UW Press’ First Author to Tour Wyoming This Month

Michael Amundson, the University of Wyoming Press’ (UWyoP) first author, will tour Wyoming this month to present on the UWyoP’s first book, “The Art and Life of Merritt Dana Houghton in the Northern Rockies, 1878-1919.”

Amundson’s book brings together -- for the first time -- over 200 bird’s-eye sketches created by pen-and-ink artist Merritt Dana Houghton between 1891 and 1915. These sketches capture towns, ranches, mines, businesses, historic sites and animals in Wyoming, northern Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Washington.

The tour will focus on places where Houghton worked and sketched.

“All of these locales contributed to images for the book,” Amundson says. “I’m genuinely excited to see all of the places Houghton sketched and worked in.”

The book presentation and signing tour is as follows:

-- Tuesday, June 20, 6 p.m.: Museum of the Mountain Man, 700 E. Hennick St., Pinedale.

-- Wednesday, June 21, 6 p.m.: Green River Valley Museum, 206 N. Front St., Big Piney.

-- Friday, June 23, 2 p.m.: Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum, 100 Fort St., Buffalo.

-- Saturday, June 24, 5:30 p.m.: Museum at the Bighorns, 850 Sibley Circle, Sheridan.

-- Sunday, June 25, 5 p.m.: Laramie Peak Museum, 1601 16th St., Wheatland.

-- Monday, June 26, 6 p.m.: Grand Encampment Museum, 807 Barnett Ave., Encampment.

-- Tuesday, June 27, 5:30 p.m.: Little Snake River Museum, 13 County Road 561, Savery.

-- Wednesday, June 28, 7 p.m.: Carbon County Museum, 904 W. Walnut St., Rawlins.

-- Thursday, June 29, 7 p.m.: Wyoming State Museum and Archives, 2301 Central Ave., Cheyenne.

Amundson is a professor of history at Northern Arizona University. He is the author of “Yellowcake Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West”; “Passage to Wonderland: Rephotographing Joseph Stimson’s Views of the Cody Road to Yellowstone National Park, 1903 and 2008”; and “Wyoming Revisited: Rephotographing the Scenes of Joseph E. Stimson.” He also is the co-editor of “Atomic Culture: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

Amundson received his B.S. in history and journalism in 1988 and his M.A. in American studies in 1990, both from UW. He earned his Ph.D. in history, with a focus on the American West, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1996. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Cowboys basketball team that reached the 1986 NIT championship and the Sweet 16 of the 1987 NCAA Tournament.

“The Art and Life of Merritt Dana Houghton in the Northern Rockies, 1878-1919” is available at https://upcolorado.com/university-of-wyoming-press.