Devils Tower: Stories in Stone by Mary Alice Gunderson (review)

68 Western American Literature ums of natural history, making extensive collections, founding major move­ ments, such as Rachael Carson’s crusade against pesticide abuse, and generally sharing thejoy they found in nature with those around them. Bonta’s ability to recapture the sense of wonder and adventure that led these women naturalists to pursue their work will make this book appealing to many readers. Teachers and researchers with interests in women’s and natural history will find the book, with its numerous textual and bibliographic refer­ ences, illustrations and photographs, a particularly valuable resource. NANCYWARNER California Valley, California Devil’s Tower: Stories in Stone. By Mary Alice Gunderson. (Glendo, Wyoming: High Plains Press, 1988. 141 pages, $9.95.) Rising over a thousand feet above the Belle Fouche Valley in southeastern Wyoming, Devil’s Tower, a massive rock formation, “a creation of time and weather,”dominates the landscape. Like most such unusual natural formations it has been a subject of special interest and speculation since people first ventured upon it. Native Americans, to whom it has religious significance, developed myths that tell of its origins and meanings. Geologists explored, tested and strove to identify the formation’s makeup and origin, the latter still a matter of debate. Historians and anthropologists studied the waves of history that washed around it and its part in the culture of the people who came there. Artists and photographers continue to find it an inspiring subject, and rock climbers see it as a continual challenge. Devil’s Tower was the first National Monument in America and has been visited since 1937 by six-and-a-half million people. Mary Alice Gunderson has touched all of these bases in her book, in chronological order. She has produced a soundly researched work that is of special value to others writing in this area for its comprehensive nature, for its use of footnotes, and for the extensive bibliographies appended to each chap­ ter. She has presented the many ways of seeing Devil’s Tower, more than fulfilling Raymond De Mollie’s suggestion in the Introduction that “everyone sees in Devil’s Tower what expectation and cultural values dictate.” Hers is a well written book, beautifully presented, and copiously illustrated with photographs, maps, drawings and reproductions of paintings that contrib­ ute to the prose. Her awareness of the importance of this great natural forma­ tion is implicit in her final words, “People gather as they have for centuries to see the stump-shaped rock that guards the river. To walk in coolness beneath a canopy of burr oak trees. To find a quiet place in an unquiet world.” NAOMI BRILL Lincoln, Nebraska ...