Recommended Reading

Boom, Bust, Boom
by Bill Carter

Copper is a miraculous and contradictory metal, essential to nearly every human enterprise. For most of recorded history, this remarkably pliable and sturdy substance has proven invaluable. Yet the history of copper extraction and our present relationship with the metal are fraught with profound difficulties. Copper mining causes irrevocable damage to the Earth, releasing arsenic, cyanide, sulfuric acid, and other deadly pollutants into the air and water.

Mother Magma, a Memoir of Underground Life in the San Manuel Copper Mine
by Onofre Tafoya

A Memoir of Underground Life in the San Manuel Copper Mine takes the reader inside the San Manuel Copper Mine in Arizona, to witness the never-before told story of one of the most productive mines of the world. Be “lowered” into this amazing world, and see the intense and admirable endeavor of a courageous group of men who live and die inside the entrails of Mother Earth. A great piece of Arizona’s history.

The Biography of F. Augustus Heinze: Copper King at War
by Sarah McNelis

Seeking fame and fortune, F. Augustus Heinze arrived in Butte, Montana, “the richest hill on earth” in 1889. He was 19 years old, worked in the copper mines for 19 years, and left as a multi-millionaire. With a brilliant talent for mining—and an shrewd understanding of mining law—he succeeded in becoming the youngest of the three “Copper Kings.” This biography is the clearest portrayal of how bold, brash Heinze fought the powerful, championed the miners, and became one of America’s wealthiest men.

Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West
by Lauren Redness

Oak Flat is a serene high-elevation mesa that sits above the southeastern Arizona desert, fifteen miles to the west of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. For the San Carlos tribe, Oak Flat is a holy place, an ancient burial ground and religious site where Apache girls celebrate the coming-of-age ritual known as the Sunrise Ceremony. In 1995, a massive untapped copper reserve was discovered nearby. A decade later, a law was passed transferring the area to a private company, whose planned copper mine will wipe Oak Flat off the map—sending its natural springs, petroglyph-covered rocks, and old-growth trees tumbling into a void.

Born and Raised in Space; The Legacy of Two Copper Mining Towns: Two towns that disappeared: Santa Rita, NM and Morenci, Arizona
by Samuel Sanchez

This book is written as Cuentos, short stories, of my life growing up in small rough mining towns in Arizona and New Mexico. Although I wrote it as a humorous book it was not an enjoyable time for us growing up with with no English spoken in our homes. We were oftentimes punished for speaking in our native language, Spanish in class or even during playground times. I quickly learned that education was the key for me to enjoy a better life than my parents ever had.

Southeastern Arizona Mining Towns (Images of America)
by Wiliam Ascarza

Southeastern Arizona has one of the most diverse mining localities in the state. Towns such as Bisbee, Clifton, Globe, Miami, Ray, Silverbell, and Superior have earned reputations as premier metal producers that are most notably known for their copper. Other mining towns that have made their marks in the region include Dos Cabezas, Gleeson, Harshaw District, Helvetia, Patagonia District, Pearce, Ruby, and Tombstone.

Our national forests at risk : the 1872 mining law and its impact on the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona
by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Natural Resources. Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

A reprint of report of from Congress.

Mining in the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains of Arizona
by U.S. Department of Interior

Mining historian Kerby Jackson introduces us to a classic mining work in this important re-issue of the Department of Interior publication “Mineral Deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains of Arizona”. Originally published in 1915, this important publication on Arizona Mining has not been available for nearly a century.

Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metalnia Mountains of Arizona
by Karlheinz Spitz and John Trudinger

The history of mining is replete with controversy, much of it relating to environmental damage and consequent community outrage. Over recent decades there has been increasing pressure to improve the environmental and social performance of mining operations, particularly in developing countries. The industry has responded by embracing the ideals of corporate social responsibility. This book identifies and discusses the wide range of social and environmental issues pertaining to mining, with particular reference to mining in developing countries from where many of the project examples and case studies have been selected.

Mining in the Dragoon Quadrangle of Cochise County, Arizona
by Kerby Jackson / U.S. Department of Geological Survey

Leading mining historian Kerby Jackson introduces us to a classic mining publication on the Mining Industry in Arizona. Unavailable since 1964, this hard to find publication includes valuable insights into the mines of the Dragoon Quadrangle Mining Region.

Toxic Nation: The Fight to Save Our Communities from Chemical Contamination
by Fred Setterberg

A riveting account of the devastating effects of chemical contamination on people in dozens of communities across America. Examines the political, economic, medical and environmental sides of the toxic contamination issue. Documents the growth of a grassroots movement to demonstrate how communities can take steps to effectively change their lives.

The Monkeywrench Gang
by Edward Abbey

Ex-Green Beret George Hayduke has returned from war to find his beloved southwestern desert threatened by industrial development. Joining with Bronx exile and feminist saboteur Bonnie Abzug, wilderness guide and outcast Mormon Seldom Seen Smith, and libertarian billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., Hayduke is ready to fight the power – taking on the strip miners, clear-cutters, and the highway, dam, and bridge builders who are threatening the natural habitat.

Hayduke Lives
by Edward Abbey

This superb sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang, the novel that was called ribald, outrageous, and, in fact, scandalous by Smithsonian, is finally available in paperback. Hayduke, an ex-Green Beret and wilderness avenger, was last seen hanging from a cliff, under fire from both a helicopter and a posse. Now he’s back, fighting against the despoilers of the earth.

Arizona Water Policy: Management Innovations in an Urbanizing, Arid Region
by Bonnie G. Colby and Katharine L. Jacobs

This book discusses the complex issues surrounding water policy in Arizona, including the impact of mining on water resources. It covers topics such as water scarcity, drought, and the competing interests of different stakeholders, including mining companies, farmers, and urban residents.

A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest
by William deBuys

With its soaring azure sky and stark landscapes, the American Southwest is one of the most hauntingly beautiful regions on earth. Yet staggering population growth, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change, is driving the oasis-based society close to the brink of a Dust-Bowl-scale catastrophe.

Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
by Marc Reisner

The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster.

Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River
by David Owen

The story Owen tells in Where the Water Goes is crucial to our future: how a patchwork of engineering marvels, byzantine legal agreements, aging infrastructure, and neighborly cooperation enables life to flourish in the desert—and the disastrous consequences we face when any part of this tenuous system fails.

The Secret Knowledge of Water : Discovering the Essence of the American Desert
by Craig Childs

Craig Childs, who has spent years in the deserts of the American West as an adventurer, a river guide, and a field instructor in natural history, has developed a keen appreciation for these forbidding landscapes: their beauty, their wonder, and especially their paradoxes. His extraordinary treks through arid lands in search of water are an astonishing revelation of the natural world at its most extreme.

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest
by Craig Childs

The greatest “unsolved mystery” of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century converged on Chaco Canyon (in today’s northwest New Mexico). The Anasazis’ accomplishments – in agriculture, in art, in commerce, in architecture, and in engineering – were astounding, rivaling those of the Mayans. By the thirteenth century, however, the Anasazi were gone from Chaco. Vanished. Craig Childs draws on the latest scholarly research, as well as on a lifetime of adventure and exploration in the most forbidding landscapes of the American Southwest, to shed new light on this compelling mystery.

Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River
by Eric Kuhn and John Fleck

Science Be Dammed is an alarming reminder of the high stakes in the management—and perils in the mismanagement—of water in the western United States. It seems deceptively simple: even when clear evidence was available that the Colorado River could not sustain ambitious dreaming and planning by decision-makers throughout the twentieth century, river planners and political operatives irresponsibly made the least sustainable and most dangerous long-term decisions.

When the Rivers Run Dry, Fully Revised and Updated Edition: Water-The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century
by Fred Pearce

Throughout history, rivers have been our foremost source of fresh water for both agriculture and individual consumption, but looming water scarcity threatens to cut global food production and cause conflict and unrest. In this visionary book, Fred Pearce takes readers around the world on a tour of the world’s rivers to provide our most complete portrait yet of the growing global water crisis and its ramifications for us all.

Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It
by Robert Glennon

In the middle of the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas casinos use billions of gallons of water for fountains, pirate lagoons, wave machines, and indoor canals. Meanwhile, the town of Orme, Tennessee, must truck in water from Alabama because it has literally run out. Robert Glennon captures the irony—and tragedy—of America’s water crisis in a book that is both frightening and wickedly comical. From manufactured snow for tourists in Atlanta to trillions of gallons of water flushed down the toilet each year, Unquenchable reveals the heady extravagances and everyday inefficiencies that are sucking the nation dry.

Hidden Life of the Desert: And Our Future in the Drying Southwest
by Thomas Weiwandt

An informative and inspiring companion book to Thomas Wiewandt’s film DESERT DREAMS. It features spectacular color photographs and clear, informative text. Part 1 introduces readers (Grade 6 – adult) to plants and animals that thrive in the Sonoran Desert through its five seasons–spring, dry summer, wet summer, autumn, and winter.

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness
by Edward Abbey

Desert Solitaire is a collection of vignettes about life in the wilderness and the nature of the desert itself by park ranger and conservationist, Edward Abbey. The bookdetails the unique adventures and conflicts the author faces, from dealing with the damage caused by development of the land or excessive tourism, to discovering a dead body. However Desert Solitaire is not just a collection of one man’s stories, the book is also a philosophical memoir, full of Abbey’s reflections on the desert as a paradox, at once beautiful and liberating, but also isolating and cruel. Often compared to Thoreau’s Walden, Desert Solitaire is a powerful discussion of life’s mysteries set against the stirring backdrop of the American southwestern wilderness.

Desierto
by Charles Bowden

With visionary lyricism and power, a spiritual adventurer, writing about nature and humankind in and against nature, captures the denizens of the Southwestern Desert, from mountain lions, to brutal drug kingpins, to predatory tycoon Charles Keating

Blue Desert
by Charles Bowden

Published in 1986, Blue Desert was Charles Bowden’s third book-length work and takes place almost entirely in Arizona, revealing Bowden’s growing and intense preoccupation with the state and what it represented as a symbol of America’s “New West.”

Sky Islands: Encountering a Landlocked Archipelago
by Dan Fischer

Sky Islands stirs in the reader a deep sense of wonder for the majestic mountains rising in the desert of southeastern Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico. Author Dan Fischer, historian and naturalist, combines superb photographs and contemporary wildlife art, with his own personal experiences and depth of knowledge to produce a remarkable book.

A Natural History of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona; with an Introduction to the Madrean Sky Islands
by Richard Brucsa and Wendy Moore

This watershed book takes us behind picture-postcard views into the landscape, where we can understand, appreciate, and enjoy the natural history of the spectacular Santa Catalina Mountains. Its vividly illustrated chapters and nine picture guides (featuring native flora and fauna) paint a rich portrait of this famous range. In clear, everyday language the authors explain just what the Sky Islands are, telling the story of when and how they came to be–their deep geologic and biotic history.

Hiker’s Guide to the Santa Rita Mountains (The Pruett Series)
by Betty Leavengood

Between Tucson and Nogales, Arizona, the Santa Rita Mountains preserve an environment and a history unique to the Southwest. Patagonia, Sonoita, Canoa, Sahuarita – the surrounding communities echo images of a not-so-distant past, when Apaches, Mexican campesinos, and Anglo ranchers, miners, and loggers, mission dwellers, and cavalrymen all laid claim to (and fought for) a piece of the Santa Ritas.

Chulo: A Year Among the Coatimundis
by Bill Gilbert

This book is one of the few available about coatis, that raccoon like, primate like, troop living denizen of the deserts and mountains of the Southwest. The book is a story of a family of field workers too. Good read.