SIERRA NEVADA: The Golden Barrier

Following a brief geological history of the range, this touches on Indian culture, American explorations and passages--Jedediah Smith and the mountain men; California travelers and gold hunters; Wells, Fargo and Pony Express riders--and then subsequent settlement problems; building the Southern Pacific and redistributing water resources. The treatment is too brief (and intrusively fictionalized) to qualify as a social or historical study but some sense of conflicts and contrasts Irish responses to coolie labor, midland resentment of lowland water shortages does filter through. Also, glimpses of the six life zones, the forests, the conservation efforts of Muir and the Sierra Club. Without the rugged beauty and presence of its subject, and with no unifying vision.