If you could get to the Crystal Valley you’d be hard pressed to pass Hell Gate Cliffs at Penny Hot Springs. This geological choke forbade travel for a millennium and isolated Redstone from the north. Now, much of that obstruction lay as the foundation of South Highway 133. Hays Creek and Placita canyons isolated Redstone equally from the south. Larry Meredith’s book, “This Cursed Valley,” offers a colorful palette for the reader to explore our not so ancient valley pathways. Four generations ago, our ancestors were on horseback looking for the route to a better life, greener pastures and economic opportunity. 

Blasting, digging and hydraulically manipulating our environment, man has changed our environment in ways we cannot imagine. Many locales, scarred and raw 75 years ago, have regrown to become pleasant trails today. Other places that have lacked moisture and organic materials remain damaged. Seeking progress or profit, it is an age-old challenge to find the balance between growth and preserving the natural environment that has sustained us these many years. 

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after the winter.

Rachel Carson