Professional Information

Education

1971 BA in English, Spring Hill College

1977 MA in English, University of Kentucky

1981 PhD in American Literature, Ohio University

Books

• •  With Jerry D. Spangler, The Crimson Cowboys: The Remarkable Odyssey of the 1931 Claflin-Emerson Expedition , University of Utah Press, 2018. (Winner of the Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Prize for best book on anthropology.)

  • The Art and Life of Jimmie Jones: Landscape Artist of the Canyon Country, Gibbs Smith Books, 2015. (Winner: "2015 Evans Handcart Award" for biography and "2016 15 Bytes Book of the Year for Art Award.")

• Jim Jones: The San Blas Years, Southern Utah University Press, 2013.

• John Wesley Powell: His Life and Legacy, University of Utah Press, 2010.

• The River Knows Everything: Desolation Canyon and the Green, USU Press, 2009. (Finalist, 2009 Utah Book Award, Nonfiction).With photographer Dan Miller, 

  • With co-author, Robert S. McPherson, River Flowing from the Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan, USU Press, 2000. (Winner of 2000 Norris and Carol Hundley Award; Finalist, 2000 Utah Book Award, Nonfiction.)

• John Wesley Powell. Boise State University's Western Writers Series, 1994.

Films

• Voices of Desolation Canyon: Arden Stewart, Rick Chapoose, Waldo Wilcox, Clifford Duncan (Produced with Jennifer Little). Salt Lake City: Littleproductionsink, 2009.

• Jimmie Jones: Redrock Painter (Produced with Jon M. Smith). Cedar City: SUTV, 2009.

Technical Reports

• Kidder’s Quest: Retracing the 1931 Claflin Emerson Expedition to Argyle Canyon and Upper Nine Mile Canyon (with Jerry D. Spangler) Utah Project U-15-C1-51.b.p.Ogden, UT: Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, 2015.

• Land of Wildest Desolation: Final Report: The Desolation Canyon Intuitive Surveys and Baseline Site Condition Assessments of 2006 to 2008. (Contributor to with Jerry D. Spangler, Kevin T. Jones, and Andy Yentsch) Utah Projects Nos.U-06-C1-0001b,p; U-07-C1-0031b,p; U-08-C1-0009b,p. Ogden, Utah: Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, 2009, 480 pages.

• Baseline Site Condition Assessment of Historic Properties Near the Bureau of Land Management Ranger Station at Sand Wash, Uintah County (with Jerry D. Spangler and Donna K. Spangler) State Project No. U-07-C1-0035b. Ogden, UT: Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, 2007, 66 pages.

Articles

"The Lost Expedition: Charles Nettleton Strevell and the Utah State Museum Association, 1933-1938," Utah Historical Quarterly (Summer 2023) with co-author Jerry D. Spangler

• • "Painting 'My Odyssey': Jimmie F. Jones, Grand Canyon Master," Celebrating 100 Years of Grand Canyon National Park, ed Richard D. Quartaroli, Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2020: 142-147.

  • "The Goal Now Has to Be to Listen: An Interview with Barry Lopez," The Georgia Review, Spring 2019.    

• "The Crimson Cowboys: The Remarkable Odyssey of the 1931 Claflin-Emerson Expedition," Utah Historical Quarterly (Spring 2018) with co-author Jerry D. Spangler.   

  • "Jim Jones: Coming Home to the Canyons," Fibonacci Fine Arts Digest," February 2016.

  • "Empires and Homesteads: Making a Living in Range Creek, Utah." Utah Historical Quarterly (Winter 2011) with co-author Steven L. Gerber.

  • "Coming Home to the Land." Jim Jones: Recent Paintings. Catalog. Cedar City: SUU Braithwaite Gallery, 2009.

  • "Hank Stewart and Sand Wash." The Confluence:Journal of the Colorado Plateau River Guides, #28, Winter 2006.

  • "1000 Years of History on the San Juan," Blue Mountain Shadows, Summer 2000.

  • "John Wesley Powell," Dictionary of Literary Biography: Nineteenth-Century Western American Writers, Vol. 186, 1997.

  • "The River, the Ditch, and the Volcano: Bluff, 1879-1884," Blue Mountain Shadows, Summer, 1993.

  • "Us vs. Them: John Wesley Powell and Western Water Issues," Akademika, March 1990.

  • "An Interview with Barry Lopez," Western American Literature, Spring 1986.

  • "Of Thee I Sing: Jim Jones," Southwest Art, November 1985.

  • "Stalking Henry Thoreau," South Dakota Review, Winter 1984.

Awards/Grants

• • Outstanding Scholar, SUU, 2017-18

  • SUU Trustees Award of Excellence, 2011

  • SUU Distinguished Faculty Lecture: 1988, 2001, 2009, 2019.

  • Outstanding Scholar, SUU, 2009-2010.

  • Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society, Professor of the Year, 2007.

  • Fulbright Lecturer, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China, 1997-98.

  • Distinguished Educator of the Year, SUU 1994.

  • Fulbright Lecturer, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 1987-90.

  • N E H Summer Seminar Grant, "The American West: History and Environment," Logan, UT, 1988.

  • N E H Summer Seminar Grant, "The New England Transcendentalists, Concord, MA, 1983.

Current Research 

• • A book with Jerry D. Spangler on the history of collecting cultural artifacts and dinosaur bones in Utah and the museums that resulted.

  • Cultural resource surveys with the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance along both sides of Desolation Canyon, of Nine Mile Canyon, of the Paria Plateau, Labyrinth Canyon, and the Shivwits Plateau.

Podcasts

• • "Barry Lopez Interview: What Do I Mean by My Life?" Zion Canyon Mesa, September 2020, zioncanyonmesa.org.