Jeff Antonelis-Lapp. Tahoma and its People: A Natural History of Mount Rainier National Park
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BOOK REVIEW
Jeff Antonelis-Lapp. Tahoma and its People: A Natural History of Mount Rainier National Park Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 2020 Gary S. Silverman 1,2 Accepted: 11 August 2020 # AESS 2020
While prudently remaining home to avoid COVID, thoughts too frequently turn to the pleasure of wandering in the woods. Such prudence is made more difficult by reading Jeff Antonelis-Lapp’s splendid new book Tahoma and Its People. Mr. Antonelis-Lapp vividly shares his special love of the Mount Rainier National Park region, undoubtedly leaving many readers craving an experience at a magical place for themselves. Through treatment deftly mixing natural history, anthropology, and a host of related topics, readers learn of a remarkable area probably best experienced on foot. The book’s strength is its breadth, integration of topics, and easy readability. It serves well as an introduction to this region and as a source identifying more in-depth material. Its first chapter begins by providing an overview of Mount Rainier’s geology. Rather than being a purely technical chronicle, this chapter also provides anecdotal information about human interaction in investigating geology, and how geology affects the local population. It makes for enjoyable reading and should be of interest to many who would quickly numb to a listing of geologic features. The second chapter focuses on archaeology, providing brief descriptions of some of the native peoples who lived on and around the mountain (and from whom the mountain’s name Tahoma oriented before the British explorer George Vancouver re-named it Mount Rainer in 1792). Also * Gary S. Silverman [email protected] 1
Department of the Environment and Sustainability, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
2
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
described are some of the early European American explorations of the area, followed by a recent history of archaeological research and preservation work being done at Mount Rainer National Park. Much like the first chapter, the reader gathers information in accessible prose, similar in tone and substance in many ways to that experienced in the very best of national park ranger talks. The final five chapters of the book each explore a particular area around the mountain. Written somewhat as a first-person narrative, each chapter focuses on natural history while interspersing personal experiences and stories of local people. These chapters will not serve as stand-alone comprehensive natural history guides but rather as overviews of what visitors should expect. Reading all the chapters should be a great help in selecting a route for those interested in personally exploring the area, and careful reading of a particular chapter should help inform what other resources might be most useful if interested in more in-depth material. Antonelis-Lapp provides useful notes and references to help find appropriate materials for further research. Tahoma and Its Pe
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