Tag Archives: Non-fiction

Finding Abby – The Search for Edward Abbey and his Hidden Desert Grave by Sean Prentiss

Finding Abbey” is partially a book about Edward Abbey, author of Desert Solitaire, and one of the founders of the wilderness preservation movement in the United States and partially a book about where Edward Abbey was buried, and partially a book about the author Sean Prentiss and his search for meaning and direction in his life as he searches for Abbey’s grave.

Abbey was a cantankerous guy who had passion for wilderness, especially the desert wilderness. He railed on against mining, oil and gas production, and what he called “industrial tourism.” He was not very woke, so to speak but he was outspoken. He died young in Tucson, AZ in 1987 and wished that his friends would bury him somewhere in the desert. They did that at a secret location and vowed they would never tell anyone the location of the grave.

Prentiss, a college professor, and a lifelong fan of Abbey decides to go searching for the grave. The book is not a linear telling of the story. Prentiss weaves his own story in with Abbey’s as he visits Abbey’s friends and interviews them about Abbey. He goes back and forth between his search, his own life, and the stories of Abbey’s devoted friends and in the process travels all over the desert southwest. So the story goes forward and backwards and all around. Fortunately Prentiss is a talented writer and pulls it off.

Did he find the grave? Does he reveal the location? Hey read the book and find out. It’s a hard book to find. Tulsa’s library system got my copy on loan from the Central Arkansas Library System. I give the book five stars out of five.

You can also read my post, from years ago, on Desert Solitaire.

KIllers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, a journalist for the New Yorker, is an amazing book. It is non-fiction and concerns the systematic murder of Osage Indians in the 1920’s in northeastern Oklahoma by white people for money. The money came from oil lands owned by the Osage Tribe. Revenue from the oil royalties and lease bonuses made the tribe very wealthy and the money was divvied up by “headrights” or shares in the revenue based on one’s ancestry. You couple that with a system whereby most Native Americans were deemed incompetent to manage their own affairs and had court appointed guardians to oversee their funds. This was a perfect storm for fraud, murder, and crime.

20170604-083730-1

The Indians were killed by poisoning, gunshots, and in one notable incident a house was blown up with dynamite. Not one murder was solved by the white people in power and some of those who tried to expose what was going on were murdered themselves. Law enforcement, doctors, undertakers, the judicial system were all involved in the scheme.

Triangle Building

Pawhuska, Oklahoma, county seat of Osage County where much of the events described in the book take place.

Enter J. Edgar Hoover and the brand new Federal Bureau of Investigation. Hoover sent a former Texas Ranger, Tom White to Osage County and told him to find the murderers and bring them to justice. White had a huge job at hand and brought in other agents in undercover roles and they were able to file charges, bring to trial, and convict in Federal Court the kingpin, William Hale, of the murders despite considerable local resistance. Grann calls Tom White one of the heroes of the situation but Hoover was jealous of the attention White was getting and made sure that he got all the credit for the conviction. Hale was implicated in about 27 of the murders.

Untitled

Bison at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve north of Pawhuska, in Osage County

Hoover then declared victory and left town. The tribe new that there were lots more murders than that and that there was more than one person responsible and for decades the stories and suspicions were handed down in the various families. Gann did a lot of research including days at the National Archives going through old custodial records and grand jury testimony from long ago. He thinks that there were hundreds of murders and many many killers who were never brought to justice. This is an amazing book. Grann calls the treatment of Native Americans, the country’s “Original Sin.” This was an important story to tell and Grann does a great job of it.

IMG_3652

The oil still flows in Osage County

I was able to attend an event in Tulsa, sponsored by Booksmart Tulsa, where David Grann talked about the book. It was in a university auditorium and the the venue was packed. Osage County borders Tulsa County and there were many Osage tribal members in attendance including several direct descendants of the murdered people and there were several descendants of the murderers there. It was very emotional to see how this book by exposing the crimes and sins of the past had an effect on people today.

20100521_43

Osage County is one of the prettiest places in Oklahoma

It made the question and answer part of the event very interesting. People would get up and thank Grann for writing the book and then they would say who they descended from. Grann already knew many of these folks from his research in writing the book. One could sense the mutual respect. One young man, a descendant of a victim, got up and made a good point about whether the book really did anything for the tribe or was it another example of a white man taking something from the tribe. Grann acknowledged the point without any defensiveness.

This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read.  I purchased my autographed copy at the event from Magic City Books.

Hidden Cities – A Memoir of Urban Exploration by Moses Gates

hidden cities cover

Hidden Cities: A Memoir of Urban Exploration is a chronicle by Moses Gates of his and his friends explorations into places where he is not supposed to go like the catacombs of Paris, the subway systems of New York City and London as well as climbing various bridges and buildings and sewer systems the world over.  No trespassing signs just seem to attract him.  It turns out that there is a huge subculture of urban explortionist’s that love to to do these things. For example I think that I am the only guy in Tulsa that hasn’t sneaked into the Tulsa Club for a look see.  I went very shallow into Tulsa huge storm sewer system to find a geocache once but I haven’t ventured into the Elm Creek Tunnel to find it’s geocache. Supposedly it would require five miles of walking through the storm drain. I’m not doing that!!

Speaking of Elm Creek Tunnel, which drains into the Arkansas River. It seems to be hot on the list for Tulsa area urban explorers and You Tube has lots of videos of parties that have gone on. They look absolutely miserable to me. But I would go!! I wouldn’t stay long though. I did go into it a few feet to take a pic though.

24_21

I’m too much of a rule follower plus kind of a chicken. In my geocaching I get to talk to enough security guards without having to explain why I am in a building where I don’t belong. I do feel free though when a door is left open and there is no signage to go check things out if I feel interested.

Back to the book, it is a good read although a bit scattered. It kind of convinced me that I would not be a good urban explorer but I am fascinated by people who have to venture over the ropes and beyond the no trespassing sign.