Category: Books

Farewell to Manzanar

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Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls her childhood at a Japanese incarceration camp in this engrossing memoir that has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. This special 50th-anniversary edition features a new cover, a foreword by New York Times bestselling and acclaimed author Traci Chee, and photographs of life at the camp by Toyo Miyatake.

During World War II the incarceration camp called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras. Its purpose? To house thousands of Japanese Americans.

In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was and the experiences of her family. She relays the mundane and remarkable details of daily life during an extraordinary period of American history: The wartime imprisonment of civilians, most native-born Americans, in their own country, without trial, and by their fellow Americans.

She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar.

Book Summary

TitleFarewell to Manzana
AuthorJeanne Wakatsuki Houston,
James D. Houston
PublisherClarion Books; Reprint edition (December 12, 2023)
Pages224 Pages

A Pathway Through Parks

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Pathway Through Parks written by Carl S Chavez
Pathway Through Parks written by Carl S Chavez

“Bodie, the very sound of that name conjures up images of “The Bad Man From Bodie”, a rough and tumble life, and the harsh climate of a gold mine boomtown of the early West. But to a young park ranger and his wife, fresh out of college, and with a child on the way, it was an intimidating beginning to a 32-year career with California Department of Parks and Recreation.

A PATHWAY THROUGH PARKS follows the career of Ranger Carl S. Chavez and his family as they travel the length and breadth of California from the ghost town of Bodie State Historic Park to the mountains and beaches of Southern California. Each new assignment brings new adventures and challenges as Ranger Chavez promotes up the career ladder to positions on the Central Coast of California, the Sierra Nevada and finally to the redwoods of Northern California at Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Career decisions must be made which result in advancement, “out of the field”, and into the Management ranks of Regional and Division Headquarters. Yet even these changes do not alter the opportunity for stories and tales of humor and tragedy, joy and sorrow, adventure and routine, and the success and failure that many readers will recognize in their own lives. Anyone who has retired from the workforce, regardless of occupation, will have memories like those found in A PATHWAY THROUGH PARKS.

The author’s experiences will give all those who love the Great Outdoors and enjoy our parks and forests a rare, inside glimpse, not only of the inner workings of park operations, but also, of family life living in parks.

Book Summary

TitleA Pathway Through Parks
AuthorCarl S. Chavez 
PublisherTrafford
Pages348 Pages

Manzanar (Images of America)

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Manzanar (Images of America) by Jane Wehrey
Manzanar (Images of America) by Jane Wehrey

Through a collection of vintage photographs, the Images of America series allows readers to explore the history that makes each city, town, or state unique.

East of the rugged Sierra Nevada in California’s Owens Valley lies Manzanar. Founded in 1910 as a fruit-growing colony, it was named in Spanish for the fragrant apple orchards that once filled its spectacularly scenic landscape. Owens Valley Paiute lived there first, followed by white homesteaders and ranchers. But with the onset of World War II came a new identity as the first of 10 “relocation centers” hastily built in 1942 to house 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, removed from the West Coast. In the face of upheaval and loss, Manzanar’s 10,000 confined residents created parks, gardens, and a functioning wartime community within the camp’s barbed-wire-enclosed square mile of flimsy barracks.
Today Manzanar National Historic Site commemorates this and all of Manzanar’s unique communities.

About the Author

Author Jane Wehrey, a historian and Owens Valley native, also wrote Voices From This Long Brown Land: Oral Recollections of Owens Valley Lives and Manzanar Pasts and has been a consultant, park ranger, and exhibit writer at Manzanar National Historic Site. For this pictorial odyssey through Manzanar’s past, she compiled images from private and museum archives and from an extraordinary wartime record that includes photographs by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and former Manzanar internee Toyo Miyatake.

Book Summary

TitleManzanar (Images of America)
AuthorJane Wehrey
PublisherArcadia Publishing
Pages128 Pages

Scotty’s Castle (Images of America)

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Scotty's Castle (Images of America) - Author Robert P. Palazzo
Scotty’s Castle (Images of America) – Author Robert P. Palazzo

Scotty’s Castle is a study in contrasts, much like its setting in Death Valley. While the castle is known worldwide and has been visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists, many myths persist. It is not a castle, nor was it owned by Walter E. Scott, known as Death Valley Scotty. But the Spanish-style hacienda, also known as Death Valley Ranch, has always been linked to Scott. This book explores the fascinating history of Death Valley Scotty, Albert and Bessie Johnson (the true owners and builders of the castle), and the castle itself from construction to private living quarters to a tourist facility owned and operated by the National Park Service.”

About the Author

Robert P. Palazzo, Death Valley scholar and lifetime member of the area’s natural history association, evokes here in vintage imagery a stark, barren, desolate wasteland that gradually became one of the West’s most iconic destinations. Tapping his extensive private collection of rare photographs, Palazzo shows Death Valley’s geological features, notable personalities, industries, mysteries, and tourism. Though the area has changed little over the last 150 years, the harsh conditions have erased much of the evidence of human occupation. That rare visual record is preserved in these pages.

Book Summary

TitleScotty’s Castle (Images of America)
AuthorRobert P. Palazzo
PublisherArcadia Publishing
Pages128 Pages

Railroads of Death Valley (Images of Rail)

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Railroads of Death Valley (Images of Rail) written by Robert P. Palazzo
Railroads of Death Valley (Images of Rail) written by Robert P. Palazzo

Railroads of Death Valley have played an important part in the history of Death Valley National Park. The Pacific Coast Borax Company first used the Death Valley Railroad to transport its ore to market and then to transport Death Valley tourists to its Furnace Creek Resort. “Death Valley Scotty’s” leap to national fame came as a direct result of his chartering a private train to break the Los Angeles to Chicago speed record. The Carson & Colorado Railroad on the west and the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad on the east provided support to Death Valley’s mining activity, its associated boomtowns, and early tourism.

About the Author

Robert P. Palazzo, Death Valley scholar and lifetime member of the area’s natural history association, evokes here in vintage imagery a stark, barren, desolate wasteland that gradually became one of the West’s most iconic destinations. Tapping his extensive private collection of rare photographs, Palazzo shows Death Valley’s geological features, notable personalities, industries, mysteries, and tourism. Though the area has changed little over the last 150 years, the harsh conditions have erased much of the evidence of human occupation. That rare visual record is preserved in these pages.

Book Summary

TitleRailroads of Death Valley (Images of Rail)
AuthorRobert P. Palazzo
PublisherArcadia Publishing
Pages128 Pages