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Lasso the Wind : Away to the New West
They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it," writes Timothy Egan of the West in his new book, but "this region's hold on the American character has never seemed stronger."
Lasso the Wind is a moving, funny, and incisive look at the eleven states "on the sunset side of the 100th meridian" that Egan regards as the true West. Fishing rod and notebook in hand, he travels by car and foot, horseback and raft, through a region struggling to find its future direction under both the ideological weight of the past and the commercial threats of the present.
He visits the Sky City of Acoma, which may be the oldest continuously inhabited community in America, and then goes to an instant town on the Colorado River--Lake Havasu City, built around the transplanted London Bridge. He meets an outlaw cowboy in New Mexico, grazing his cattle on federal land. From Las Vegas, a sprawling, ever-expanding monument to gaudiness and glitz, to the relatively untouched wilds of Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains, Egan leads us through the world of industrialists, politicians, ranchers, and developers, back to the heart of the land itself to see the wealth and grandeur that have inspired the dreams of generations.
Interweaving historical accounts with explorations of the contemporary landscape, Egan shows how and why the region came to its current state. We see why the errors and perils of the past continue to repeat themselves to this day, how enormous reserves of public land are being steadily chipped away by commercial interests and the demands of a growing population. But we also learn how some communities manage to avoid repeating these mistakes and to win successes, played out in the land and water, in the struggle between possibility and possession.
Lasso the Wind eloquently captures the American West in all its promise, in all its pain, and in all its glory.
Lasso the Wind is a moving, funny, and incisive look at the eleven states "on the sunset side of the 100th meridian" that Egan regards as the true West. Fishing rod and notebook in hand, he travels by car and foot, horseback and raft, through a region struggling to find its future direction under both the ideological weight of the past and the commercial threats of the present.
He visits the Sky City of Acoma, which may be the oldest continuously inhabited community in America, and then goes to an instant town on the Colorado River--Lake Havasu City, built around the transplanted London Bridge. He meets an outlaw cowboy in New Mexico, grazing his cattle on federal land. From Las Vegas, a sprawling, ever-expanding monument to gaudiness and glitz, to the relatively untouched wilds of Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains, Egan leads us through the world of industrialists, politicians, ranchers, and developers, back to the heart of the land itself to see the wealth and grandeur that have inspired the dreams of generations.
Interweaving historical accounts with explorations of the contemporary landscape, Egan shows how and why the region came to its current state. We see why the errors and perils of the past continue to repeat themselves to this day, how enormous reserves of public land are being steadily chipped away by commercial interests and the demands of a growing population. But we also learn how some communities manage to avoid repeating these mistakes and to win successes, played out in the land and water, in the struggle between possibility and possession.
Lasso the Wind eloquently captures the American West in all its promise, in all its pain, and in all its glory.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
182 people are currently reading
2102 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Egan
26 books1,965 followersTimothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize winning author of nine books, including THE WORST HARD TIME, which won the National Book Award. His latest book, A PILGRIMAGE TO ETERNITY, is a personal story, a journey over an ancient trail, and a history of Christianity. He also writes a biweekly opinion column for The New York Times. HIs book on the photographer Edward Curtis, SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER, won the Carnegie Medal for best nonfiction. His Irish-American book, THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN, was a New York Times bestseller. A third-generation native of the Pacific Northwest, he lives in Seattle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
December 14, 2019
The format of this book by Egan is markedly different from the previous books of his I have read. More of an historical travelogue as he takes us state by state through the American West. This is also the region I was the least familiar with, except for the Gold rush, the oil book and of course the Donner party. Egan takes us back into the past of these states and shows us the present day repurcusions of these actions.
That the American Indians were treated unfairly is without doubt, and I was surprised that some of these tribes are still surviving today, including one that lives I the grand Csnyonn whose mail is still delivered by pack mule. Some states, like Montana has been ravaged more than others, by politicians that are supposed to be representing their interests. He takes us to the beginning of the Mormon religion and the Red Rock country of Utah. His stay and reaction to modern day Las Vegas was amusing, and since I've been there is one to which I can relate. This book is literally chock full of interesting information.
I read books like this and they make me angry. Is there anything and any place that has not been ruined by humans and their greed? We have had a detrimental effect on do much, people, animals, messing with nature, always wanting more, more, more. One wonders when and if it will ever stop.
Narration was by John McLain and was for me a four star narration.
That the American Indians were treated unfairly is without doubt, and I was surprised that some of these tribes are still surviving today, including one that lives I the grand Csnyonn whose mail is still delivered by pack mule. Some states, like Montana has been ravaged more than others, by politicians that are supposed to be representing their interests. He takes us to the beginning of the Mormon religion and the Red Rock country of Utah. His stay and reaction to modern day Las Vegas was amusing, and since I've been there is one to which I can relate. This book is literally chock full of interesting information.
I read books like this and they make me angry. Is there anything and any place that has not been ruined by humans and their greed? We have had a detrimental effect on do much, people, animals, messing with nature, always wanting more, more, more. One wonders when and if it will ever stop.
Narration was by John McLain and was for me a four star narration.
December 10, 2019
When given the question, “who is your favorite author,” for years my answers have been Doris Kearns Goodwin for nonfiction and Isabel Allende for fiction. I turn to the two of their writing when I am in need of a comfort read, so the question “who is your favorite author,” has been a no brainer, until this year. In the nonfiction book club in 2019 I have read two books by gifted storyteller Timothy Egan. Egan has the rare ability to bring long past history to life and has me reaching for his books about subjects that I had little to no interest in. When my friends in the nonfiction book club wanted to read another of Egan’s books before the year was out, I could not say no. Lasso The West is his ode to the American West, and I was happy to be along for the ride.
Although a writer for the New Yorker, Timothy Egan is a third generation Westerner. A native of Washington state, he has long made Seattle home, and the city and her history have played a role in his books. Lasso the West is part history, part travelogue, part essay, as Egan tells the story of the land and the people that have shaped the American west. In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier“closed”. Both the buffalo and native Americans had been wiped out. Homesteaders- read Anglo Americans- staked their claim to land, and the dawn of an era of eastern robber barons set to rob the West of her natural resources had begun. Egan argues that the West was not closed; however, most Americans still had not ventured past their eastern establishments, so to easterners, news that the buffalo and natives had been vanquished essentially meant that the region had been conquered. In the late 19th century, the west was still a region of virgin forests, rivers, flora, and fauna and a melting pot of Native, Spanish, and other immigrant cultures who made California their new home. Once easterners attempted to seize the west, a melding of ethnic groups would not be a western reality for nearly one hundred years. In the meantime, two competing ideologies would attempt to save the west from itself.
With the establishment of the National Park Service, Theodore Roosevelt enacted a law that would preserve millions of acres of western land, much to the chagrin of western settlers and logging interests. Egan has visited Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and many other American treasures; so did Roosevelt, who was as much of an outdoorsman as he was a politician. He foresaw how loggers and miners were on the verge of stripping the land of her beauty and resources and knew that he had to preserve his beloved western lands to be enjoyed by future generations. The National Parks give America her flavor, demarcating that her crown jewels are found in nature rather than museums. While writing the essays for this book, Egan traveled the Beartooth Abarasoka Highway into Yellowstone’s northwestern boundary and experienced snowfall there on the summer solstice. He hiked Yosemite with friends, visited the Grand Canyon, and made himself at home in the region’s many streams and parks. Even though the west was said to be closed nearly one hundred twenty years ago, parts of Idaho and Montana are largely untamed. With his descriptions of breath-taking scenery, Egan allows readers to feel as though they are along for these travel adventures.
In addition to lighthearted fishing expeditions with his brothers, Egan also relates the history of the west in abbreviated fashion. There is the community of Supai, Arizona that still receives its mail from a mule train a few times a week. For all purposes, the town is a picture of 19th century life. In Arizona and New Mexico we learn of the long history of the Native Americans’ attempts to thwart Spanish and Anglo advances on their culture. In a few isolated pockets, a few tribes have persevered. There is a chapter on the Mormon way of life in Utah, the perils of the Nez Perce tribe, Egan’s encounters with Texans escaping the summer heat in Yellowstone, and a white water rafting expedition into the heart of the California gold country. Egan brings readers back to present times as he contrasts the immigrant culture that existed during Spanish rule of California with the pillaging of the west and how the state is a plurality with more than eighty cultures represented today. California still represents America’s final frontier, home to Los Angeles and the Golden Gate, a flourishing Mexican culture, and Asians of a multitude of nationalities. The overpopulation of California and Las Vegas in Nevada have stripped the west of her resources, and for this Egan, a westerner to the core, is forever grateful of Roosevelt’s national park service.
While Doris Kearns Goodwin still remains my favorite nonfiction author, Timothy Egan is in the running as a close second. I have enjoyed all three of his books that I read this year, complete with his ability to tell a story out of anything and vivid descriptions of time and place. I have two more of his books to read for next year, and I see he has even contributed to a book about baseball. For that reason, by the end of next year, third generation westerner Timothy Egan might vault to one-a on my list of favorite nonfiction authors. Lasso the Wind is a wonderful reminder of his full storytelling experience.
4+ stars
Although a writer for the New Yorker, Timothy Egan is a third generation Westerner. A native of Washington state, he has long made Seattle home, and the city and her history have played a role in his books. Lasso the West is part history, part travelogue, part essay, as Egan tells the story of the land and the people that have shaped the American west. In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier“closed”. Both the buffalo and native Americans had been wiped out. Homesteaders- read Anglo Americans- staked their claim to land, and the dawn of an era of eastern robber barons set to rob the West of her natural resources had begun. Egan argues that the West was not closed; however, most Americans still had not ventured past their eastern establishments, so to easterners, news that the buffalo and natives had been vanquished essentially meant that the region had been conquered. In the late 19th century, the west was still a region of virgin forests, rivers, flora, and fauna and a melting pot of Native, Spanish, and other immigrant cultures who made California their new home. Once easterners attempted to seize the west, a melding of ethnic groups would not be a western reality for nearly one hundred years. In the meantime, two competing ideologies would attempt to save the west from itself.
With the establishment of the National Park Service, Theodore Roosevelt enacted a law that would preserve millions of acres of western land, much to the chagrin of western settlers and logging interests. Egan has visited Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and many other American treasures; so did Roosevelt, who was as much of an outdoorsman as he was a politician. He foresaw how loggers and miners were on the verge of stripping the land of her beauty and resources and knew that he had to preserve his beloved western lands to be enjoyed by future generations. The National Parks give America her flavor, demarcating that her crown jewels are found in nature rather than museums. While writing the essays for this book, Egan traveled the Beartooth Abarasoka Highway into Yellowstone’s northwestern boundary and experienced snowfall there on the summer solstice. He hiked Yosemite with friends, visited the Grand Canyon, and made himself at home in the region’s many streams and parks. Even though the west was said to be closed nearly one hundred twenty years ago, parts of Idaho and Montana are largely untamed. With his descriptions of breath-taking scenery, Egan allows readers to feel as though they are along for these travel adventures.
In addition to lighthearted fishing expeditions with his brothers, Egan also relates the history of the west in abbreviated fashion. There is the community of Supai, Arizona that still receives its mail from a mule train a few times a week. For all purposes, the town is a picture of 19th century life. In Arizona and New Mexico we learn of the long history of the Native Americans’ attempts to thwart Spanish and Anglo advances on their culture. In a few isolated pockets, a few tribes have persevered. There is a chapter on the Mormon way of life in Utah, the perils of the Nez Perce tribe, Egan’s encounters with Texans escaping the summer heat in Yellowstone, and a white water rafting expedition into the heart of the California gold country. Egan brings readers back to present times as he contrasts the immigrant culture that existed during Spanish rule of California with the pillaging of the west and how the state is a plurality with more than eighty cultures represented today. California still represents America’s final frontier, home to Los Angeles and the Golden Gate, a flourishing Mexican culture, and Asians of a multitude of nationalities. The overpopulation of California and Las Vegas in Nevada have stripped the west of her resources, and for this Egan, a westerner to the core, is forever grateful of Roosevelt’s national park service.
While Doris Kearns Goodwin still remains my favorite nonfiction author, Timothy Egan is in the running as a close second. I have enjoyed all three of his books that I read this year, complete with his ability to tell a story out of anything and vivid descriptions of time and place. I have two more of his books to read for next year, and I see he has even contributed to a book about baseball. For that reason, by the end of next year, third generation westerner Timothy Egan might vault to one-a on my list of favorite nonfiction authors. Lasso the Wind is a wonderful reminder of his full storytelling experience.
4+ stars
January 9, 2018
I really liked this book. I've spent much of my life in the west and as an immigrant from a land that has been settled for so long, the open space of the west is both disorienting and exciting to me. Egan really captures the tensions in several parts of the west and though the book was written a while ago, it's just as relevant today than it was when it was written. Perhaps just a tiny addendum on the expansion of the anti-government Bundy clan.
July 26, 2015
Not until after I finished Egan's Lasso the Wind did I realize how fast the book went. Egan is the rare writer who can easily combine a meaningful and entertaining story. OK then a well-written story explains why the book went fast. Or maybe the fast pace is due the fact that Egan covers some 11 western states in the span of 250 pages. The book's tempo seems to come from someone who lives in New York, New York. I wonder if Egan has been making too many trips to The New York Times corporate office to pitch stories to his editor. Its probably not a coincidence that the author takes advantage of the "no speed limits" to rocket through a stretch of Montana, only to get the attention of a state trooper. Driving habits aside, Egan manages to get in touch with the heart of issues that are unique to the Western states. I enjoyed really getting to see these special places through his eyes.
Throughout the book, Egan sees the West with a candid and objective eye, but always remains hopeful. An excerpt from the end of the book on California really depicts Egan's thinking of the West:
"But every Westerner should look at California's story; as it turns out, it is their own history and the fount of most of their follies, a mirror across the Sierra. Radically altering the land, living on phony myths, ignoring the best features or trying to kill them. And it is Western glory in its own fine way: a new society, with a tolerance of fledgling souls, embracing the possible. What is different is that California has done it all faster, with more excess and greater consequence than any other Western state. To believe California is dead, then, is to believe that the West is dead, or soon will be. I cannot."
Throughout the book, Egan sees the West with a candid and objective eye, but always remains hopeful. An excerpt from the end of the book on California really depicts Egan's thinking of the West:
"But every Westerner should look at California's story; as it turns out, it is their own history and the fount of most of their follies, a mirror across the Sierra. Radically altering the land, living on phony myths, ignoring the best features or trying to kill them. And it is Western glory in its own fine way: a new society, with a tolerance of fledgling souls, embracing the possible. What is different is that California has done it all faster, with more excess and greater consequence than any other Western state. To believe California is dead, then, is to believe that the West is dead, or soon will be. I cannot."
December 27, 2019
It's fully a 2.5 stars for the base information. Which is universally stilted to reflect Timothy Egan's opinion and not the entire physical history or by numbers and inclusive facts, the reality by any means you could possibly measure. Especially upon the present day situational copy- what he omits too is as much a "window", as much as what he opines and includes. All negative "facts" re water and ranching especially highlighted, of course. And all those nasty "rich" people places like Sedona and Aspen! What a SHAME! Sometimes it made me laugh out loud. Because it's like reading the WEST of today through the eyes and language of a traveling Howard Zinn.
My enjoyment was 2 stars. At times it was 1 star. I dislike his (Egan's) hubris and core of superiority know better to the people who live, lived, will live (take your pick) their lives in these wide open spaces THAT MUCH. So much that it was hard for me to finish the book.
Lots of information. Some of it is extremely interesting. Some of it distorted to the places and cultures, particularly in the ones that I've been in/ with (modern day Mormons especially). And nearly in some cases, it's 180 degrees in "eyes" from the people who live, work, and love these vast lands. And it's done "glib" too when there seems to "exist" a parsing of those differences (Egan's and the people who live there). Half ridicule with a smidge of intellectual condescension always added.
I'm shocked too at the majority opinion. I just am.
Totally agree with the poster who classifies him as an urban preservationist who has no knowledge or clue to land management. Totally doesn't know what he doesn't know. That last is my opinion.
This was a book that was super hard to return to. His obnoxious pretentious smirks kept getting in the way.
My enjoyment was 2 stars. At times it was 1 star. I dislike his (Egan's) hubris and core of superiority know better to the people who live, lived, will live (take your pick) their lives in these wide open spaces THAT MUCH. So much that it was hard for me to finish the book.
Lots of information. Some of it is extremely interesting. Some of it distorted to the places and cultures, particularly in the ones that I've been in/ with (modern day Mormons especially). And nearly in some cases, it's 180 degrees in "eyes" from the people who live, work, and love these vast lands. And it's done "glib" too when there seems to "exist" a parsing of those differences (Egan's and the people who live there). Half ridicule with a smidge of intellectual condescension always added.
I'm shocked too at the majority opinion. I just am.
Totally agree with the poster who classifies him as an urban preservationist who has no knowledge or clue to land management. Totally doesn't know what he doesn't know. That last is my opinion.
This was a book that was super hard to return to. His obnoxious pretentious smirks kept getting in the way.
November 19, 2011
I am not really a fan of Egan, for a number of reasons (primarily I think he is an urbanite preservationist with no clue as to how land is managed, or that local products need land in order to be produced...is that harsh?). This book is a scathing view of ranching. I read three chapters (the ones about two places I've lived, actually), and though I don't agree with a lot of what he writes, the topic (the "new" west) has provoked a lot of conversations in my home and opened my mind to yet another (prevailing) perspective on land management in the west.
October 8, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. My disclaimer is that I like Timothy Egan's writing quite a bit, so reading this book was not an issue at all.
He covers the story of what he calls the "New West" by choosing localized stories from the states in the west: Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California. The stories are often about a controversy or a change that is happening in the area. In addition, Egan writes about his own experiences backpacking, fishing, going to trade shows, etc. while in these states.
He gives a good flavor of how the west is changing through these stories. In addition, he covers some great geography and it is written in such a way that might make a person want to travel to these places.
Great book. If I were teaching a course on this subject, I would definitely use this as a text.
He covers the story of what he calls the "New West" by choosing localized stories from the states in the west: Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California. The stories are often about a controversy or a change that is happening in the area. In addition, Egan writes about his own experiences backpacking, fishing, going to trade shows, etc. while in these states.
He gives a good flavor of how the west is changing through these stories. In addition, he covers some great geography and it is written in such a way that might make a person want to travel to these places.
Great book. If I were teaching a course on this subject, I would definitely use this as a text.
August 30, 2025
For this 1998 book, Timothy Egan takes the reader to 14 places to tell the story of the 11 states in the Western continental U.S. (mostly ignoring the West Coast).
I learned about things I'd previously known nothing about, such as:
* Cattle and horses, although such a major part of the story of the West, are not native to North America.
* The Las Vegas Strip is not in Las Vegas.
* The story of the Mountain Meadows massacre in Utah.
* The remarkable and sad history of Butte, Montana.
There is, naturally, a lot about conflicts over land and water. Egan doesn't let you wonder about his own opinions.
I learned about things I'd previously known nothing about, such as:
* Cattle and horses, although such a major part of the story of the West, are not native to North America.
* The Las Vegas Strip is not in Las Vegas.
* The story of the Mountain Meadows massacre in Utah.
* The remarkable and sad history of Butte, Montana.
There is, naturally, a lot about conflicts over land and water. Egan doesn't let you wonder about his own opinions.
April 19, 2012
I don't often read nonfiction books that make me laugh out loud, but this one did. Egan is something of a gonzo journalist, taking on the vast subject of the American West and finding in it cause for both wonder and humor. The book is a collection of 14 essays, in which the author travels to places in 11 different states, giving readers plenty of local history, descriptions of dramatic landscapes, and a portrayal of "custom and culture" that reels under colliding visions of what the West should be. At every turn, he has an eye for ironies that both reveal and entertain.
After an introduction that takes place at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he begins his journey in New Mexico and Arizona, then moves northward, swinging through Colorado, Montana, and the Great Basin states, ending in California. There is much about cowboys, cattlemen, and Native Americans. We also visit London Bridge at Lake Havasu, an ostrich ranch outside Denver, the pit left behind by the Anaconda copper mining company in Butte, the casinos of Las Vegas, and the site of an appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the back of a road sign in Sunnyside, Washington. There are accounts of fishing in the Bitterroots of Idaho, river rafting on the American River above Sacramento, and hunting for Anasazi petroglyphs in the canyons of the Escalante in Utah.
Meanwhile history comes alive from a colorful and sometimes jaundiced perspective in stories of the conquistador Don Juan de Oñate's conquest of the Indians at Acoma in New Mexico, the massacre of a wagon train of settlers by Mormons at Mountain Meadows, Utah, in the 1860s, and the California Gold Rush. There are historical figures who make vivid appearances, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Lewis and Clark, and Brigham Young. The most affecting story is the author's retelling of Chief Joseph and the fate of the Nez Perce.
Egan gives us a whirlwind trip across a vast area of the U.S. He touches on themes that are common in books about the west -- the follies and vanities of those who have defied the realities of its arid climate, laid waste to natural resources, decimated its wildlife, and attempted to eradicate its native populations. While there is much to lament in what it reveals of the devastation brought by settlement of the West, it also seeks earnestly for signs that the spirit of the West still survives and can eventually thrive.
I highly recommend this book as an addition to any bookshelf of Western nonfiction. As a companion volume, I also recommend Frank Clifford's "The Backbone of the World," which recounts a similar journey by a journalist across the states that lie along the Continental Divide.
After an introduction that takes place at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he begins his journey in New Mexico and Arizona, then moves northward, swinging through Colorado, Montana, and the Great Basin states, ending in California. There is much about cowboys, cattlemen, and Native Americans. We also visit London Bridge at Lake Havasu, an ostrich ranch outside Denver, the pit left behind by the Anaconda copper mining company in Butte, the casinos of Las Vegas, and the site of an appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the back of a road sign in Sunnyside, Washington. There are accounts of fishing in the Bitterroots of Idaho, river rafting on the American River above Sacramento, and hunting for Anasazi petroglyphs in the canyons of the Escalante in Utah.
Meanwhile history comes alive from a colorful and sometimes jaundiced perspective in stories of the conquistador Don Juan de Oñate's conquest of the Indians at Acoma in New Mexico, the massacre of a wagon train of settlers by Mormons at Mountain Meadows, Utah, in the 1860s, and the California Gold Rush. There are historical figures who make vivid appearances, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Lewis and Clark, and Brigham Young. The most affecting story is the author's retelling of Chief Joseph and the fate of the Nez Perce.
Egan gives us a whirlwind trip across a vast area of the U.S. He touches on themes that are common in books about the west -- the follies and vanities of those who have defied the realities of its arid climate, laid waste to natural resources, decimated its wildlife, and attempted to eradicate its native populations. While there is much to lament in what it reveals of the devastation brought by settlement of the West, it also seeks earnestly for signs that the spirit of the West still survives and can eventually thrive.
I highly recommend this book as an addition to any bookshelf of Western nonfiction. As a companion volume, I also recommend Frank Clifford's "The Backbone of the World," which recounts a similar journey by a journalist across the states that lie along the Continental Divide.
November 2, 2019
This is a well-written and though-provoking book that is challenging on multiple levels. Most importantly, it challenges the reader to think carefully about the West, what it is, what it should be, and where our ideas about both those things come from. This is exactly what Egan intended, but it is challenging in other ways he didn't intend. His writing, for example, is very poetic--indeed, at times it so poetic it is difficult to understand what he is saying. But more than the eccentricities of Egan's pose is the challenge of Egan's own ego. Despite repeatedly demanding the reader to challenge his or her views and assumptions of the West, Egan never once challenges himself to do the same.
Want to read
September 1, 2019*****************
*The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl 3 stars
*Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West TBR
September 13, 2023
This book is a love letter of the West. But true love means we see the object of our love through the prism of what shapes it including its dreaded faults. Egan takes that examination to the long rugged history of the western US and reveals it in all its flaws and glory. Part travelogue, Egan takes us to obscure places and shows us the people who live there now, the history of those who proceeded, and how conflict, exploration, land deals, wildlife, and the drive to establish settlements and 'tame the west' has defined this region of the United States. It's fascinating, enlightening, thought-provoking, and evocative.
"They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it", yet it still calls to us as something new.
Beautiful and captivating book.
"They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it", yet it still calls to us as something new.
Beautiful and captivating book.
September 8, 2021
This one took me a while to finish, not because I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it. It just got put on the back burner for a time.
If you like well thought out writing, love history, wonder how the west was carved from the rugged to the managed, struggle between the loss of all that is natural and wonder what life was like before convenience - I highly recommend this book! Be warned, if you are one to grieve the destruction of the natural for progress, chapters in this book may leave you wanting to roll back the hands of time.
P.S. Egan’s book The Worst Hard Time is one of my all time favorites!! Couldn’t put it down!
If you like well thought out writing, love history, wonder how the west was carved from the rugged to the managed, struggle between the loss of all that is natural and wonder what life was like before convenience - I highly recommend this book! Be warned, if you are one to grieve the destruction of the natural for progress, chapters in this book may leave you wanting to roll back the hands of time.
P.S. Egan’s book The Worst Hard Time is one of my all time favorites!! Couldn’t put it down!
December 16, 2023
Timely, fascinating and alarming documentation of the author's journey through the western US and the impact of "civilization" on the Colorado River. Mr. Egan's encounters with people, their perspectives and the history behind each region make for great storytelling and the book is a wonderful read.
Timothy Egan once again informs us of who we are and how we got here. I highly recommend this book to any reader, and especially to those who wish to know more about water in the west.
Timothy Egan once again informs us of who we are and how we got here. I highly recommend this book to any reader, and especially to those who wish to know more about water in the west.
March 27, 2018
Timothy Egan begins this western journey in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Awed by the Grand Teton; or, “big tit,” his words and one of the seven dirty ones which made George Carlin famous. Then upper class has arrived, building McMansions, which, in my view, is the real obscenity, not Carlin’s language. Egan shares my wrath, calling the houses “trophy homes,” owned by the idle rich, while cops, firefighters and teachers can no longer afford to live where they work. Next up is New Mexico and the battle between Kit Laney, a cattle rancher in Catron County, and the U.S. government over grazing fees. It is also the place where Billy the Kid grew up the son of an Irish immigrant buried there. The cattle have over grazed the land and the timber industry has devastated the forest through clear cutting. Egan next travels to Acoma, New Mexico and takes us back to the 1500s with Spanish invaders demanding Indians give up their sun gods for “one true church of Rome.” They are easily defeated and have their hands and feet amputated by the good Christians. Lake Havasu is destination #4 and Egan describes the Joshua tress in the Mojave Desert. Nearby, the Brits have reassembled a 700 foot span of London Bridge; strange but true. The Parker Dam followed the Hoover Dam and created Lake Havasu from the water of the Colorado River. Egan remains in New Mexico and rides a horse and admires the overwhelming beauty of the Grand Canyon, which Teddy Roosevelt had the wisdom to declare a national monument. And now we have the Twitter King, while the leaders of the past are gone and in the dust bins of history. Escalante, Utah, ironically named after an 18th century Franciscan missionary, is Egan’s next stop. He seeks rock art and the murals carved into the mountains are spectacular. He should have included photographs in this chapter, as a picture is worth 1,000 words. Egan then detours to Sin City and he proceeds to lose a few dollars at the slot machines and ventures out into the desert while pondering the Joshua tree, named by Mormons for the biblical prophet. It is a desert town turned into a city of over one million by diverting water from Lake Mead and the Colorado River. “Lose a week’s pay, get drunk, get laid, it’s the American Vatican for vice.” And now from sinners to saints; St. George, that is and a brief history of the Mountain Meadow Massacre in 1857. A wagon train of gentiles (non-Mormons) was ambushed and slaughtered on orders from Brigham Young. Men, women and children were shot and had their throats cut; a prophecy known as “blood atonement,” a part of early Mormon doctrine. Letters to Brigham Young have conveniently disappeared from extensive church archives and Indians were blamed for the atrocity. Such B.S., as denial is not a river in Egypt. Mark Twain can always be relied upon for the proper perspective. “Utah is an absolute monarchy and Brigham Young is king.” Egan take a tour of Young’s bedroom and asks the elder where the 27 wives slept and is told that he marriages were “symbolic.” The author wonders where the 56 children came from. Hey Timothy, they didn’t call him Bring ‘am Young for no reason. On to Highland’s Ranch, Colorado with its breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains and back to Egan’s humor and tale of Ken Turnbull’s ostrich ranch. The neighboring cattleman think he’s nuts. A brief history of bison and cattle follows. Egan moves on to Butte, Montana and sees a community poisoned by copper mining. The water is contaminated with heavy metals and is the most toxic site in America. His Catholic heart remains hopeful, as he marvels at a 90 foot Our Lady of the Rockies statue overlooking the valley, hoping for a miracle. From the gloom of Butte, Egan travels through southern Montana and to Yellowstone National Park and then he ventures into the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho for some camping and fishing with two of his younger brothers. I can only envy Egan’s adventurous spirit as I have lived in New York my entire life. After a few days in the wilderness, Timothy finds himself in Joseph, Oregon where clear cutting by the timber industry has devastated the landscape. Lewis and Clark had survived there, only due to help from the Nez Perce, an Indian tribe who fed them when they were starving. The tribe was later vanquished by white settlers as treaties were broken; and so it goes. And now to the author’s home state of Washington and his Catholic roots reemerge at a gathering of the faithful, praying mostly in Spanish at a traffic sign said to have an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Egan marvels at the growing Latino population and the racism they must endure. He shares their reverence for the Virgin Mary, although he does not see the image. He goes back a second time when the crowds are gone and says, “I saw more than I had seen before, the rainbow outline of color, and if I had really tried hard I could have seen a face. But I was not disappointed. In ten years time, maybe less, I knew I might look at a road sign in one of these valleys, on a day when other things seemed flat, and see the Mother of God. It was inevitable,” And last but not least, California, to raft on the American River in the Sierra Nevada. The gold rush brought thousands of Chinese, Russians, Swedes, and even Timothy’s ancestors speaking Gaelic. Egan loves the west and this book shows us why.
August 19, 2025
This is a must read for anyone who lives or loves the West. Some chapters are better than others, but it paints a much more varied tale of the West than the one we get in school. He’s a terrific writer and I loved learning more about the places I grew up exploring.
January 19, 2022
It’s almost depressing to see human nature on display in the history of the American West, but Egan explores and displays that history with unflinching style and personality.
May 25, 2025
decently well written, but not as well as his book on the dust bowl. also, unlike the dust bowl book this one is topical, which means that it is now fairly dated.
August 12, 2024
Selected this after seeing a friend recommend it and realized it was written in 1998. But it could just as easily be written today and tbh would love to see Egan revisit some of these places for an update! but the blend of the modern-day West with the authentic history of these places is a great lesson.
October 12, 2024
Very informative, but super slow read. Felt like I could never finish it. Fascinating how California got its name…Califa, the single breasted warrior queen legend.
October 21, 2020
This is one of Timothy Egan's earlier books but the only one I had not yet read. He visits 15 different places in the American West and brings out both a current story from these places, as well as their histories. Many are tied together with five stories in the middle section all centered in the Grand Canyon area. Each brings out different themes but builds on themes talked about in previous chapters. I thought the book might feel dated but the issues he wrote about 20+ years ago remain and the history helps us understand these places at a deeper level. Another strong book by Timothy Egan.
September 28, 2017
Getting close to having read all of Timothy Egan's books. Another good one. I grew up in California, live in Seattle, identify as a West Coaster, which can mean progressive, near water, green in color of my landscape and environmental world view. This book is more of an exploration of Wallace Stegner meets the people who screwed Sherman Alexie's people.......hard scrabble, "white westerners," claiming cultural authority over the lands taken from native Americans, keeping away from immigrant Americans, and charting negative environmental impacts in the name of making a buck by creating communities in places where communities should not naturally belong (Phoenix...Los Angeles.....etc...). While written in 1998, the themes keep repeating themselves today. A sobering, depressing, perhaps with slight glimmers of hope read. Any westerner should read and understand the issues conveyed.
August 28, 2016
a thoroughly depressing book about the settling of the West. The chapters on Butte, Montana and Las Vegas were particularly distressing. Egan destroys the myth of the west and the cowboy mythos that goes with it. i could not finish as it was too distressing, but as always a good book by Mr. Egan.
May 25, 2017
Love the way Tim Egan writes.
April 27, 2021
Non fiction about how we destroyed the west. Informative.
November 17, 2023
Have you watched the PBS program, America Outdoors, with Baratunde Thurston? It’s like a travelogue which delves into history and tender issues of race, politics, and culture. As I read Timothy Egan’s 1998 book, Lasso the Wind, I found the same satisfaction. Each chapter take the reader on an outdoor visit to one of fourteen western locations from New Mexico and Arizona to Idaho and Montana. These tours, however, aren’t what the local Chamber of Commerce would recommend. Egan zeroes in on places which epitomize the pathos of the American West because of their history and because of current conflicts.
He starts in my home state, New Mexico—first, with Catron County, where Anglo ranchers (or wannabe cowboys) have stamped their identity on the land since the 1880s, and where a young cattleman stubbornly persists in using public land as if it’s his private grazing property. Next, Egan goes to Acoma Pueblo, the “city in the sky” continuously occupied atop a high mesa for a thousand years or more despite the efforts of Spanish conquistadors.
In Arizona, Egan spotlights Lake Havasu City, site of the transplanted London Bridge, moved stone-by-stone from England to attract visitors and newcomers. And then on to Supai, the village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River, a place reserved for the Havasupai tribe who have occupied it for about eight hundred years.
Through Utah and the box canyons of Escalante, and on to Las Vegas, which squanders a scandalous amount of water to maintain its ever-changing façade as an oasis in the desert. Back to Utah and the cover-up of dishonorable deeds of Brigham Young and the first Mormons involved in the Mountain Meadows Massacre of travelers from Arkansas making their way to California.
There’s the man south of Denver raising ostriches, and the Anaconda Copper Mine that ruined the ecology of Butte, Montana, contrasted with Paradise Valley and the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, places not yet ruined by loggers and commercial development.
The chapters dealing with Oregon, Washington, and California plunge further into the history of white people moving in and pushing aside the Indigenous people and increasingly sharing space with Latinos.
In the chronological context of Egan’s journalistic books, Lasso the Wind shows an earlier style, not as concise as more recent publications; however, even 25 years ago, he was digging into history, probing difficult issues, and setting forth fascinating stories with important implications for how we share life on this continent. The eight-page introduction ties the 14 chapters together: “So I have tried to find a true West at the start of the next hundred years, leaving the boundaries of the old metaphors in search of something closer to the way we live.” (p. 10)
If you’ve lived in the West, or if you plan to travel there, I recommend reading Lasso the Wind to gain a perspective you might not find anywhere else.
January 7, 2019
Full-time RVers who travel the country, my husband and I spent time in nearly every area Timothy Egan discusses in this enthralling book. The book is labeled "Travel/History," but it's much more than that, various parts history and travel, but also geology, geography, and culture, all wrapped inside a personal narrative that balances what could be dry, impersonal rhetoric with a humorous and often deft touch, especially when the subject is something as controversial (in some circles) as the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
My husband and I read this book together, as we often do with books of this sort, and it was like sharing another dimension of having visited these places together: we saw deeper into the canyons, farther along the river channels, and higher than the Tetons we'd actually set feet on. We found ourselves nodding, saying, "Yep, that's what we saw when we were there," or, "Yep, those were our impressions of that town, too."
But sometimes we ached for the update: the book is now twenty years old, and so much change is suggested in it that we wished for a revised version, one with a new introduction or appended section, something like "Since this book was originally published...."
Egan's attempt to define (even loosely) the "New West" wasn't entirely successful for me though, perhaps because I will always see the West as The West, somehow ageless, and certainly no more affected (or not) by the changing times as any other part of the country. How would one define the "New East"? Or "New Midwest"? Time is relative, and it seemed more of a distraction for me that Egan was endeavoring to fit the West into some confining label. Maybe if I'd been born and raised in Montana, as Egan was, I'd have a better appreciation of what he was after.
For our part, the West is The West -- filled with cantakerous folks whose roots in the region go way, way back. Scattered in the far-flung towns of the mountains and valleys live hard-working ranchers and farmers, people caught up in the love-hate relationship they have with tourists (need those dollars but hate the traffic, noise, and exposure they bring). In very tucked-away spots, we've come across folks who really don't want to be found (in one town, people even referred to their rural neighbors as "those Deliverance people").
If Egan sees the New West as the infiltration of those who destroy the beauty of a place because they love it so much (by moving in and being unwilling to leave behind their need for Starbucks and Walmart and other creature comforts), then I get it. But that's happening everywhere. Everywhere. Not just the West. And it's a shame.
My husband and I read this book together, as we often do with books of this sort, and it was like sharing another dimension of having visited these places together: we saw deeper into the canyons, farther along the river channels, and higher than the Tetons we'd actually set feet on. We found ourselves nodding, saying, "Yep, that's what we saw when we were there," or, "Yep, those were our impressions of that town, too."
But sometimes we ached for the update: the book is now twenty years old, and so much change is suggested in it that we wished for a revised version, one with a new introduction or appended section, something like "Since this book was originally published...."
Egan's attempt to define (even loosely) the "New West" wasn't entirely successful for me though, perhaps because I will always see the West as The West, somehow ageless, and certainly no more affected (or not) by the changing times as any other part of the country. How would one define the "New East"? Or "New Midwest"? Time is relative, and it seemed more of a distraction for me that Egan was endeavoring to fit the West into some confining label. Maybe if I'd been born and raised in Montana, as Egan was, I'd have a better appreciation of what he was after.
For our part, the West is The West -- filled with cantakerous folks whose roots in the region go way, way back. Scattered in the far-flung towns of the mountains and valleys live hard-working ranchers and farmers, people caught up in the love-hate relationship they have with tourists (need those dollars but hate the traffic, noise, and exposure they bring). In very tucked-away spots, we've come across folks who really don't want to be found (in one town, people even referred to their rural neighbors as "those Deliverance people").
If Egan sees the New West as the infiltration of those who destroy the beauty of a place because they love it so much (by moving in and being unwilling to leave behind their need for Starbucks and Walmart and other creature comforts), then I get it. But that's happening everywhere. Everywhere. Not just the West. And it's a shame.
December 9, 2025
Once again, Timothy Egan makes a case for why humans are silly and nature is an all-powerful force to respect and admire.
Reiterating the subject of conserving water and the inherit risks involved, Egan shows why dams are bad and hold a strong irony for their “creator”, John Wesley Powell, who didn’t really want them and thought they would hinder growth down the line. And I learned some fun new facts about some of the ludicrous modern water shortage solutions!
Egan also creates interesting discussion related to early expansion viewed through the lens of the 19th century versus the 20th century, with some stark differences. Romanticizing cowboys, the desecration of buffalos and Native tribes, and the abuse of Earth’s natural resources for profit, not progress.
I also want to say that these were some of the best chapter endings I’ve ever read - here are a few:
“They are not, as it turns out, The Only True People On Earth. But enough people think they are something close to that, and so the world has worn the only path to their door.”
“Bringing back the Old West might save them after all; they just had the wrong Old West.”
“They loved this damn hard ground, for all its torture; when someway is found to make it love them back, Montana will be free.”
Reiterating the subject of conserving water and the inherit risks involved, Egan shows why dams are bad and hold a strong irony for their “creator”, John Wesley Powell, who didn’t really want them and thought they would hinder growth down the line. And I learned some fun new facts about some of the ludicrous modern water shortage solutions!
Egan also creates interesting discussion related to early expansion viewed through the lens of the 19th century versus the 20th century, with some stark differences. Romanticizing cowboys, the desecration of buffalos and Native tribes, and the abuse of Earth’s natural resources for profit, not progress.
I also want to say that these were some of the best chapter endings I’ve ever read - here are a few:
“They are not, as it turns out, The Only True People On Earth. But enough people think they are something close to that, and so the world has worn the only path to their door.”
“Bringing back the Old West might save them after all; they just had the wrong Old West.”
“They loved this damn hard ground, for all its torture; when someway is found to make it love them back, Montana will be free.”
December 17, 2025
This delightful book, published in 1999, is Eagin’s ode to the great western half of the United States. The collection of stories is part history, part travelogue, part diary, and solid journalism.
Everyone and everything are here. The golden sunsets, the Chinese laying tracks, Mark Twain, arriving in California and declaring, “To breathe the same air as angels, you must go to Tahoe.” Eagin moves effortlessly from trout fishing with his brothers, to Spanish atrocities, to the Mountain Meadows Massacre—the Mormon’s massacring over 175 westbound settlers in one of the US’s most ignored and forgotten mass-murders. No matter what state the ground eventually became, it shared a similar backstory: developers raped the land, violence ruled, and the indigenous people were swept away as if they never walked the earth.
Brutal and poetic, educational and entertaining, Lasso, as its name implies, tries to capture that which is uncapturable. Eagin, whose adoration of the territory comes through in every page, manages to do just that. Makes you want to get in your car and drive west. No destination. No reservations. Just drive.
Everyone and everything are here. The golden sunsets, the Chinese laying tracks, Mark Twain, arriving in California and declaring, “To breathe the same air as angels, you must go to Tahoe.” Eagin moves effortlessly from trout fishing with his brothers, to Spanish atrocities, to the Mountain Meadows Massacre—the Mormon’s massacring over 175 westbound settlers in one of the US’s most ignored and forgotten mass-murders. No matter what state the ground eventually became, it shared a similar backstory: developers raped the land, violence ruled, and the indigenous people were swept away as if they never walked the earth.
Brutal and poetic, educational and entertaining, Lasso, as its name implies, tries to capture that which is uncapturable. Eagin, whose adoration of the territory comes through in every page, manages to do just that. Makes you want to get in your car and drive west. No destination. No reservations. Just drive.
August 31, 2018
One of Timothy Egan's earlier books, this is a combination tour and ode to the West. With absolutely beautiful (but not syrupy) prose, he unfolds the West of the past and what it is now. He covers the history of the land and the people in each area he focuses on and in doing so, clearly shows how much climate and geography affect peoples' adaptation and how that adaptation shapes history.
He writes about specific areas of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. In each chapter, his travels take him to areas where he can learn about either specific ancestral history and/or geographic history. It is a fascinating read (especially so if you have traveled to any of the areas about which he writes). (It was published in 1998 so there are aspects that are dated.)
He writes about specific areas of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. In each chapter, his travels take him to areas where he can learn about either specific ancestral history and/or geographic history. It is a fascinating read (especially so if you have traveled to any of the areas about which he writes). (It was published in 1998 so there are aspects that are dated.)
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