The explorations of Francisco Garcés, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion. Beyond the Devil’s Road tells, for the first time, the full story of this extraordinary man’s epic life and journey and his critical place in the history of the American Southwest. From the moment he took up residence at the lonely mission of San Xavier del Bac in 1768, Garcés stood out among his fellow Spaniards for both the affection he showed the region’s Native peoples and his bravery. Traveling thousands of miles through modern Arizona, California, and Nevada to gather information for his superiors and preach to the unbaptized, he engaged the Indians of the Southwest with a respect for their ways and customs unprecedented among his peers, presaging a new—and better—model for cultural encounters. Along the way, he contacted more Indigenous groups than any other missionary of his time, often as the first European to do so. Garcés also paved the way and served as a guide for the famous expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774 and 1775–76, bringing the first Spanish settlers to California—before the road he’d helped to open led to his death in the Quechan uprising of 1781. Consulting archives on three continents, including previously untapped sources and Garcés’s extensive diaries and letters, long obscured by unyielding language and handwriting, Beer crafts a nuanced and thoroughly engaging account of this incomparable explorer, groundbreaking missionary, and central actor in New Spain’s final sustained effort to expand its dominion into the lands that would become the American Southwest.

The devil is the most charismatic and important figure in the blues tradition. He's not just the music's namesake ("the devil's music"), but a shadowy presence who haunts an imagined Mississippi crossroads where, it is claimed, Delta bluesman Robert Johnson traded away his soul in exchange for extraordinary prowess on the guitar. Yet, as scholar and musician Adam Gussow argues, there is much more to the story of the devil and the blues than these cliched understandings. In this groundbreaking study, Gussow takes the full measure of the devil's presence. Working from original transcriptions of more than 125 recordings released during the past ninety years, Gussow explores the varied uses to which black southern blues people have put this trouble-sowing, love-wrecking, but also empowering figure. The book culminates with a bold reinterpretation of Johnson's music and a provocative investigation of the way in which the citizens of Clarksdale, Mississippi, managed to rebrand a commercial hub as "the crossroads" in 1999, claiming Johnson and the devil as their own.

This important book from a Pulitzer Prize finalist follows the brutal journey a group of men take to cross the Mexican border: "the single most compelling, lucid, and lyrical contemporary account of the absurdity of U.S. border policy" (The Atlantic). In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.

El Camino Del Diablo (the Devils Highway) today is an unpaved 130 mile route along the border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. The current route begins at Lukeville, Arizona 21 miles southwest of Ajo at the boundary between Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. From there it continues through barren and isolated Sonoran Desert to Yuma. Some of the features along the way are: San Cristobal Wash, the Agua Dulce Mountains, Papago Well; Camp Grip, the Pinta Sand Dunes and the Pinacate Volcanic Field. The road passes through the Tule Desert and Mountains and into Tule Tank Canyon to reach Tule Well where the road intersects with Christmas Pass Road. The road continues through the Lechuguilla Desert, Tordillo Mountain, and the Tinajas Altas Mountains. The route passes west of Raven Butte and Cipriano Pass. It then follows the western border of the Gila Mountains, passing by the abandoned Fortuna Mine before finally reaching the small community of Fortune Hills on the outskirts of Yuma.

In the course of its extraordinary history, the Jersey Devil has been exorcised, shot, electrocuted, declared officially dead, and scoffed as foolishness--none of which has had any effect on it or the people who persist in seeing it!This mysterious creature is said to prowl the lonely sand trails and mist-shrouded marshes of the Pine Barrens, and emerge perioducally to rampage through the towns and cities of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, leaving many communities in near-hysteria.The authors show that while a few appearances have been out-right fraud and others have likely been the result of mass hysteria, this creature has been seen by enough sane, sober, and responsible citizens to keep the possiblity of its existence alive and tantalizing.Over 50,000 in print

Mount Rainier looms over the skyline of the Pacific Northwest as a beacon for thrill seekers, but also for those looking for an escape from everyday existence. Four men have decided to backpack on the Wonderland Trail looping around the mountain for very different reasons. Josh is on a pilgrimage to his favorite place in the world in hopes of steering his life back on course. Chris is on a quest for one last wondrous sunset. After searching for his missing wife for the last three months, Scott goes to the mountain as a tribute to Diane and a faint hope that he might find her there. Marvin is trying to escape from his present situation and past deeds. With each step on the trail they learn that they can’t outrun the demons that haunt their lives, or even their dreams, and the mighty volcano is not a passive participant to their plans. Beyond Devil’s Dream camp the journey spirals out of control, as the splendors around them refresh the spirit, the physical dangers challenge their mortality. In the end, only two of the men will be left to make the final race to Paradise.