Hiking to History: A Guide to Off-Road New Mexico Historic Sites Paperback – May 1, 2016 by Robert Julyan (University of New Mexico Press)

Robert Julyan, who has written or co-authored at least six other books about New Mexico and its geography, is also an inveterate hiker. Here he writes about sites of New Mexico history (broadly construed) that are off the beaten path and how to get to them via car (in a few instances, all-wheel drive) and then foot. Along with hiking information, Julyan provides GPS coordinates and a generous dose of the history relevant to the site in question. It's a great concept. While there may be books like this for other states, I haven't encountered any.

There are twenty-two chapters, one for each location. Here is a sampling of five of them: Mount Chalchihuitl, in Cerrillos Hills State Park, which for a thousand years was for Native Americans an important source of turquoise; the spot in the rugged slopes of Sandia Crest overlooking Albuquerque where TWA Flight 260 crashed in 1955 (which happens to be the earliest airplane crash I remember hearing news of); the place in the denuded terrain of Capitan Gap where, after a devastating forest fire in 1950, was found the singed bear cub who later became Smoky the Bear; the "boneyard" in Cookes Canyon north of Deming which in the late 1800s was the site of between 100 and 400 deaths of travelers, soldiers, and Indians in the fierce fighting between the Apaches and the encroaching Anglo-Americans supported by the U.S. Army (many of which were Buffalo Soldiers); and finally the two caves of Juan Maria de Agostini, aka the Hermit, a religious recluse who lived for five years on Cerro del Tecolote above Las Vegas, and then for two years (1867-1869) in a cave in the Organ Mountains outside Las Cruces, where he was murdered, stabbed in the back.

The chapters average about eight pages in length. In addition to an historical overview and the relevant GPS coordinates and other information on how to get to the site, each chapter includes two or three photographs and a brief listing of additional reading. The writing is informal and a pleasure to read. Robert Julyan is a congenial guy.

The book is made to order for New Mexico hikers who also are history fans. It should also appeal to sedentary history buffs with New Mexico connections. And it is sufficiently engaging that non-New Mexican armchair readers interested in offbeat history might also enjoy it.