economic needs by "seceding" fromCalifornia and Oregon to form a single new state. Inevitably, the author also invokes the Klamath Basin's most popular myth-as-legend, Bigfoot. Thankfully,Most does his readers the favor of pointing out that the famous Bluff Creek footprints and subsequent filmfootage of Sasquatch were hoaxes. Most himself notes that "one difference between myth and history is that historians attempt tounderstand why eventsoccur,while explanations can ruin a good story" (p. 119). Alas, although thepopular storyofBigfoot has now been all but debunked, River ofRenewal essentially amplifies (and imparts a gloss of respectable veracity to) another local legend, one that,as interestingand dramatic as it may be, does not merit serious consideration as a historical event.This is the storyof thealleged poisoning (by means of strychnine-laced beef during a "treaty-signing"celebratory feast) of "hundreds, or thousands" of Shasta Indians in the 1850sby theirduplicitous white hosts (pp. 27 and 200-201). This supposed event (which is completelyunmentioned inanyof theplentiful written records of that time, records that do not shyaway fromdetailing and condemning actual atrocities by settlersagainstNative peo ple) is more thanhistorically improbable fora multitude of reasons,which cannot begin tobe detailed in thisshort space. Suffice itto say that reputable scholars, including a distinguished historian of the region's Indian-white conflict, have looked into the storyand concluded itto be nothingmore than that. A fewyears ago, one local military historian published a detailed rebuttal of the account, not out of some knee jerkdefense of thepioneers but due to the sheer implausibility of the story. The legend of the Fort Jones poisoning seems in large measure tohave been themid to late-twentieth-centuryproduct of one local family (of part-Shasta descent), people who possibly built the storyaround a kernel found in the historical record's actual mention of an entirely separate and far less disastrous alleged poisoning of the same period ? that is, Indian fighterBenWright's encounterwith the Modocs near Lost River,nearly a hundredmiles to the east.As a family legend, in recentyears theFort Jonesstoryhas been told, re-told,and toldagain as gospel until ithas begun toappear in someminor local histories and in the local press. Itmay make for a compelling tale,but theauthor has done neither his readersnor the region'shistorya serviceby repeating it without also providing adequate critical commentary. Now, likeBigfoot, the legend of theFort Jones poisoning doubtless will continue to stalk the land for years to come. Aside from thisone misstep, StephenMost deserves praise for his effort.Clearly not a work of rigorously objective history, River ofRenewal offers an impressionistic, highly informative trip through theKlamath Basin's contentious past, and itdoes that particular job quite well. JeffLaLande SouthernOregon University RIDINGPRETTY: RODEO ROYALTYIN THEAMERICAN WEST by Ren?e M. Laegreid University ofNebraska, Lincoln, 2006. Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 283 pages. $29.95 cloth. Although only a fewwomen, mainly but not exclusivelywhite, immersed themselves in the early years of rodeo life,theyhave generated some scholarly interest. Ren?e M. Laegreid, in Riding Pretty:Rodeo Royalty in theAmerican West, for example, explores the creation of a local western character known as the rodeo queen. Laegreid argues that community sponsored rodeo queens provide a yardstick by which tomeasure local values and civic identity, especially concerning gender expecta tions.To develop thistheme ? therelationship between the queens and their communities ? theauthor turnsher lenson Oregon where, 326 OHQ vol. 108, no. 2 she asserts, rodeo royalty was first introduced at the Pendleton Round-Up in 1910,creating a femalemodel that soon became a fixtureat other western events. Ultimately, she concludes, the role of the queen formed and reformed, melding with an assortment ofwestern tradi tions that were tightly woven intocommunity self-identification, which was constructed from local idiosyncrasies manipulated to make a town seem unique within its region. Thus, thosewomen commonly pushed to the margins of historical narrative ? in this case rodeo queens ? actually played a role inyet another arena of the West: town building by means of entertainment through animal-cen tered competitions. The strongest sections of this book are those thatfocus on Pendleton, itspeople, and the local dynamics that fueled rodeo celebra tions. Laegreid's description of community This summer at OHS! see the history of...