Recommended Reading for Utah Tour Guides

Books

Essential Reading

• How to be a Tour Guide: The Essential Training Manual for Tour Managers and Tour Guides by Nick Manning
• Interpreting our Heritage by Freeman Tilden
• Roadside Geology of Utah by Felice Williams
• Roadside History of Utah by Cynthia Larsen Bennett
• Saints: Volume 2 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• The Gathering of Zion, The Story of the Mormon Trail by Wallace Stegner
• The Great Salt Lake by Dale Morgan
• Utah’s History by Poll, Alexander/Campbell/Miller

Skills for Tour Guides

• Coming Up on Your Left: A Tour Guide’s Guidebook by Joemy Wilson
• Outdoors in the Southwest: An Adventure Anthology An Adventure Anthology by Andrew Gulliford
• Real vs. Rumor by Keith Erekson

General Utah

• It Happened In Series Stories of Events and People that Shaped Beehive State History by Tom Wharton and Pequot Globe
• Legends, Lore and True Tales of Utah by Lynn Arave
• Secret Salt Lake City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure Secret A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure by Jeremy Pugh and Mary Brown Malouf
• Supernatural Lore of Southern Utah by Darren Edwards
• The Peoples of Utah by Utah State Historical Society and Helen Zeese Papanikolas
  • The Peoples of Utah Revisited
• This Is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions by Carol Edison, Eric A. Eliason, Lynne S McNeill
• Utah Myths and Legends by Michael O’Reilly
• Utah Place Names by John Van Cott
• Utahisms: Unique Expressions, Inventions, Place Names and More Unique Expressions, Inventions, Place Names and More by David Eddington
• When Hollywood Came to Town: The History of Moviemaking in Utah by James D’Arc

Utah History

• A Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai
• Autobiography of Kit Carson by Kit Carson
• Brigham Young at Home by Clarissa Young
• Butch Cassidy, My Uncle by Bill Betenson
• Hole in the Rock by David Miller
• Journal of the Handcart Pioneers 1856-1860 by Glenn Rawson and Dennis Lyman
• Journey to Topaz A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation by Yoshiko Uchida
• Rocky Mountain Rendezvous by Fred Gowans
• The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons by John Wesley Powell
• The Last Days of the Sioux Nation by Robert Utley
• The Prairie Traveler by Randolph B. Marcy
• The Saga of the Pony Express by Joseph DiCerto
• This Is Dinosaur by Wallace Stegner

Utah Geology

• Geology Unfolded: An Illustrated Guide to the Geology of Utah’s National Parks by Morris, Ritter, Laycock

Utah Wildlife and Plants

• Sandstone Country Wildflowers the Red Shoe Guide: A Field Guide to the Wildflowers of the Moab Region and Beyond by Anne Duri and Dave Montgomery

Fiction and Memoirs

• Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness by Edward Abbey
• Down the River by Edward Abbey
• Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher
• Roughing It by Mark Twain
• The Legend of Jimmy Spoon by Kristiana Gregory

Other Resources

Useful Websites

• Preservation Utah
• Utah Historical Society
  • Library and Collections
  • The Peoples of Utah Revisited
  • History to Go
  • Utah Historical Quarterly
• Utah State Parks
• Utah Newspaper Archives
• National Parks (nps.gov/[park*])
  • *first two letters of first two words of park or first four letters of one-word park names
• Better Days 2020 (Utah women’s history)
• Great Salt Lake Collaborative
  • Great Salt Lake Virtual Fieldtrip (video)
• Utah Geological Survey
  • Survey Notes (newsletter)
  • Glad You Asked
• Church History Library
  •  Ask Us

Podcasts

• What’s Her Name, Fascinating Women You’ve Never Heard Of:  www.whatshernamepodcast.com
• Among the Brine by Utah Historical Society (and other videos for UHS)

Additional Training Opportunities

• Utah Office of Tourism Utah Specialist Academy
• SUU Parks and Tourism Certification — Utah Tourism Industry Association
• Road Scholars – paid and free online lectures about many topics and destinations