During his 1938 visit, Carl Sandburg, accompanied by Thomas and Helen Ferril, visited an Arvada goat farm.

Thomas Hornsby Ferril inherited his love for fishing.

Monday marks the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. How will you mark the occasion? How about with some history?

Earlier this week, Bill Russell, celebrated basketball player, coach, commentator and activist, was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award presented by the United States. While many might associate Russell with Boston, and his long tenure with the Celtics, his collegiate career and activism began in the West with the University of San Francisco Dons.

Recent weeks have seen reviews of new works on the preservation of Alaska's wilderness, on the larger circumpolar world of the Arctic, and excerpts from a new book on the urban centers of the Great Basin and a memoir of Western wolf management.

Sometimes a book isn't just notable for its cover -- it's also a compelling object in itself. So it is with a 44-page accordion booklet entitled The Line accompanying David Taylor's larger photoessay entitled Working the Line.

Last week Denver Public Library’s David Johnson offered an eloquent reading of the “I Have a Dream” speech, which inspired me to write about the sometimes neglected role of the West in the history of American civil liberties, and, on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, to offer some suggestions from the many recent books on civil rights in the American West.

This quirky little songbook was published in 1979 by the Rocky Flats Action Group and contains gems such as “It’s the Nukes that Must Go and Not Me,” “It Could Be a Wonderful World,” “Nuclear Power Blues,” and, my personal favorite, “There’s a Bomb Plant on the Hillside” (sung to the tune of “Little Boxes”).