Book Cover

Destination: Southern Arizona

Book: Historic Walking Guides: Tombstone & Bisbee Arizona by Jane Eppinga

Curious staffers of other Congressmen go into the office of an Arizona Congressman, look at the map, and point with wonder at Tombstone. “You mean that’s a real place?”

Yep! Even though Tombstone in some ways lives on as a mythical Western town, best known for Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, it is still “The Town Too Tough to Die” and one of the prime tourist attractions in the state.  Jane Eppinga, a prolific writer about Arizona history, says that when she signs her travel books in Tombstone, she meets travelers from Romania, Ireland, Hungary, Canada, and lots and lots of Germans and Brits.

Eppinga  is a meticulous researcher who checks and double checks every fact in her books–eight in print and three coming soon. So I was happy to pull her away from her keyboard long enough to answer a few questions about her career and her latest book, Historic Walking Guides: Tombstone & Bisbee Arizona .

A Traveler’s Library: How did your interest in writing about historic Arizona get started?

Jane Eppinga: About thirty years ago, I started writing for the Arizona Capitol Times, [a newspaper published in Phoenix about state government.]..  I was in the [Arizona] Historical Society… They wanted a history column, and asked the Historical Society for recommendations. They recommended me. And then my books came along, and that’s how I got started.

ATL: What was the first book?

JE: The first book that I ever did was Henry Ossian Flipper, the first West Point black graduate. Flipper was a resident of Nogales. That was 1995.

ATL: Why is a British publisher publishing a book about two small towns in Arizona?

Tombstone Gunfight

J. E.:The Brits and the Germans are crazy about Tombstone. The editor/publisher of DestinWorld has been to Tombstone and they absolutely love that place. When they hold the Rendezvous of Gunfighters in early September, whole groups come from Great Britain.

ATL: Did you personally go to all the places in the book?

JE: I have over the years. I did not do the 1000-Step Walk in Bisbee. [Bisbee is an old mining town built on steep hills.]… it is usually in October.

ATL: What do you recommend as “don’t miss” places in each town?

J.E.:

Tombstone: They’ve got to go to a gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and be aware that it is not the actual O. K. Corral where the gunfight took place. After that, I would say, it is that marvelous Court House. It is open, and it is a State Park. It is just a jewel of Victorian architecture.

Bisbee: Stop at the Mining Museum. It is a auxiliary of the Smithsonian.   The second thing I would do there is take the underground mine tour. Led by guys who worked in the mines when the underground mining was going on. They know what they are talking about.

ATL: What books about the area do you recommend for a traveler’s library?

J.E.:

• Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend by Casey Tefertiller
• And Die in the West:The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight by Paula Marks
• Tombstone, Arizona ‘Too Tough To die’ :The rise and Fall and Resurrection of a Silver Camp: 1878 to 1990 by Lynn Bailey
• Going Back to Bisbee by Richard Shelton

Jane Eppinga

The Historic Walking Guides: Tombstone and Bisbee lays out nine walks, plus travel information. If you are not traveling, but want to learn about the history of gunfighters and miners in the Southwest, this is a good book for a traveler’s library.

Thanks, Jane. And congratulations for your national award on your book, They Made Their Mark, about women geographers. Good luck with your latest project, a  guide to ALL the museums in Arizona and your blog about museums.

The photo of the book cover and of the author are courtesy of Jane Eppinga. The Tombstone photograph is by Vera Marie Badertscher, all rights reserved. If you click on the book titles and go to Amazon and then BUY any book or item they sell, I will make a few cents.

Where would you like to visit in the Southwest? LAST DAY to leave me a note telling me why YOU should get the t-shirt that says “I guess there will never be enough books.”

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Running on the Map

Put Your Place on the Map

Have you read a book or movie that really nailed your state, your region, your country?  The place where you live?  What reading or viewing do you recommend to people who want to see what your territory is like? Add your choices to A Traveler’s Library.

TAKE TWO MINUTES–TAKE A SURVEY

Please click here to take this brief  survey and make suggestions of books and movies that best represent your state, region, or country.

Of course, you can leave comments as usual, but it is much easier for me to keep track of your replies to this question if you actually fill in the very short survey. Let me know in the comments section if you have any problems with the poll.

THANKS for your help.

Photograph by Archibald Jude

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©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

From: A Traveling Reader

This morning was the wrap-up on Twitter by all the people who participated in the blogging marathon. Now I’m off on another sort of marathon–checking in to Likaholix most every day.  If you have not seen it, take a look.  It would be a great place for you to share your favorite travel books.

I’ve updated my TBR page to indicate travel books finished, travel books started, and a new book on the to-be-read pile that I’m very excited about. (Hint: Paris and food)

Recommendations are flowing in for books to read about Mexico, so maybe we’ll need to go back there soon.

C. M. Mayo writes to take exception to my laughing at “dolphins porpoising”. She says, “Dolphins do porpoise. Can be used as a verb.” Don’t want to belabor the point, because I love the way that Madame Mayo (as she is known at her blog) uses the language, and the ingenuity of her verbs and metaphors. And she has been most gracious about accepting what I wrote otherwise. And she is, after all, the one who teaches writing.

Next Up

This week we are going to visit some travel classics.  I will be showing what a babe in the woods I am by reviewing must-read travel books that I never read before. So here come Bill Bryson, V.S. Naipaul, Eric Newby, Paul Fussel, and Bruce Chatwin (the ONE out of these that I had already read.)

Next weekend I will disappear for a few days as the Traveler’s Library morphs into a new form.  Stay tuned.

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©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Mata Ortiz Pot

Destination: Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico

Books:  The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz, several contributors

Keith Jenkins, over at Velvet Escape, asked me if I had met anybody inspirational in my travels. Keith is a true world traveler, and an excellent writer, besides.  I felt honored to write a guest post for the  series, that Keith calls, “A World of Inspiration.”

The place where I met the man who inspired me– Mata Ortiz, Mexico– seems to be off limits at present. So perhaps we would-be travelers can just curl up with a good book, while we are waiting for the swine H1N1  flu epidemic to end and traffic around the world to get back to normal.

The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz (1999) provides a wonderful guide to anyone going to Mata Ortiz to shop for pottery. But even if you are not going there, the pictures of the amazing creations of the villagers, and the photographic portraits of village family members will keep you enthralled. The book covers the history of how Juan Quezada turned the little struggling railroad workers village into a thriving art center. (For more about Juan, you’ll have to go over to Velvet Escape.) Suffice it to say that the work is considered fine art–not craft or folk art.

The book explains how the potters work and how they are related.  You will be amazed at the intricate designs of the pottery and its relationship to the nearby archaeological site of Casas Grandes. The relationships of potters are equally intricate. Writers include Susan Lowell, Jim Hills, Jorge Quintana Rodriquez, Walter Parks and Michael Wisner. Photography is by W. Ross Humphreys and Robin Stancliff.

I hope that if you have never been to Mata Ortiz, a few hours south of the Arizona or New Mexico borders, that you will be able to travel there some time. In the meantime, take a look at this beautiful book.

Another book in my traveler’s library, The Miracle of Mata Ortiz, by Walter P. Parks, was published in 1994, and was the fundamental guide until Many Faces of Mata Ortiz was published.

I have not yet see a book  released in August, 2008, Mata Ortiz Pottery: Art and Life, by Ron Goebel , but it sounds good. More personal stories about the potters.

Photograph above by Cliff Kemper from Flickr under Creative Commons license.

Have you been to Mata Ortiz?  How is the flu epidemic affecting your travel plans? Please talk back in the comment section below.

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This is so cool, that I am devoting a whole day’s post to it:

http://amaztype.tha.jp/

Whether you think the “amaz” stands for Amazon or amazing–you are correct.

Now, just because you have this toy to find books, don’t desert A Traveler’s Library. Please.

And this may be a good time to remind you to subscribe to A Traveler’s Library by RSS Feed or E-mail. Please.

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©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

African Village Food Booth at Tucson Gem Show

I talked with a vendor who explained this mask to me. It comes from the Ivory coast, he said, and represents a bird who is a story teller.  How appropriate for A Traveler’s Library.

The Story Teller Mask. For more info go to http://www.africanmasks.ca/history-tradition

I mentioned in my post about geography, that I am rather clueless about Africa.  A whole continent, and what do I know?  I have seen a few movies. The Last King of Scotland.  Out of Africa with Meryl Streep. The Snows of Kilimanjaro with Ava Gardner. King Solomon’s Mine with Deborah Kerr.  I am dating myself here, so better stop.

And literature?  Well, despite the many fine books available on Africa, I do not have many in my travel library.  In my usual quest for detective stories that tell me about a country, I did read Alexander McCall Smith’s very humorous The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and The Kalahari Typing School for Men.  There are more in the series and I will probably read them, too.

But I need to find good literature by Africans, and here is a blog that is a good source. A writer from Zimbabwe, Emmanuel Sigauke, gives not only interesting posts, but links to many African sites and blogs and writers.  I am running out of excuses for my ignorance.

Photos by VMB

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The works of Robert Louis Stevenson will soon be on line. Why should we travelers care? Because Stevenson penned not only the well known Treasure Island, from which all pirate novels spring, but, as Katherine Ryder says, he was a travel writer and champion of leisure. She suggests we read An Apology for Idlers. Thanks, World Hum for leading me to this item in the New Yorker.

Jane Austen

Granted, Jane Austen is a good read if you are headed to England, but you might not want to pay this much. For one book in your traveler’s library?

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Capitol Hill at Night, by Thomas Hawk at flickr.com

Destination: Washington D.C.

Are you setting off for the inauguration? No? Good choice.  Wait until the crowds thin out.

All eyes turn toward Washington D.C. on January 20 every fourth year.  Trivia moment:  Presidential inaugurals used to happen on March 4.  Then I was born on that date and since the country could not have two such important events on the same day, the President was moved to January 20.  Well, that’s the way my mother told the story.

Oh, sure, it is a good idea to read some history, and maybe the biography of Thomas Jefferson (for whom the main building of the Library of Congress is named) or Abigail Adams (First First Lady in the White House).

But to truly feel like an insider when you travel today’s Washington, add to your travel library the David Baldacci’s series about a group of misfits in D. C. who outsmart all those guys with big shoulders and blackberries who belong to alphabet agencies. The books are guaranteed to have you looking behind trees and wondering about the guy lurking on the marble steps.

• Camel Club, first in the series.
• The Collectors , my personal favorite, perhaps because it involves books and the Library of Congress will be next if you are reading them in order.
• Stone Cold , next up, is named for the leader of the gang, Oliver Stone.
• Divine Justice , the latest in the series, is also the last, according to the author.  I heard Baldacci speak at a conference in November 2007, and he said that Divine Justice is the last of the Camel Club series.

Once you have read yourself into a totally paranoid state bred by all those thrillers you have read, visit the Spy Museum.  It will convince you that you really are being followed.

With so many books set in D.C.,  from history to mystery, we just may have to revisit this city in a later post. Your suggestions?

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