Western Images, Western Landscapes: Travels Along U.S. 89

Images of the West are as varied as the landscape itself: untamed frontier, vast emptiness, a ``Big Rock Candy Mountain'' of opportunity, expanding cities, protected wilderness, playground. The Vales, geographers and authors of U.S. 40 Today , here cover 1500 miles, checking images against reality. Following U.S. Route 89 north, they pass through cities, ghost towns, bombing ranges, parklands; through desert, mountains, plains. While no single image appears dominant, the question of growth vs. preservation is always present. The authors conclude that the greatest threat to the character of the ``Interior West'' is increased numbers of people (and their encumbrances) rather than resource development. Neither a travel nor a guidebook, this would be useful as either; its forcefully delivered main point is to verify the different ways we value land. Photos. (Nov.)