William A. Baillie-Grohman

The Camps in Rockies story was quite detailed and there were many instances where the land and it's peoples, the hardships and the excitement of uncharted rivers was described very well. But for me, at this point in time anyway, the story wasn't very compelling and the telling was never evocative of the explorations and the discoveries.

A few insightful passages appeared in various sections and are worth noting: stewardship of the land.
It was a view not frequently expressed or widely held, but the author brought forward the unusual situation that legitimate land holdings could be established as tenured properties by occupying unoccupied rangeland in specific territories, with a herd of 10,000 head of cattle and there build a ranche or farmhouse, fence in 50 or 100 acres for hay and in fact make themselves entirely at home (p. 330, 1st ed).

One can imagine in today's view, that the native peoples presence or rights were never taken into account.
The author does show considerable enlightenment regarding the sustainability of these grazing practices and decries the uncontrolled use of such land. Baillie-Grohman does reflect the attitudes of his era in writing that the unsurveyed territories required official government attention, again completely ignoring the territory occupied for perhaps thousands of years by the first inhabitants. However, one must regard these older histories in the light of the prevailing societal attitudes at the time, deplorable as they were.

A couple years ago, I read and extensively reviewed Two Dianas in Somaliland: The record of a shooting trip. In places, it was lengthy and too detailed to enjoy; however, it was also a very enchanting tale ~ two intrepid Englishwomen in the late 1800's setting off on an amazingly uncertain (in my mind) journey through some pretty wild parts of Africa. Herbert's writing was evocative and at times quite suspenseful. It was never dull and I was very rarely bored.

I was looking forward to Baillie-Grohman's chronicle with Agnes Herbert's book in mind. Possibly an unfair expectation, but c'est la vie. In my mind, Camps in Rockies is, however, a valuable resource for historians to remember when writing up current events. Perhaps the insights might influence management that offers redress for those past wrongs. In that aspect, the book was well-worth examining, though I admit to skimming quite liberally.… (más)