Review by Ed Quillen
The West – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Atlas of the New West – Portrait of a Changing Region
William Riebsame, general editor
Essays by Charles Wilkinson and Patricia Nelson Limerick
Published in 1997 by W.W. Norton
ISBN 0-393-04550-1
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I visited the U.S. Geological Survey library in Golden, and there got to page through the atlas produced by the F.V. Hayden survey of 1878. As a Colorado buff, I felt sensations that a biblical scholar might experience with the Dead Sea Scrolls — that I had, in my own hands, an ancient and hallowed document.
The Hayden Atlas of Colorado was considered so excellent that geographers of the day doubted that Colorado would ever need another atlas.
But as the Zen saying goes, “the map is not the territory,” and to some degrees, maps tell us more about the mapmakers than they tell us about the territory.
The Hayden Atlas focused, almost to exclusion, on the potential mineral resources of Colorado, with little or nothing about, say, the possibilities for irrigated agriculture, or the amenities available for tourists — two industries at least as significant as mining.
An atlas, then, tells us what the mapmakers think is important, and in the Atlas of the New West, we get a thoughtful snapshot of our region in transition.
THE INSPIRATION came from William Riebsame of the department of geography at the University of Colorado in Boulder, who was planning a trip to Central Colorado in 1993 and wondered whether he could get espresso in Buena Vista.
He then discovered that no reference at hand could answer that simple question. As an espresso drinker, he wanted his strong coffee, and as a geographer, he knew that espresso was the tip of a cultural iceberg — a town that supported a coffee bar would very likely also offer other amenities: Internet access, cellular telephone service, the Sunday New York Times, backpacking supplies and guidance, etc.
Thus began this project, which resulted in a handsome book brimming with maps, charts, and good writing — informed, witty, and incisive:
“Over 200 people set out each summer day in the Sierra Nevada to trudge the 101 switchbacks to the top of 14,494-foot Mount Whitney — the highest peak in the lower 48. In Moab, over 120,000 mountain bikers ride the same, well-worn Slickrock Trail each year. These are pilgrimages, to the meccas of a civil religion sweeping America: experiencing the wonders of nature through hiking, boating, skiing, biking, or climbing. The pilgrims often report near mystical experiences: crossing over to the other world, finding themselves, reprioritizing their life.”Or, “Today’s visitors to Santa Fé may feel themselves in the company of the spirits of the distant Indian and Spanish past. They are, however, in more direct contact with the spirits of a group of twentieth-century Anglo boosters, determined to make Santa Fé look right. Santa Fé would fulfill the newcomers’ dreams, even if it took a considerable exercise of regulatory power to bring the town into compliance. Santa Fé
What’s significant in the New West? The book covers just about everything that came to my mind: telecommunications, highways, airports, various “places rated” rankings, retirement hot spots, sources of domestic immigration, tribal lands, federal bureaucratic fiefdoms, public land ownership, water diversions, Superfund sites, gambling casinos, second-home ownership, rodeos, skier visits, capital flows, corporate headquarters, New Age vortices …
My onlycomplaint lies with the eastern boundary chosen for “the West.” They draw it about 50 miles east of the Front Range — I’d have extended it .
The Black Hills of South Dakota, Chimney Rock and environs in Nebraska, Bent’s Fort in Colorado — they’re all part of the West, old or new. These areas and others on the High Plains are promoting historic and amenity tourism, and are undergoing similar cultural shifts — I just read about a brew-pub opening in Sterling, well past the supposed eastern border of the “New West.”
This atlas would have told us more about the changing West if its West had been a bit broader — but it’s still an informative and entertaining book, both elegant in appearance and eloquent in its prose.
— Ed Quillen
No one connected with the Atlas of the New West has announced plans to sign books in Central Colorado in the near future.