Miles from Nowhere: 2tales from America's Contemporary Frontier

A perceptive and engaging observer, Duncan ( Out West: An American Journey ) set out in 1990 aboard the GMC Suburban truck he dubbed the Conestoga to describe life in several vast, underpopulated Western counties ``where a land-hungry nation nibbled but lost its normal appetite.'' Duncan is no questing William Least Heat Moon or quirky Ian Frazier, but he ably melds history and reportage: as in the past, the schoolteacher and the rancher are the frontier couple. Although most frontier dwellers approach a cowboy stereotype, Duncan meets New Agers in Colorado's Saguache County; he notes a parallel to the days of the old frontier, when land was also marketed to people on the basis of dreams. Yet he also finds modernity, ``the first commuters' gold rush,'' in Nevada, and regularly tracks the ``irreducible minimum''--establishments a county can't function without--citing hairdressers and video rental stores. He concludes with a reasoned rebuke to the academics who argue that economic, climatic and social distress will depopulate these regions. ``They have overlooked the irreducible minimum,'' he argues, claiming that sparsely settled places may undergo difficult adjustments but will persist. (May)