The Wilderness of the Southwest: Charles Sheldon's Quest for Desert Bighorn Sheep and Adventures with the Havasupai and Seri Indians

Neil B. Carmony (Author), David E. Brown (Editor)

Charles Sheldon (1867-1928) was a hunter-conservationist whose efforts substantially enriched the American public domain. A Yale graduate, Sheldon explored North America from the Arctic to the high Sierra Madre of Mexico. Sent to central Alaska in 1903 as an assessor by C. Hart Merriam, the director of the U.S. Biological Survey, Sheldon began to press for the creation of a national park to protect 20,322-foot Denali, a mountain sacred to local Indian cultures. Sheldon finally prevailed in 1919 (although, against his protests, the mountain was renamed McKinley). Soon thereafter Merriam dispatched him to the Southwest, where he hunted and studied pronghorn antelope and desert bighorn and explored the harsh Pinacate and Lechuguilla regions of western Arizona and Sonora. This collection of his essays well recounts his many travels and observations on animal behavior, and it serves as a fine introduction to the life of a little-known but important early environmentalist.