Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story Paperback March 7, 2013

by Tom Rea

Devil's Gate--the very name conjures difficult passage and portends a doubtful outcome. In this eloquent and captivating narrative, Tom Rea traces the history of the Sweetwater River valley in central Wyoming--a remote place that includes Devil's Gate, Independence Rock, and other sites along a storied stretch of the Oregon Trail--to show how legal ownership of a place can translate into owning its story.

Unknown Binding

First published September 20, 2006

Reviews

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting history of "oregon trail" based on one place along that route, sweetwater river valley in central wyoming. lots of stuff happened there, and also not much in that out-of-the-way place. indians and all kinds of game lived there, jackson photographed it, fremont measured it, sun family started stores and toll bridges there, mormon hand carters died in droves there, usa reclamation dept built dams there, fat cat ranchers lynched competition there, mormons bought gentile ranches there, boy scouts had a blowout jamboree there, and "old timers" based their pulp books there, and blm sold them to them. annie proulx even built a house there. author's conceit is how euros objectified the land transforming it from a given like air, relatives, water, into a commodity to be measured, gridded, owned, stolen, and each successive meaning is layered over the top like sheets of water,one over the other. power usually gets to tell that meaning too, but not always. some of the rocks there are independence rock, devils gate, simenoe hills, whiskey gap, south pass. paperback a reprint of original 2006 hb.

[Memphis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very illuminating history of a place that could've easily been dismissed as the middle of nowhere. Women going West, Mormons, Indians, Boy Scouts all mark histories here. I like stories about the amazing wagon trails that shaped the country. As an East Coaster they seem a little exotic and always make me wonder if I would've had the guts/grit/desire to do such a thing.