Shooting Polaris

A Personal Survey in the American West

Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Shooting Polaris by John Hales, University of Missouri Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John Hales ISBN: 9780826264954
Publisher: University of Missouri Press Publication: April 24, 2013
Imprint: University of Missouri Language: English
Author: John Hales
ISBN: 9780826264954
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Publication: April 24, 2013
Imprint: University of Missouri
Language: English

Shooting Polaris is John Hales’s fascinating and far-reaching account of working as a government surveyor in the southern Utah desert. In it, he describes his search for a place in the natural world, beginning with an afternoon spent tracking down a lost crew member who cracked up on the job and concluding with his supervising a group of at-risk teenagers on a backpacking trip in the Escalante wilderness. In between, he depicts a range of experiences in and outside nature, including hostile barroom encounters between surveyors and tourists, weekends spent climbing Navajo Mountain and floating what remains of Glen Canyon, and late-night arguments concerning the meaning and purpose of nature with the eccentric polygamist who ran the town in which the surveyors parked their bunk trailers.

Although this work is autobiographical, Shooting Polaris is so much more. It is a reflection on man’s relationship to nature and work, American history and the movement into the West, the desire to impose order and the contrary impulse for unmediated experience, the idealistic legacy of the sixties, the influence of the Mormon Church, and the often-antagonistic relationship of American capitalism to sound ecological management. Along the way, Hales introduces engaging characters and reveals the art, science, and history of surveying, an endeavor that turns out to be surprisingly profound.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Shooting Polaris is John Hales’s fascinating and far-reaching account of working as a government surveyor in the southern Utah desert. In it, he describes his search for a place in the natural world, beginning with an afternoon spent tracking down a lost crew member who cracked up on the job and concluding with his supervising a group of at-risk teenagers on a backpacking trip in the Escalante wilderness. In between, he depicts a range of experiences in and outside nature, including hostile barroom encounters between surveyors and tourists, weekends spent climbing Navajo Mountain and floating what remains of Glen Canyon, and late-night arguments concerning the meaning and purpose of nature with the eccentric polygamist who ran the town in which the surveyors parked their bunk trailers.

Although this work is autobiographical, Shooting Polaris is so much more. It is a reflection on man’s relationship to nature and work, American history and the movement into the West, the desire to impose order and the contrary impulse for unmediated experience, the idealistic legacy of the sixties, the influence of the Mormon Church, and the often-antagonistic relationship of American capitalism to sound ecological management. Along the way, Hales introduces engaging characters and reveals the art, science, and history of surveying, an endeavor that turns out to be surprisingly profound.

More books from University of Missouri Press

Cover of the book A Friendship That Lasted a Lifetime by John Hales
Cover of the book The Plain Language of Love and Loss by John Hales
Cover of the book Captive of the Labyrinth by John Hales
Cover of the book Superfluous Southerners by John Hales
Cover of the book Mark Twain's Homes and Literary Tourism by John Hales
Cover of the book Dogface Soldier by John Hales
Cover of the book Broken Butterfly by John Hales
Cover of the book Daring to Be Different by John Hales
Cover of the book Footsteps on the Ice by John Hales
Cover of the book Indians and Archaeology of Missouri, Revised Edition by John Hales
Cover of the book The Prodigal Daughter by John Hales
Cover of the book Teddy Roosevelt and Leonard Wood by John Hales
Cover of the book Aristocracy in America by John Hales
Cover of the book Journeys to the Edge by John Hales
Cover of the book The Dead End Kids of St. Louis by John Hales
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy