Annie Proulx - Red Desert: History of a Place

Willow Hill and old Rawlins-Bairoil Road, Carbon County, Wyoming, 2004

Red Desert

HISTORY OF A PLACE

Edited by ANNIE PROULX

Photographs by MARTIN STUPICH

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS AUSTIN

The publication of this book was made possible by a generous contribution from the University of Texas Press Advisory Council.

Copyright 2008 by Dead Line Ltd.
Photographs copyright 2008 by Martin Stupich

All rights reserved

Printed in Singapore
First edition, 2008

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:

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Austin, TX 78713-7819
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The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO 239.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Red Desert : history of a place / edited by Annie Proulx ; photographs by Martin Stupich.1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-292-71420-5 (cl. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-292-78605-9 (institutional e-book)

ISBN 9780292786059 (individual e-book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Natural historyWyomingRed Desert (Desert). 2. Red Desert (Wyo. : Desert)History. I. Proulx, Annie, date II. Stupich, Martin, date

QH105.W8 R43 2008
508.787dc22

2008011077

Annie Proulx

Martin Stupich

ILLUSTRATIONS

MAPS

FIGURES

TABLES

ABBREVIATIONS

PART I

PHOTOGRAPHS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dozens of people contributed to this project and, knowing it or not, quietly inched the bar higher. To you, David Vaughan, Annie Proulx, Dan Flores, Geri Staymanand especially Dylan and Matt Staymanwho remind me always that books matter, I am deeply indebted.

To Steve Sagin, who on my first day in Saratoga pointed me in the direction of the Red Desert, thanks for the tip. Thanks too to my traveling companions there over the yearsBrett Lequercia, Judi Morris, Toby Jurovics, and Rod Laird; and the intrepid Deryl James, Dave Quitter, and Gerald James, who with Annie, Bob Cook, Charles Ferguson, and Dudley Gardner (and Dudleys crisp memory of lost maps) made high adventure where there might only have been discovery.

To Alan Mitchell, John Boyer, Debbie Rusk, Jamie Newman, Brad Carey, Terry and Jimmy Hinkle, and Larry Hicks, I am grateful for access to places and stories about places I would never otherwise know.

For six years, I have depended on others sharp eyes to keep these pictures on trackpeople acting as jurors and critics, or as old friends. Fred Baldwin and Wendy Watriss, Jean Caslin, Peter Goin, Susan Moldenhauer, Patrick Nagatani, Kira Pollack, Jim Stone, Mary Virginia Swanson, Elizabeth Turk, Tim Wridethanks for the candor. To Julianne Kost at Adobe Systems and Patrick Carr of Carr Imaging, thanks for taking the mystery out of Photoshop without killing the magic.

To Oscar Simpson, thanks for helping me get the captions right. To the staff at the El Rio diner in Baggs, thank you for being there.

Before the work was completed, a few museums and galleries lent momentum to the Red Desert project by exhibiting and purchasing early versions of the portfolio. To the University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie, the International Cultural Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, the Witte Art Museum in San Antonio, the Palm Springs Art Museum, and FotoFest in HoustonI remain grateful.

For decades of help in honing my heart-eye coordination, my early mentors must take credit: LaVerne Ornelas, Harold Huber, Jim Dow, John McWilliams, Emmet Gowin, and Linda Connor, thank you.

And without my friend and pilot, David Worthington, the big picture would have been impossible to imagine.

Martin Stupich

Ferris Mountains and Muddy Creek drainage, northeastern Red Desert, Carbon County, Wyoming, 2002

Honeycomb Buttes, northwestern Red Desert, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 2002

Virga at sunset near Saratoga, eastern edge of the Red Desert, Carbon County, Wyoming, 2002

Echo Overlook, the confluence of the Yampa and the Green, southwestern corner of the Red Desert

Skull Rim at sunset, Adobe Town, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 2004

Washakie Formation hoodoos eroding, Carbon County, Wyoming, 2003

Sandstone columns below Skull Rim, Adobe Town, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 2004

Sandstone lag litters shaly badlands, dawn, the Haystacks, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 2006

Weathered potholes, Little Firehole Canyon east of Flaming Gorge, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 2004

April snow squall at Sage Creek Gap east of Flaming Gorge, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 2004