiar and surprising stories and will gain a renewed sense of the magnificence of this place.
Thomas W. Swetnam is a Regents' Professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, where he studied land use history and forest and fire ecology. He lives in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
"Thomas Swetnam offers a fascinating collection of historical anecdotes and natural history insights in The Jemez Mountains. Amid a parade of unusual personalities and extraordinary events, we learn not just about the land but about the varied lenses through which people saw it and saw each other. The result is a composite portrait of one of New Mexico's most diverse and best-loved regions." - William deBuys, author of Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range, Revised and Expanded Edition "Thomas Swetnam grew up in the Jemez Mountains as the son of the Forest Service's Jemez District Ranger before moving to his science career at the University of Arizona, and he has now come full circle as the author of The Jemez Mountains: A Cultural and Natural History. Swetnam recounts dozens of stories, legends, myths, and historical accounts of life in the Jemez Mountains over the last nearly five hundred years. Topics include personal family stories of Pueblo life, the Spanish entrada, early settlers, ranching, mining, forestry, military actions, banditry, religion, scientific studies, recreational development, natural disasters, wildlife encounters (think grizzly bears!), and many more. His book provides amazingly detailed insights into the peoples of the Jemez Mountains and their interactions with each other and their environment." - Robert Parmenter, former chief of science and resource stewardship for the Valles Caldera National Preserve
