Skip to main content

NO BONES ABOUT IT - A GOOD READ

Acrocanthosaurus The Bones of Contention by Russell Ferrell.  Subtitled  The True Story of Cephis Hall and Sid Love The Arkansas Hillbilly and the Choctaw Indian Who Outsmarted the Corporation and Saved the Dinosaur (Paperback)

After finishing the Russell Ferrell work Acrocanthosaurus: The Bones of Contention (Historical Dimensions, 2011) there is an instinctive desire to mutter a loud, "wow!" 

In 448 pages the author has packed a story whose complexity, importance, and historical value can only be described as 'epic.' In the story of how two intelligent and capable amateurs were finally able to prevail against corporate greed,intimidation, academic short-shortsightedness, research rivalries, and worse is an important lesson for everyone. The author so completely explains the history, processes, and meaning of events that, even a reader without any knowledge of southeast Oklahoma, dinosaurs, fossil hunting, or confusions of legal and political activity- can clearly understand the struggles chronicled. 

Cephis Hall and Sid Love - co-discoverers of the rare find - have to join the ranks of 20th century folk heroes. They battled the Weyerhaeuser Corporation of McCurtain County (OK), elitist academics and false accusations and raids by armed police. It was not an easy battle and it consumed the lives and best years of the main players. It ended finally, after many years, on a positive note but also one with a strong sense of what might have been.

This is a "must have" for anyone who has a scientific bent, anyone who enjoys an exploration of the depths of human stupidity,loves a controversial topic, corporate greed, political and legal shell games, and the hint of academic snobbery. It is a well written and produced softbound work and any library will be enriched by adding this title for its paleontology, Oklahoma history, twentieth century biography, and general 'good reads' collections.


Publisher: Historical Dimensions/Malloy Incorporated, 2011.
ISBN: 978-0-615-43814-6
Cost: $ 15.00 (approx.)
Description:  Softbound, illus., 448 p. 
Available from: Amazon.com

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments should be on topic of the post. See contact information for other messages. Any which are clearly spam or problem emails will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

An Interview with Author Christy Elkins

As part of an ongoing series highlighting new writing talent, here is the latest " Interv iew of the Imagination" with author Christy Elkins.     The author of children's books such as Noah's Mark, The Seedling Heart and adult novels such as Parallel, Lilac Hill , and The Dusty Road . As always, the interviews start in a place of special meaning or significance to the author or their work.  So, on that ship of the mind let us set sail... I caught up with author Christy Elkins in 1982, on the airy verandah at the back of her grandmother’s farm house, in Durant, Oklahoma.  As  we sip our glasses of iced tea there is the soft sound of her grandmother's voice crooning old hymns in a sweet voice accompanied by the grease crackling as she fries chicken for us.  ###   Tell me Christy, when you are not writing or being you, what is your work or activity? I’ve been many things; a photographer, insurance agent, accountant, among others, but my latest
1 comment
Read more

Anne Urne's Communion of Saints

A delightful journey into the heart of what it means to be human and wonder and seek for answers.  A rollicking journey of an "author aboard" when things go hilariously wrong.  A thought provoking look at how we perceive spiritual matters. Most of all a good read!
1 comment
Read more

The Bone War of McCurtain County

Having loved dinosaurs (who didn't?), imagined myself as an Indiana Jones of old bones, and strolling wide-eyed through various natural museums soaking in the fossilized remains of prehistoric giants, I was delighted when I received this book to read.  I simply thought it would be a academic type account of the finding of some rare bones in a overlooked corner of Oklahoma in the middle 1980's.   Appearances, and assumptions, can be mistaken.   The book is a complex, riveting, and rollar coaster ride through a vicious tug-of-war between corporate greed, individual capitalist endeavor, and academic snobbery. Author Russell Ferrell has uncovered a "Peyton Place" of real palentogological history! Coming in at just over 400 pages, The Bone War of McCurtain County by Russell Ferrell (Rabelius Publishing, Waxahachie, Texas, 2013) , is a story of a "Backwoods Hillbilly and Choctaw Indian" as they battle for "treasure, truth and justice."    It the cla
Post a Comment
Read more