Gary Ferguson
The Great Divide
The Rocky Mountains in the American Mind
A rich natural and cultural history of the Rocky Mountains and their place in the American imagination.
For most of our nation's history, Americans have identified with the "purple mountain majesties" of the Rockies. Trappers and debutantes, miners and missionaries, artists and drinkers, escaped slaves, independent women abandoning hoopskirts, and assorted black sheep of respectable families have all sought refuge and inspiration there. This spectacular landscape has always offered a sense of freedom from crowds and conformity—a world, as Frederic Remington described it, "beyond derby hats and mortgages bearing eight percent."
Gary Ferguson spins magnificent tales about the vivid characters who have peopled this majestic region, from the original Indian inhabitants and their interactions with European explorers, to the delirious victims of gold rush fever, to hippies in the Sixties, to today's adventure travelers in high-tech outerwear toting satellite phones into the wild. Throughout, he explores the ebbs and flows of America's attitude toward the vast expanses that embody our sense of freedom.
Gary Ferguson's nature articles have appeared in dozens of national magazines, and he lectures regularly on wilderness and conservation issues. He lives in Montana.
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