Photography by Walter W. Nelson. Wichita Falls: Midwestern State University Press. 1^st edition. 100 pages. Hardcover in dustjacket; both are in FINE condition.

A photographic tour with text of one of the most extraordinary landscapes in America. Specifically, this book focuses upon the Devil’s Graveyard, a remote series of canyons that were donated to Midwestern State University as a site for research in the natural sciences. Located in Texas’ Big Bend region, it is a land lost in time. Seventy miles from the closest town, the area is so rugged that it is difficult to approach, even on foot. In Summer, temperatures on the ground can reach 150 degrees and then, when rain falls, flash floods rip through the washes. The dustjacket reports it to be “a place of breathtaking beauty where springs drip from walls of maidenhair fern, where verdant pools lie hidden at the base of lava cliffs, where mysterious rock formations challenge one’s sense of reality.” This is an elegant book that combines artistic photography capturing all four seasons – with attendant intense heat, electrical storms, avalanches, flash floods, and ice storms. The photography is coupled with appropriate history and science and the result is a profound exploration of this incredibly beautiful area.