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Ishi & Elvis
by Jim Hamm

      Upon acquiring seven hundred acres of rocky, overgrazed rangeland, Jim Hamm dubbed a tremendous whitetailed buck he encountered as Elvis, "because he created such excitement whenever he was spotted".

      On the surface this is a book about hunting for a trophy buck, but there is much more to it than that. Ishi & Elvis is a deeply personal story about the author's place in the natural world and how he connects with it.

      With a keen eye for the natural world and a sweeping sense of the history which shaped it, Hamm tells the story of Elvis and the gradual recovery of his ranch. He brings to life the waters tumbling down a spring-fed creek, dark cedar and liveoak thickets, blistering summers and snow-swept winters, migrating sandhill cranes, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and assorted human characters who experience the Hideout, as his ranch is called. Ancient hunters, Comanches, and longbow-armed Medieval warriors leap from the book, as does Ishi, the "last wild Indian" who stands now as the grandfather of archery in this country.

      All of this history and ecology, plus Jim Hamm's friends and stories and his deep reverence for nature are woven artfully together with this quest for the great and crafty whitetail monarch. Few will ever know a wild animal the way Hamm comes to know Elvis, and few will ever forget their final meeting. Hardcover. 153 pages.