Valley Of Opportunity

This publication represents the latest Class I (History) to be written for the western slope of Colorado. Our three districts in this region of Colorado now have histories specifically for them. Such works provide a valuable and needed synthesis of history and literature for these areas and also gives our managers data that are used on a daily basis for land-use decision making. Multiple land use is a Bureau mission that is being met. Oil and gas, coal, oil shale and other energy minerals, not to mention rights-of-ways, grazing programs, recreation projects and land-use planning, are all supported by histories such as this. Resource Management Plans and subsequent Environmental Impact Statements that are produced for the Bureau's Area Offices are the foundations for long-term land-use management. The Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement is a Bureau pilot document and serves as a management tool for the Glenwood Springs Resource Area. This history, Volley of Opportunity supports the Resource Management Plan. In addition, a history provides background and support for the upcoming Grand Junction Resource Area Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement. The Volley of Opportunity has already been used for Oil Shale Environmental Statements and for the Federal Coal Leasing Program in the Grand Junction, Colorado, District. Truly, such histories are not only multiple-use in scope but are also management tools that provide basic understanding for land use decisions. Additionally, this history represents an ongoing effort to provide the public reader with a work that is not only interesting but is also well researched. In this way, another sector is satisfied. These histories are used by schools, libraries, universities and, of course, the general public. Again, multiple-use is served. Finally, as the Volley of Opportunity was being prepared, it happened that the City of Grand Junction's Centennial would occur in 1982. Coincidentally, the Glenwood Springs Resource Management Plan will be published in November 1982. Since this history serves several purposes, it is appropriate that it also is the Bureau's contribution to Grand Junction's Centennial celebration.

Valley of Opportunity recreates an age when Indians, colonists, and post-Revolutionary settlers embraced a similar dream: to create a successful economy in the rural hinterland of the middle colonies. Peter C. Mancall draws on abundant evidence from seldom-used archives in the region, as well as from libraries on both sides of the Atlantic, to reconstruct their daily economic life. The author describes the varied economic transformations that took place in the area, considering these changes from an environmental as well as an economic standpoint. He shows how different groups of people perceived the resources of the region and how their perceptions shaped settlement patterns, land use, and the formation of commercial networks. Ultimately, each of the three peoples looked beyond the mountains that set the boundaries of their physical world and tried to establish ties to the larger commercial network that linked North America to Europe. Mancall offers connections between the development of a particular region, previously overlooked by most historians, and the wide pattern of American economic change. He breaks through old ethnocentric barriers of settlement history by portraying Indian people in their full diversity and by including Indians and whites as actors of comparable significance, and he shows how attitudes that developed in the colonial period affected economic patterns well beyond the Revolution. Integrating a range of disciplines, from anthropology through ecology and geography to zoology, he seeks to answer the questions: what did different groups of people make of the natural resources of this river valley and how did they allocate the rewards? His answers provide a novel overview of the economic culture of the eighteenth century. Studded with sharp insights and attention-catching quotations that mirror everyday life of the times, Valley of Opportunity will appeal to those interested in the development of the American economy, the impact of the Revolution on urban Americans, and the relations between the peoples who together created a vibrant world along the edges of European settlement in North America.

This yearbook provides a snapshot of life in the Binghamton area in the early 20th century. Filled with photographs, advertisements, and articles highlighting the region's businesses, community organizations, and public institutions, this book offers a fascinating glimpse into the daily rhythms of life in one of America's most vibrant industrial cities. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.