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The Middle Fork: A Guide
The Middle Fork Road: A guide
382 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1992
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December 9, 2025
This review applies to three books by authors Carrey & Conley:
1977 Middle Fork and Sheepeater War
1978 River of No Return
1992 Middle Fork: A Guide
These works contain obscene and outrageous factual errors. The authors did not tie specific information to specific sources, and therefore suspicion arises concerning how much of the false information was fabricated by the authors and how much was fabricated by those who were interviewed. If the authors are not guilty of fabrication, it means that they had the misfortune of interviewing an exceedingly large number of prevaricators - nearly 200 in number - who all told the same lies pertaining to the author's three works concerning the history of the Salmon river and the Middle Fork of the Salmon river.
The authors included this statement in all three of their books:
“Every effort has been made to check the names and facts in this book. But as anyone who has listened to witnesses under oath in a court of law knows, nothing is so fallible as human memory. In many cases we were forced to choose between conflicting stories, taking that which seemed most plausible or cross-checked reliably. We did this without intending any disrespect for our sources, realizing that at times we may have accepted half truths without hearing the proper half. Such are the limitations of oral history.”
Despite this attempt by the authors to evade responsibility, they nevertheless bear full responsibility for not performing due diligence and for carelessly putting a massive amount of erroneous information into print. It is abundantly clear that not “every effort” was made to fact check the information, since it often seems that not even the smallest measure of effort was exercised in researching for their egregious books. “Conflicting stories” mandate research and that which can neither be corroborated or dismissed must be accompanied by a disclaimer if it is included.
A troubling aspect evident throughout the authors’ three books, concerns their perverse habit of indecently disparaging the character and good name of a number of individuals, and doing so without one shred of historical evidence to support their slanderous claims. It does seem that these slanders only serve as techniques to appeal to Schadenfreude and drive sales.
Because clearly fabricated information was mixed with interesting biographical details, which may or may not be true, and which are no longer verifiable since all first hand witnesses are long past, the whole of the historical information found within the 1977 Middle Fork and Sheepeater War; the 1978 River of No Return and the 1992 Middle Fork: A Guide is rendered unusable as legitimate historical references and must ethically be dismissed in toto.
The incompetence and carelessness of the authors in verifying the details that they were reportedly told indicates that their motives were not to preserve, catalog and share the fascinating history of the Salmon river country, but rather to gain notoriety as authors and historians and to sell books via grifting. The far reaching enormity of the damage caused by Carrey & Conley’s three books of Lemhi county history can not be overstated.
The images contained in Carrey & Conley’s three reprehensible works are perhaps their only positive feature, however credit for their source and ownership details were unprofessionally omitted.
1977 Middle Fork and Sheepeater War
1978 River of No Return
1992 Middle Fork: A Guide
These works contain obscene and outrageous factual errors. The authors did not tie specific information to specific sources, and therefore suspicion arises concerning how much of the false information was fabricated by the authors and how much was fabricated by those who were interviewed. If the authors are not guilty of fabrication, it means that they had the misfortune of interviewing an exceedingly large number of prevaricators - nearly 200 in number - who all told the same lies pertaining to the author's three works concerning the history of the Salmon river and the Middle Fork of the Salmon river.
The authors included this statement in all three of their books:
“Every effort has been made to check the names and facts in this book. But as anyone who has listened to witnesses under oath in a court of law knows, nothing is so fallible as human memory. In many cases we were forced to choose between conflicting stories, taking that which seemed most plausible or cross-checked reliably. We did this without intending any disrespect for our sources, realizing that at times we may have accepted half truths without hearing the proper half. Such are the limitations of oral history.”
Despite this attempt by the authors to evade responsibility, they nevertheless bear full responsibility for not performing due diligence and for carelessly putting a massive amount of erroneous information into print. It is abundantly clear that not “every effort” was made to fact check the information, since it often seems that not even the smallest measure of effort was exercised in researching for their egregious books. “Conflicting stories” mandate research and that which can neither be corroborated or dismissed must be accompanied by a disclaimer if it is included.
A troubling aspect evident throughout the authors’ three books, concerns their perverse habit of indecently disparaging the character and good name of a number of individuals, and doing so without one shred of historical evidence to support their slanderous claims. It does seem that these slanders only serve as techniques to appeal to Schadenfreude and drive sales.
Because clearly fabricated information was mixed with interesting biographical details, which may or may not be true, and which are no longer verifiable since all first hand witnesses are long past, the whole of the historical information found within the 1977 Middle Fork and Sheepeater War; the 1978 River of No Return and the 1992 Middle Fork: A Guide is rendered unusable as legitimate historical references and must ethically be dismissed in toto.
The incompetence and carelessness of the authors in verifying the details that they were reportedly told indicates that their motives were not to preserve, catalog and share the fascinating history of the Salmon river country, but rather to gain notoriety as authors and historians and to sell books via grifting. The far reaching enormity of the damage caused by Carrey & Conley’s three books of Lemhi county history can not be overstated.
The images contained in Carrey & Conley’s three reprehensible works are perhaps their only positive feature, however credit for their source and ownership details were unprofessionally omitted.
Displaying 1 of 1 review