Burntwater

by Scott Thybony

In Navajo country, where the land is thick with legends and forgotten histories, a writer sets out to find a place that no longer exists except on a few old Burntwater.The story opens when two friends get stuck in a remote pocket of the desert as a winter storm moves in. They are taking a wandering route across the Four Corners region, curving through Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona on a long arc into the mythic heart of the country.As they travel, the author calls up past experiences in this land where the past flows seamlessly into the present. He remembers a medicine man whose chanting could start the cold engine of a Volkswagen. He describes an act of sabotage against an oil company by two Vietnam vets armed with deer rifles. He recalls how a winter of herding sheep for a Navajo family and a search for a Hopi known as the Sun Chief led him further into a human landscape as strange and compelling as the terrain.This book takes the backroads, crossing the Colorado Plateau from the headwaters of the Virgin River to the mouth of the Dirty Devil, from the badlands below Twin Angels to a remote mesa in Bandelier. As the miles go by and the stories unfold, there is a growing sense of mystery, of words not spoken, of messages carried on the wind.Reaching the Shrine of the Stone Lions, the writer recounts a near-fatal descent into the Grand Canyon where he finds a way to reconnect with the beauty of life. There his journey ends with an emotional punch that goes straight to the mind and the heart.

117 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a used bookstore because it’s a travel log of an area in the southwest, but also because the author is from Flagstaff, AZ, very near to where I live.
I enjoyed his journey to the Four Corners area, where my husband and I have traveled many times. And as he points out in his book, the area changes each time you visit but very subtlely. The Four Corners area is filled with Navajo and Hopi history, culture and lore, and I never get tired of reading about it, or reading about other peoples’ experiences there. Scott Thybony highlights it’s stark and simple beauty, which can take your breath away and make you want to just sit, watch, listen, and soak up every minute there forever!
The author starts out in the story going on a journey with a friend to the Four Corners area, and eventually to a little known area called Burntwater which is not even on a map. However, as the story moves, so does the author’s thoughts, and he shifts to past experiences and stories about that same area.
It was confusing at times and seemed disjointed to me. Therefore I didn’t give it 5 stars. But somehow, by the end, it all blended together and I realized his purpose in recalling old memories.
For anyone who wants to visit the southwest, or just learn more about it, this book, only 117 pages, will explain how, once you experience it, the beauty and mystery and culture will lure you back, and stay with you forever.