"Most of Yosemite's nearly 4 million annual visitors leave the park without a scratch. For a few, however, a vacation in this world-famous land of cliffs and waterfalls takes a turn for the terrifying. That's where the YOSAR team comes in ... [In this book], Butch Farabee relates epic tales of endurance and survival, misadventure and fatal consequences"--Amazon.com.

375 exciting teales of heroism and tragedy drawn from the nearly 150,000 search and rescue missions carried out by the National Park Service since 1872.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled. For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city’s congested waterways. Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant’s peg leg and Robert Fulton’s “Folly”; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico’s; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even “Diamond” Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.

375 exciting tales of heroism and tragedy drawn from the nearly 150,000 search and rescue missions carried out by the National Park Service since 1872.

Discover the twists and turns of one of America’s great infrastructure projects with this “engrossing history of the creation of the U.S. interstate system” (Los Angeles Times). It’s become a part of the landscape that we take for granted, the site of rumbling eighteen-wheelers and roadside rest stops, a familiar route for commuters and vacationing families. But during the twentieth century, the interstate highway system dramatically changed the face of our nation. These interconnected roads—over 47,000 miles of them—are man-made wonders, economic pipelines, agents of sprawl, uniquely American symbols of escape and freedom, and an unrivaled public works accomplishment. Though officially named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this network of roadways has origins that reach all the way back to the World War I era, and The Big Roads—“the first thorough history of the expressway system” (The Washington Post)—tells the full story of how they came to be. From the speed demon who inspired a primitive web of dirt auto trails to the largely forgotten technocrats who planned the system years before Ike reached the White House to the city dwellers who resisted the concrete juggernaut when it bore down on their neighborhoods, this book reveals both the massive scale of this government engineering project, and the individual lives that have been transformed by it. A fast-paced history filled with fascinating detours, “the book is a road geek’s treasure—and everyone who travels the highways ought to know these stories” (Kirkus Reviews).

Presents the account, transcribed from journals written on the journey, of the 1911-12 expedition through eleven hundred miles of the Green and Colorado Rivers by the brothers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb.

Send a Ranger is the true story of one man’s dream to live and work as a ranger in our national parks. Author Tom Habecker began his 32-year career with the National Park Service as a student intern at Gettysburg National Military Park while earning a degree in park administration at Penn State University. The book details Tom’s progression from novice to journeyman park ranger, working in Yosemite, Glacier, and Denali National Parks. The book is full of exciting adventures, including search and rescue incidents, criminal investigations, grizzly bear maulings, backcountry horse patrols, darting and trapping problem bears, providing advanced emergency medical care, fire-fighting, winter survival, flying in aircraft in mountainous terrain, living in the Alaska wilderness and much more. These accounts are enhanced by verbatim entries from Tom’s daily journals. Written in an informal and sometimes humorous style, the book details the evolution of training, technology, and skills that today’s park rangers must have to perform their challenging job. The book also describes the challenges and rewards of living and raising children in national parks. Follow Tom’s children as they grow up in places most people only dream about. You will learn what it’s like living in a house that receives over 250” of snow, annually cutting six cords of wood for heat, residing in a remote one-room cabin, and driving 130 miles one-way to town in the harsh Alaska winter. Living in a national park offers experiences like no other. Peek behind the scenes and experience the daily life of a national park ranger and his family.

When 17-year-old Rilla is busted for partying 24 hours into arriving in Yosemite National Park to live with her park ranger sister, it’s a come-to-Jesus moment. Determined to make up for her screw-up and create a stable new home for herself, Rilla charms her way into a tight-knit group of climbers. But Rilla can’t help but be seduced by experiences she couldn’t have imagined back home. She sets her sights on climbing El Capitan, one of the most challenging routes in Yosemite, and her summer becomes one harrowing and ecstatic experience after another: first climb, first fall two thousand feet in the air, first love. But becoming the person Rilla feels she was meant to be jeopardizes the reasons why she came to Yosemite—a bright new future and a second chance at sisterhood. When her family and her future are at odds, what will Rilla choose?