This Contested Land: The Storied Past and Uncertain Future of America’s National Monuments

One woman's enlightening trek through the natural histories, cultural stories, and present perils of thirteen national monuments

Starting amid the sagebrush of Bears Ears National Monument on the eve of the Trump Administration's decision to reduce the site by eighty-five percent, McKenzie Long climbs sandstone cliffs, is awed by Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings, and is intrigued by 4,000-year-old petroglyphs. She hikes through remote pink canyons recently removed from the boundary of Grand Staircase-Escalante, skis to a backcountry hut in Maine to view a truly dark night sky, snorkels in warm Hawaiian waters to plumb the meaning of marine preserves, volunteers near the most contaminated nuclear site in the US, and witnesses firsthand the diverse forms of devotion evoked by the Rio Grande. In essays both contemplative and resonant, this book confronts an unjust past and imagines a collaborative future that bears witness to these regions' enduring Indigenous connections.

From climate change realities to volatile tensions between economic development and environmental conservation, practical and philosophical issues arise as Long seeks the complicated and often overlooked stories of these incomparable places. Her journey emphasizes in clear and urgent terms the unique significance of, and grave threats to, these contested lands.