Artifacts: A Cultural Geography, by Michael McClure:  This photographic history of Wyoming just released has been compiled since the 1980s.  Many artifacts in this book have rarely been seen by anyone due to it being on private land, or difficult to reach places.  This beautiful collection of petroglyphs, wagon wheels, trappers’ cabins and early ranch houses truly inspire the imagination.

Bad in the Good Old Days by Larry K. Brown:  This newly published story includes real-life stories of the worst outlaws, thieves, and murderers of Wyoming, Rawlins and the old West including James Keefer, Mary Lambe, Joseph Seng, Frank Keefe and Anna Richey.  These accounts are thoroughly researched and very entertaining.

Devil’s Gate, by Tom Rea:  Tom Rea goes to the heart of a seemingly empty place and finds a landscape teeming with life and death and many histories including the Sun Ranch, Cattle Kate, Billy Owen and John Fremont.  With precision and passion, Rea unearths the human struggles long buried in this vast and lonesome country.

Forts of the West, by Robert Frazier:  Frazier has prepared a systematic listing of the great variety of forts in the west.  This well organized account, gives pertinent information that every student of western history would be interested to know.

Frontier Justice in the Old West, by R. Michael:  On the Western Frontier, where jailhouses were few and gun slinging, cattle rustling, and stagecoach robberies were common, legal executions served as both a deterrent and as entertainment.  In some cases, invitations summoned spectators-and they came in droves for people such as: Rawlins’ own “Big Nose” George, the Pond Brothers and John D. Lee.  These bizarre and fascinating executions are sure to intrigue any person interested in the “dark” history of the west.

Great Surveys of the American West, by Richard Bartlett:  After the Civil War, four geological and geographical surveys, later called the Great Surveys, undertook the massive task of finding out what lay west of the hundredth meridian in the vast American wilderness.  This account includes analyzing, theorizing, mapping, discoveries and the high adventures of the bold, headstrong, and often brilliant men of the Great Surveys as they climbed the Rockies, explored the Yellowstone, or battled the Colorado. 

Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River, by Samuel Western:  An exploration of why Wyoming’s endless cycles of “boom and bust”.  The mythology of Wyoming is famous, but the reality is everything is getting exported, including its young.  This author feels a solution to Wyoming’s economic woes has little to do with money, but instead rethinking the rendition of its “way of life” myths.

The Back Bone of the World, by Frank Clifford:  This arresting exploration of America’s longest wilderness corridor, the Continental Divide, explores America’s mythic landscape, where past and present are barely discernible from one another, and where people’s lives are still intricately linked to their natural surroundings.  This explores the frontier values that have both ennobled and degraded us.

The Great West, by Daniel Lavender:  Sweeping history of the commissioned expeditions, failed settlements, and land speculation that conquered the American West.  A noted historian of the region and a dramatic storyteller, Lavender portrays the moments and movements that shaped the growing United States.

The Wizard of Menlo Park, by Randall E. Stross: One of the greatest inventors of all time, Thomas Edison is one of the most discussed and respected people of all time.  This book explores the man behind the myth, both credible and readable.  This book discusses how he surprisingly failed to make as much money as he was capable of, but still one of the biggest celebrities of his era. 

Uncommon Carriers, by John McPhee: This book surrounds people involved with transportation such as sea captains, the United Parcel Service and train operators. So often people read about the “glamorous” professions, but do not look into the jobs we actually depend on, such as those who transport raw materials.  This interesting account preserves our society as we were in 2006

As always, we still have the privately published collection of Sweetwater Sunset, The Bridger Pass Overland Trail and many other beloved favorites.