The Backbone of the World: A Portrait of a Vanishing Way of Life Along the Continental Divide

US: Broadway, 2002. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting.The spine remains undamaged. In recent years, Los Angeles Times writer and editor Frank Clifford has jou rneyed along the Continental Divide, the hemispheric watershed that spans N orth America from the alkali badlands of southernmost New Mexico to the roo f of the Rockies in Montana and into Canada. The result is The Backbone of the World, an arresting exploration of America's longest wilderness corrido r, a harsh and unforgiving region inhabited by men and women whose way of l ife is as imperiled as the neighboring wildlife. With the brutal beauty and stark cadences of a Cormac McCarthy novel, The Backbone of the World tells the story of the last remnants of the Old West, America's mythic landscape, where past and present are barely discernible from one another and where people's lives are still intrinsically linked to their natural surroundings. Clifford vividly captures the challenges of life along the Divide today through portraits of memorable characters: a ranching family whose isolated New Mexico homestead has become a mecca for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers; a sheep herder struggling to make a living tending his flock in the mountains above Vail, Colorado: an old mule packer who has spent years scouring the mountains of northwest Wyoming for the downed plane of his son; a Yellowstone Park ranger on a lone crusade to protect elk and grizzly bears from illegal hunters; and a group of Blackfeet Indians in northern Montana who are fearful that a wilderness sanctuary will be lost to oil and gas devel.