Fire on the Plateau

the long version

The Colorado Plateau, stretching across four states and covering nearly 80 million acres, is a unique and spectacular region. Remote, rugged, dry - at once forlorn and glorious - it is a separate place, a place with its own distinctive landscape, history, and future. In Fire on the Plateau, Charles Wilkinson examines the history of that complicated region - the sometimes violent conflicts between indigenous populations and more recent settlers, the political machinations of industry, the treachery of the legal establishment, the contentious disputes over land - and provides a compelling look at the epic events that have shaped the region.