Dirk Van Hart earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in geology, and in 1965 began his professional career as a petroleum geologist. During the next two decades a gypsy life led him and his family to residences in Oklahoma, Texas, California, Guatemala, and Ecuador. A career change in 1986 brought him to Albuquerque, New Mexico. For the next 17 years his work as a geologist included months-long stints in Italy and Belize, a semester as a student high-school teacher, and eventually as a contractor to Sandia National Laboratories as part of a team characterizing the geology of Kirtland Air Force Base. After semi-retirement in 2003 he worked for five years as a geological consultant until final retirement in 2008 when he began writing. This is his third book, after Old Forty-Four: A Historical and Geological Excursion Over New Mexico's Old Route 44 and Camps and Campsites of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in New Mexico 1933-1942, both from Sunstone Press.