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Frog Mountain Blues
The Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson—whose summit is called Frog Mountain by the Tohono O’odham—offers up to the citizens of the basins below a wilderness in their own backyard.
When it was first published in 1987, Frog Mountain Blues documented the creeping sprawl of new development up the Catalinas’ foothills. Today, that development is fully visible, but Charles Bowden’s prescience of the urgency to preserve and protect a sacred recreational space remains as vivid as ever. Accompanied by Jack W. Dykinga’s photographs from the original work, this book continues to convey the natural beauty of the Catalinas and warns readers that this unique wilderness could easily be lost.
As Alison Hawthorne Deming writes in the new foreword, “ Frog Mountain Blues continues to be an important book for learning to read this place through the eyes of experience and history, and Bowden remains a sobering voice for facing our failures in protecting what we love in this time of global destruction, for taking seriously the power of language to set ourselves right again with the enormous task of living with purpose and presence and care on the land.”
When it was first published in 1987, Frog Mountain Blues documented the creeping sprawl of new development up the Catalinas’ foothills. Today, that development is fully visible, but Charles Bowden’s prescience of the urgency to preserve and protect a sacred recreational space remains as vivid as ever. Accompanied by Jack W. Dykinga’s photographs from the original work, this book continues to convey the natural beauty of the Catalinas and warns readers that this unique wilderness could easily be lost.
As Alison Hawthorne Deming writes in the new foreword, “ Frog Mountain Blues continues to be an important book for learning to read this place through the eyes of experience and history, and Bowden remains a sobering voice for facing our failures in protecting what we love in this time of global destruction, for taking seriously the power of language to set ourselves right again with the enormous task of living with purpose and presence and care on the land.”
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
7 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Charles Bowden
67 books184 followersCharles Bowden was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
His journalism appeared regularly in Harper’s GQ, and other national publications. He was the author of several books of nonfiction, including Down by the River.
In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to the roiling places that give such ideas the lie. He claimed as his turf "our soul history, the germinal material, vast and brooding, that is always left out of more orthodox (all of them) books about America" (Jim Harrison, on Blood Orchid ).
His journalism appeared regularly in Harper’s GQ, and other national publications. He was the author of several books of nonfiction, including Down by the River.
In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to the roiling places that give such ideas the lie. He claimed as his turf "our soul history, the germinal material, vast and brooding, that is always left out of more orthodox (all of them) books about America" (Jim Harrison, on Blood Orchid ).
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 12, 2021
This book was recently recommended by a friend who was a classmate when I was at the University of Arizona in Tucson in the early 1990s. Bowden was a vaguely familiar name from that time, and the Catalinas a very familiar mountain range. All these years later and many miles away, a print of Sabino Canyon dominates our dining room. I bought the book, hoping it would provide a bit of escape from a New England winter. It provided that and more; I am adding it to the syllabus for my Land Protection class.
The Catalina Mountain range is one of many "sky islands" that dot the Basin & Range province of the Desert Southwest. They soar a vertical mile and a half above the city of Tucson, which has been gradually encroaching on its southern flank for about a century.
Because they have been pushed up through the arid plains to great heights, the high ranges of Arizona and New Mexico exhibit many kinds of complexity -- geologic, topographic, climatic, and ecological. Among all such ranges, the Catalinas are the most closely intertwined with a major city: Tucson. Covering an area only about twice the size of the city itself, the Catalinas include a variety of landscapes and biomes almost as great as that of the entire continent.
Bowden moved to the city as a child in the 1950s and had been bonding with the Catalinas for three decades when he published this work. He transports the reader to many of its unique environments while convincing us that the Catalinas cannot be fully discovered by anyone.
The book is not only a paean to a place he loves but also a sermon about the need to protect the Catalinas and other places that have retained any of their wildness. And like any really good preacher, he confesses his own sins: he does not deny his own responsibility for what has been lost. In fact, he argues, the Catalinas merit not only protection but also restoration: he makes a valiant case for the unwinding of some of the encroachments that have already taken place.
The Catalina Mountain range is one of many "sky islands" that dot the Basin & Range province of the Desert Southwest. They soar a vertical mile and a half above the city of Tucson, which has been gradually encroaching on its southern flank for about a century.
Because they have been pushed up through the arid plains to great heights, the high ranges of Arizona and New Mexico exhibit many kinds of complexity -- geologic, topographic, climatic, and ecological. Among all such ranges, the Catalinas are the most closely intertwined with a major city: Tucson. Covering an area only about twice the size of the city itself, the Catalinas include a variety of landscapes and biomes almost as great as that of the entire continent.
Bowden moved to the city as a child in the 1950s and had been bonding with the Catalinas for three decades when he published this work. He transports the reader to many of its unique environments while convincing us that the Catalinas cannot be fully discovered by anyone.
The book is not only a paean to a place he loves but also a sermon about the need to protect the Catalinas and other places that have retained any of their wildness. And like any really good preacher, he confesses his own sins: he does not deny his own responsibility for what has been lost. In fact, he argues, the Catalinas merit not only protection but also restoration: he makes a valiant case for the unwinding of some of the encroachments that have already taken place.
July 25, 2025
Really loved this book. Loved learning some of the history it talks about since it was my first time being exposed to things like the myth of the Iron Door mine and hearing about some of the people who have made their mark on the mountain. Had some difficulty following Bowden’s tendency to be poetic and ironic about things, but I think I get what he was saying with this book.
The Catalinas are my favorite mountain range in the world. I grew up visiting them with my family, saw my first bear while picnicking at the summit as a kid, saw a dead body on the side of the road while driving up the mountain, and bonded with old and new friends on countless trips up Mount Lemmon. I’ve also spent hundreds of hours doing trail maintenance up there. Just last year, I even saw a UFO while backpacking and swimming in the backcountry pools with some new friends that love the mountain just as much as I do
All of these experiences were made possible by the Mt Lemmon highway—an access point that this book critiques and ultimately suggests should be destroyed to allow the mountain and its ecosystem to heal. After reading it, I can’t help but agree.
The Catalinas are my favorite mountain range in the world. I grew up visiting them with my family, saw my first bear while picnicking at the summit as a kid, saw a dead body on the side of the road while driving up the mountain, and bonded with old and new friends on countless trips up Mount Lemmon. I’ve also spent hundreds of hours doing trail maintenance up there. Just last year, I even saw a UFO while backpacking and swimming in the backcountry pools with some new friends that love the mountain just as much as I do
All of these experiences were made possible by the Mt Lemmon highway—an access point that this book critiques and ultimately suggests should be destroyed to allow the mountain and its ecosystem to heal. After reading it, I can’t help but agree.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2020
I first read this 23 years ago, intrigued that one of my friends (Tom Harlan) was mentioned in it. Rereading it now, decades later, I am moved not only by the author’s excellent writing skill, but by the flood of visual memories I have of the beloved Catalina mountains . . . memories of my years living in Tucson from age 10 to 19, seeing the mountains daily. And loving them. A great, profound read.
June 4, 2025
-4.5- This was a fantastic book regarding unwanted change. This book was written in 1987 when the Tucson, Az population was 500,000 people and the author was concerned major population in Tucson was going to dramatically alter the Santa Catalina Mountain range which majestically rises over the city of Tucson. Well guess what? In the year of our lord (sorry could not resist) 2025 the city of Tuck-Sun which is what I call it the population is?! 500,000 and change. So those catastrophic concerns that Bowden had about uncontrolled runaway growth and insane development destroying the Santa Catalina Mountains just never materialized. In the case of this book it does not detract too badly from this being an anthem about greed and dramatic change but much like that dumb shit Al Gore the pearl clutching and whining about climate change needs to be tempered with truth and science. He discusses the cutting down of trees older than the 1492 Columbus arrival in America for a Ski resort and it pisses him off. You know what it pisses me off as well. Bowden does a great job of forcing you to confront the shitty rapine nature of man and his environment. We take an awful lot and rarely give back. On that score he is dead right, in many cases literally. Another fantastic book covering an important topic. I recommend it.
December 7, 2023
I have spent a lot of meaningful time in the Catalina mountains over the last 6 years and it was such a treat to read this book while watching the sun slowly rise over their flanks in the early morning from my second story apartment. Bowden is a crunchy, repelling but undeniably affecting narrator through these essays/excursions. For those curious about Tucson in the 80's this is a compelling glimpse into one man's prickly environmentalism.
April 21, 2021
Some nice nature writing but not nearly enough examination of the entitlement in his philosophy of conservation. This did lead me to google intersectional conservationism, which is a thing, so I look forward to reading more of that instead of a history of some old white men who drink too much and think that everyone except them should stop exploring nature.
March 20, 2021
A lovely read, and it already got me back up in the Catalinas. I have more of Bowden’s books on hold already.
April 16, 2011
Frog Mountain Blues was written in 1987 but is still relevant. I am not sure much has changed. It is the story of thinking like the mountain, of being part of wildness. I liked that Bowden was able to credit those who had a different way of thinking like the mountain.
Since moving to Wenatchee I have become passionate about my river (the Columbia), my mountains (the Cascades), my foothills - all the space around Wenatchee. I am also passionate about the approach that the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust takes to work with people who have a different approach to the mountain. I am not very good at listening and honoring other points of view when it comes to my foothills, but I am learning from masters.
Two quotes from Bowden that particularly moved one at he very beginning of the book. An old man is talking about the mountain and looking at the swaths cut down for skiing, the communication towers, etc. He says: "You know, there is no Bill of Rights for mountain tops."
I thought - maybe there is almost a Bill of Rights now for our foothills.
Towards the end (the book is only 155 pages and 10% or more is pictures) I read what I need to remember and what I need to avoid as we try to provide that Bill of Rights:
"That is the mountain of my dreams, the one worth saving, the one ignored in the Environmental Impact Statements, the master plans, the zoning hearings, the meetings, the loose talk of our efforts to preserve, conserve and manage, That is the mountain that can be called alpine forest or creosote flat, the place that sometimes is within national park boundaries.... We come to this mountain through our various filters and lives...."
Since moving to Wenatchee I have become passionate about my river (the Columbia), my mountains (the Cascades), my foothills - all the space around Wenatchee. I am also passionate about the approach that the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust takes to work with people who have a different approach to the mountain. I am not very good at listening and honoring other points of view when it comes to my foothills, but I am learning from masters.
Two quotes from Bowden that particularly moved one at he very beginning of the book. An old man is talking about the mountain and looking at the swaths cut down for skiing, the communication towers, etc. He says: "You know, there is no Bill of Rights for mountain tops."
I thought - maybe there is almost a Bill of Rights now for our foothills.
Towards the end (the book is only 155 pages and 10% or more is pictures) I read what I need to remember and what I need to avoid as we try to provide that Bill of Rights:
"That is the mountain of my dreams, the one worth saving, the one ignored in the Environmental Impact Statements, the master plans, the zoning hearings, the meetings, the loose talk of our efforts to preserve, conserve and manage, That is the mountain that can be called alpine forest or creosote flat, the place that sometimes is within national park boundaries.... We come to this mountain through our various filters and lives...."
Read
September 17, 2024A thoughtful and varied elucidation on the history of the Santa Catalina mountains in Arizona, and a grim portent of things to come. Oh Charles, if only you could see the machines pounding down right now on the ancient rock in the mountains outside my window, carving a path for the new luxury gondola.
Bowden's lament for the mountains isn't rooted in any familiar notions of environmentalism. He isn't satisfied with the incremental changes -- a new wildlife reserve here, some hunting regulations there, forestry service initiatives that promise to mitigate human interference. What he wants is something more demanding and less convincing to a general public: for the mountains to simply be left alone. But of course that won't happen, as long as carving up the land remains profitable. Thus, all he can do is sing his blues. And all we can do, intentely, is listen.
Bowden's lament for the mountains isn't rooted in any familiar notions of environmentalism. He isn't satisfied with the incremental changes -- a new wildlife reserve here, some hunting regulations there, forestry service initiatives that promise to mitigate human interference. What he wants is something more demanding and less convincing to a general public: for the mountains to simply be left alone. But of course that won't happen, as long as carving up the land remains profitable. Thus, all he can do is sing his blues. And all we can do, intentely, is listen.
March 16, 2012
I read this when I lived in Tucson and would stare at the Catalinas every day. Like every Tucsonan, I loved the Catalinas. The were always North and yielded their gifts gradually: The foothills, Sabino Canyon, Loma Linda and the spectacular front range, the summit and Summerhaven. The backside was even better. Chuck's voice is true as granite and captures the wonder and majesty of this range beautifully.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews