Steve Hall Site Take Down Plan Officially Announced

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I don't know how much money people make on books.  I suspect the biggest factor is getting them blessed by the NPS and sold in the VC bookstore.  I gather even Digonnet had to edit his a bit.

In my case, I spent thousands, made less than $1,000 over a span of about two decades. I was regularly published in one historic periodical; wrote and contributed to other publications; did a lot of research for other authors/historians. I participated in one video that is/was sold at the DV VC @ FC (GHOST TOWNS OF DEATH VALLEY); I wrote several online articles; I got hundreds of photos and videos scattered about the internet. My name is found in a number of books in the bibliographies.

Timing is also a factor. The world was transitioning from paper to bytes by the late 1980s through 2005 during the time that my efforts were at their height. Instant wealth has since eluded those who struggled over old Smith Corona typewriters and blessed those who made a few swipes with their finger on a tablet screen.

Getting one’s books into the visitor center requires a lot of work, luck and some political skill. My late father managed to turn his photographic skills into post cards and then got into Joshua Tree National Park right at the transition from monument to park. His cards and refrigerator magnets are still sold there, though he sold his business around a decade ago at the age of 85.

One of my 4x4 trail pages on my former website provoked the park service to contact me to request changes. A couple of well used trails that branched off the Steel Pass route were technically closed but not signed at the time I was running the trail for photography and noting trail conditions. Thus I “sanitized” that page.