Fran and Terby Barnes – In Memoriam
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is
ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is
accepted as being self-evident."
– Schopenhauer
[Quote above Fran Barnes' desk]
This section of the Flameskimmers website is dedicated to the memory of Fran Barnes and his wife, Terby Barnes, the well-known Moab authors and publishers of Canyon Country Publications ("CCP"). Fran and Terby wrote and produced dozens of articles, books, and maps about the canyon country over a span of several decades, often collaborating with the brilliant technical illustrator and surreal artist, Rick Showalter.
Not only were Fran and Terby responsible for documenting and naming many of the remote desert places now known and loved by millions of people world-wide, they also made important discoveries about the natural history of the Colorado Plateau. The CCP titles are must-haves on the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in the beautiful and fascinating and challenging Colorado Plateau.
Fran A. Barnes
The Colorado Plateau section of our website is dedicated to Fran and Terby, in gratitude for their unique and significant contribution to the knowledge of this spectacular landscape. Their books helped to increase our own understanding and enjoyment of this beautiful desert we have both loved all our lives. As a friend and business partner, Terby taught us a lot when we began selling Canyon Country Publications from our online stores. We are forever grateful to them both.
Life-long Partners
Fran and Terby were a real husband and wife team; they were business partners and also hiking partners, and they explored the desert together for decades. They collaborated on all of their publications. Most of the books were authored by Fran and edited by Terby, but she hiked every step with him, and also wrote her own books and articles.
However, Fran was acknowledged even by Terby as being the one to fully develop the geology and paleontology theories described throughout the series. Terby contributed a great deal to the development of these theories, but she gave Fran his due as an original scientific explorer in a still largely unknown region.
F.A. Barnes – an Original Thinker
The scenic beauty of the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau is surpassed only by the story of how it formed. Fran Barnes dedicated over 30 years of his life to understanding the story of the high desert and what he observed there – often struggling against the hostility and indifference of academic scientists – and relating it for the rest of us to enjoy also.
Fran was uniquely qualified by his background, experience, curiosity, and his tremendous energy to delve into the study of the canyon country. He was one of those rare individuals outside of the scientific academic community who was able to make a significant contribution to the knowledgebase of humanity. His great gift was his ability to compare and collate the data he collected by personal observation against established scientific theory. He then developed his own independent theories, using his considerable skills as a process analyst, to explain what he observed when the accepted scientific explanations were non-existent, or didn't explain the facts he observed on the ground.
He was disdainful of incurious and dogmatic academic scientists because he was so eager for knowledge himself.
A High-Tech Background
F.A. (Fran) Barnes spent many years as a senior aerospace engineer working for major government contract firms on the west coast, performing a variety of highly technical tasks that included classified work related to the design and production of the first submarine-launch nuclear missiles. He began this technological career by controlling various chemical processes used in manufacturing, phased into writing and supervising the creation of technical support documentation, then became a specialist for upper management in troubleshooting serious quality control and manufacturing problems.
During this same period, he dealt with a wide spectrum of engineers, scientists, and technicians, as well as with production, quality control, reliability specialists and military representatives.
Canyon Country Publications
When Fran eventually took his family on an extended vacation throughout the West in order to escape the relentless pressures of his career, he authored and illustrated magazine articles as they traveled. Then he and his wife Terby discovered southeastern Utah's canyon country.
What they found here pursuaded Fran to change his career to full-time creative writing, telling others about the fantastic high desert region. While continuing their travels over the next two years, the family spent several months in Utah's canyon country before finally settling in Moab permanently in the mid-1960s.
Fran and Terby then began to study the region's natural and human history intensively, while exploring, mapping and photographing it in support of writing for magazines, and later their own Canyon Country Publications series of books and maps. Over the years, Fran worked with a number of academically accredited scientists in a wide range of historic and prehistoric fields, including a sequence of three Utah State Paleontologists, often concerning field discoveries made by himself and Terby during their explorations.
For over 30 years, Fran applied his extensive background in technical research and development methodology to writing about this complex and poorly understood land. In the process, he authored several hundred articles for a variety of periodicals, 32 books, and two dozen commercial maps. The 66th book in his Canyon Country series, Footprints on the Shores of Time, was his 33rd book. He left several others in various states of research and writing.
A Growing Legacy
Fran's only fear, apparently, was that his work would end up in the dustbin of history. This won't happen. Like the work of Eugene Shoemaker, the NASA geologist and founder of impact theory, the work of F.A. Barnes has fallen on fertile soil. A new generation of geologists and paleontologists is answering the challenges posed by Barnes' pioneering work; some are taking the work in astonishing directions on Earth and to other planets in our solar system.
Hematite on Mars
For example, one of the geologists who was inspired by working with Fran is Dr. Marjorie Chan, of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Marjorie and her team published a paper in the June 17, 2004 issue of 'Nature' comparing the hematite "marbles" found on Navajo sandstone in southeastern Utah and the hematite "blueberries" found in 2004 on Mars.
Chan and her colleagues believe the Utah concretions formed perhaps 25 million years ago when minerals precipitated from groundwater flowing through much older Navajo sandstone. They predicted that the Mars Opportunity expedition would find hematite while exploring the red planet. NASA chose the January 2004 landing site on Mars' Meridiani Planum in large part to test their prediction; hematite balls were found on Mars 5 days after landing. Hematite is an iron-based mineral that is associated with the presence of ground water and of life. Click Here for full story.
The 1859 John N. Macomb Expedition
One of the many projects that Fran and Terby
pursued over the years was retracing the steps of the John
N. Macomb expedition up the Old Spanish Trail in 1859. The
main goal of the soldiers and scientists on the expedition was
to locate and map the confluence of the Green and the Colorado
Rivers in the heart of Canyonlands. Fran and Terby were able
to retrace the steps of the expedition through what is still
some of the most remote and appallingly difficult desert
terrain in the United States. They even managed to locate the
site of the dinosaur excavation performed by the expedition,
high up on a rock terrace in a remote canyon.
The book they wrote about it is The 1859 Macomb Expedition Into Utah Territory, No. 61 in the Canyon Country Publications series.
Fran and Terby were rightfully very proud of this work, which took them over 10 years to complete. Now, building on their discoveries, a more detailed book has been written about this important but little-known expedition through central Utah immediately prior the Civil War: Exploring Desert Stone, by Steven K. Madson, is dedicated to Terby Barnes, for all the assistance she provided. This is a beautiful book with a foldout map suitable for framing.
New Discoveries are Waiting
Fran passed away in October, 2003, as Footprints on the Shores of Time was going to press. Although Don and I were living in Moab at the time, we had just moved there and never had the chance to meet him. However, we did meet Terby and became business partners with Canyon Country Publications as we sold their books from our first online store.
The Colorado Plateau is not only a recreational playground, it is also a place to go to rejuvenate your spirit, and to shed the weight of your self-importance by viewing it against the backdrop of 320 million years' worth of geological history.
This region is also a unique paleontology treasure unequaled anywhere else on Earth. The history of life on Earch can be read more clearly here because the layers of sandstone, muds, and minerals are like the pages an open book to be read by those who can see what is left there. The paleo resources in the Colorado Plateau are now beginning to be properly recognized and studied by scientists, and developed for adventure tourism. Kids love dinosaurs, and the Colorado Plateau was full of them.
Fran's work is certain to continue to inform and challenge scientists in a number of fields. His independent thinking and creative problem-solving present a high bar indeed; they will reach farther as a result of meeting his challenges.
The rocks are still full of unsolved mysteries, especially in the beautiful Navajo Sandstone. Our hope is that by continuing to make these books available we can inspire, and eventually fund, the scientific field work and lab analysis that are necessary to begin to understand the ancient world as it was when the sandstone layers of the Colorado Plateau were being deposited.
Canyon Country Publications Books &
Maps
We are now working with Terry Lewis, Fran and Terby's daughter, selling their books and inspiring people to continue to build on their foundation. We carry the entire Canyon Country Publications Series on this website. If you would like to learn more about this beautiful region, these books written and published by two of its most knowledgeable explorers are the best place to start.
– Mary Ecsedy, 6/25/2010
Pittsburgh, PA