Walking on Burnt Mountain. Courtesy illustration
LOS ALAMOS HISTORICAL SOCIETY News:
More than 20 authors and publishers will gather to sell their books from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8 at Fuller Lodge during the first Los Alamos Book Fair, sponsored by the Los Alamos Historical Society and its publishing venture, Bathtub Row Press.
Shoppers can meet the authors, discuss their work, or pick up a signed copy of a new release to tuck away for a holiday gift. Several recently released titles will be showcased, including Cindy Bellinger’s Walking on Burnt Mountain, A Spiritual Quest in Los Alamos.
And for history buffs interested in the Manhattan Project, Don Farrell’s Tinian, A Brief History has been reissued and will be available. Bathtub Row Press will have the newly-released soft cover of its award-winning book, At Home on the Slopes of Mountains: The Story of Peggy Pond Church.
Great shopping, fun and refreshments await visitors to Fuller Lodge, followed at 3 p.m. by free tours of the Los Alamos Historic District for anyone interested in the stories associated with Ashley Pond, the Ice House Memorial, and the log and stone houses of Bathtub Row and a preview of the proposed Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Book publishing is an important part of the mission of the Los Alamos Historical Society. The society has published more than 30 books on the history of the Pajarito Plateau, from hiking guides to a young adult fiction book about the Manhattan Project.
The publishing arm of the Historical Society has recently been renamed Bathtub Row Press in honor of the street’s unique name and heritage.
Also operated by the Los Alamos Historical Society is the Los Alamos Historical Museum, 1050 Bathtub Row, just north of Fuller Lodge. The museum is open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free; donations are happily accepted.
About Walking on Burnt Mountain: A Spiritual Quest
Cindy Bellinger lived in Los Alamos from 1979-1983. After moving to Santa Fe, she worked for KLSK radio and eventually became the outdoor editor for The New Mexican.
She’s a longtime feature writer and for many years wrote a popular column about remodeling her own house. She also was the garden writer for Santa Fe Greenhouse.
Currently she writes books, her latest is her sixth; she also blogs about walking, gardening and publishing. In 2011, Bellinger became the director of Blue Mesa Books, an author’s collective that strives to publish good, well-written books.
Cindy’s sixth book chronicles her time in Los Alamos. Categorized as a “spiritual memoir,” it focuses on a trail she discovered in a forest across the street from her house. A neighbor, Greg Kewish a well-known local potter, nudged Cindy to walk the forest because he couldn’t. Greg was crippled. And the trail Cindy found that traversed the face of Burnt Mountain turned out to be magic.
She says, “Magic is the only way to describe it, so many odd synchronistic moments happened. Walking on the trail took me to another level of perception.”
She writes, “After landing in a town of physics, I began walking the edges of metaphysics. While physicists pondered unknown realms, I did too. We just did it in our own separate ways.”
