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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 classic little guys facing the big guys over bones, rights, culture and values. The particular Golith of this battle include a corporation gobbling up everything in its path, and scientists who are petty and politicans who are shortshighted.  The Davids welding their slingshots of individualism are rockhounds Cephas Hall and Sid Love.  These forces clash and the ground shakes are these monoliths roar and battle for supremacy in an eerie replay of some prehistoric battle of those now only bones.   

A definite must read!  

A "Girl with a Book" Review for "Great2Read Books" 
[Book reviewed was a preview copy of the expanded edition, Rabelius Publishing, Waxahachie, Texas 2013 ISBN: 9780983355106]

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