Dead In Their Tracks: Crossing Americas Desert Borderlands In The New Era,Used

Alarmed by breaking news reports of thirteen men, women, and children who died of thirst on American soiland twentytwo other human beings saved by Border Patrol rescue teamsJohn Annerino left the cool pines of his mountain retreat and journeyed into one of the most inhospitable places on earth, the heart of the 4,100squaremile 'empty quarter' that straddles the desolate corner of southwest Arizona and northwest Sonora, Mexico.During the Sonoran Desert's glorious and brutal summer season Annerino, a photojournalist, author, and explorer, watched four border crossers step off a bus and nonchalantly head into the American noman's land. On assignment for Newsweek, Annerino did more than just watch on that blistering August day. He joined them on their ultramarathon, lifeordeath quest to find work to feed their families, amid temperatures so hot your parched throat burns from breathing and drinking water is the ultimate treasure.As their water dwindled and the heat punished them, Annerino and the desperate men continued marching fifty miles in twentyfour hours and managed to survive their harrowing journey across the deadliest migrant trail in North America, El Camino del Diablo, 'The Road of the Devil.' Driven by the mounting death toll, John returned again and again to the sunscorched despoblado (uninhabited lands)where hidden bighorn sheep water tanks glowed like diamondsto document the lives, struggles, and heartbreaking remains of those who continue to disappear and perish in a region that's claimed the lives of more than 9,700 men, women, and children.Following the historic paths of indigenous Hia Ced O'odham (People of the Sand), Spanish missionary explorer Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, and Californiabound FortyNiners, Annerino's journeys on foot, crisscrossed the alluring yet treacherous desert trails of the El Camino del Diablo, Hohokam shell trail, and O'odham salt trails where hundreds of gambusinos (Mexican miners) and EuroAmerican pioneers succumbed during the 1850s.As the migrants kept coming, the deaths kept mounting, and Annerino kept returning. He crossed celebrated Sonoran Desert sanctuariesOrgan Pipe Cactus National Monument, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Barry M. Goldwater Range, sacred ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odhamthat had become lost horizons, killing grounds, graveyards, and deadly smuggling corridors that also claimed the lives of National Park rangers and Border Patrol agents. John Annerino's mission was to save someone, anyone, everyonewhen he could find them.Dead in Their Tracks is the saga of a merciless despoblado in the Great Southwest, of desperate yet hopeful migrants and refugees who keep staggering north. It is the story of ranchers, locals, and Border Patrol trackers who've saved countless lives, and heavily armed smugglers who haunt an inhospitable, if beautiful, wilderness that remains off the radar for journalists and news organizations that dare not set foot in the American desert waiting to welcome them on its terms. One photojournalist did.