Maynard Hubbard "Dutch" Salmon II (March 30, 1945 – March 10, 2019) was an American outdoor writer, publisher, and founder of High-Lonesome Books, a publishing company in Silver City, New Mexico. He was a conservationist, environmental activist, fisherman, and homesteader based in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. Salmon was also a

coursing Coursing by humans is the pursuit of game or other animals by dogs—chiefly greyhounds and other sighthounds—catching their prey by speed, running by sight, but not by scent. Coursing was a common hunting technique, practised by the nobility, t ...

sighthound Sighthounds, also called gazehounds, are a Dog type, type of dog, hounds that hunt primarily by sight and speed, rather than by scent and endurance as scent hounds do. Appearance These dogs specialize in pursuing prey, keeping it in sight, an ...

breeder, trainer, and hunter.

Biography

M. H. Salmon was born in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, on March 30, 1945. Salmon attended

Nottingham High School , motto_translation = Praise to the end , address = Waverley Mount , city = Nottingham , county = Nottinghamshire , postcode = NG7 4ED , country = England , coordinates = , type = Independent day school , established = , closed = , religious ...

in Syracuse, and The Winchendon School in Winchendon, Massachusetts. After a short stint at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, he transferred and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English and history from Trinity University in San Antonio in 1967. Salmon taught school in the

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

area from 1968–1971 before moving to

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

to become an outdoorsman and writer. Salmon moved to southwest

in 1981 and began his work to preserve the free-flowing

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...

. Salmon died on March 10, 2019 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Salmon’s father, John Pomeroy Salmon, fought in World War II with Edson's Raiders in the South Pacific. His 4th great-grandfather was

Moses Van Campen Major Moses Van Campen (1757–1849) was a soldier during the American Revolutionary War. He was a prominent figure in Pennsylvania and parts of New York. His primary involvement in the Revolutionary War was in fighting against hostile Native Am ...

, a veteran of the American Revolution, who fought the Native Americans in the frontier of western Pennsylvania. His 2nd great-grandfather, John Niles Hubbard, wrote ''The Life and Times of Major Moses Van Campen'' about his grandfather, and ''Red Jacket and his People, 1750-1830, An Account of Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha''. Salmon’s 2nd great-aunt was

Lucy Maynard Salmon Lucy Maynard Salmon (July 27, 1853 – February 14, 1927) was an American historian. She was a professor of history at Vassar College from 1889 until her death. She was the first woman to be a member of the executive committee of the American His ...

, who established the History Department at Vassar College.

Conservation and environmentalism

In the spring of 1983, when the

was in danger of being dammed, Salmon took a trip along the river where he was inspired to create what would later become his bestseller, ''Gila Descending.'' He co-founded the Gila Conservation Coalition in 1984 to protect the free flow of the Gila and San Francisco Rivers as well as the Gila and

Aldo Leopold Wilderness Aldo Leopold Wilderness, along with Gila Wilderness and Blue Range Wilderness, is part of New Mexico's Gila National Forest. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1980 by an act of the United States Congress and has a ...

areas. The Gila Conservation Coalition successfully lobbied against the

Hooker Hooker may refer to: People * Hooker (surname) Places Antarctica * Mount Hooker (Antarctica) * Cape Hooker (Antarctica) * Cape Hooker (South Shetland Islands) New Zealand * Hooker River * Mount Hooker (New Zealand) in the Southern Alps * Hoo ...

and Conner dams and Mangas diversion in the 1980s and 1990s. It helped to close the San Francisco River to motorized vehicles and kept the East Fork of the Gila River closed to the same. Starting in 2001, Salmon opposed the diversion threat under the Arizona Water Settlements Act. In January 2020, New Mexico senators

Tom Udall Thomas Stewart Udall ( ; born May 18, 1948) is an American diplomat, lawyer and politician serving as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from N ...

and Martin Heinrich introduced the M. H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila River Wild and Scenic Act to protect The Gila River.

Affiliations

Salmon was a member of several commissions and boards throughout his life: * New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, 1985-1987 * Founder and Chairman, Gila Conservation Coalition, 1984-2019 * Chairman, New Mexico Wilderness Coalition 1989-1995 * Board Member, Quivira Coalition 2000-2006 * Board Member, New Mexico Wildlife Federation 2005-2009 * Board Member, New Mexico Water Dialogue, 2007 * Board Member, Gila Resources Information Project 2004-2019 * Member, New Mexico State Game & Fish Commission, 2005-2011 Salmon received the Lifetime Conservation Award from the Gila Natural History Symposium in 2008. In 2009, he was awarded the Lifetime Conservation Award by the Gila Conservation Coalition. He received the Conservation Voters New Mexico’s Local Conservation Hero Award in 2013. In 2014, the New Mexico Community Foundation awarded Salmon the Luminaria Award.

Bibliography

Non-fiction

*''Gazehounds & Coursing - An Illustrated Guide to the Art and Sport of Hunting with Sight Hounds'' (1st edition, 1977) Saint Cloud, MN, North Star Press, *''Tales of the Chase -- Hound Dogs, Catfish, and other Pursuits Afield,'' (1991) Silver City, NM, High-Lonesome Books, *''The Catfish as Metaphor -- A Fisherman's American Journey,'' (1997) Silver City, NM, High-Lonesome Books, *''Gazehounds & Coursing - The History, Art and Sport of Hunting with Sighthounds'' (expanded & revised 2nd edition, 1999) Silver City, NM, High-Lonesome Books, L *''Country Sports – The Rabid Pursuits of a Redneck Environmentalist,'' (2004) Silver City, NM, High-Lonesome Books, * ''Gila Libre: The Story of New Mexico’s Last Wild River,'' (2008) Albuquerque, NM, University of New Mexico Press, NM, *''Gila Descending -- A Southwestern Journey,'' (4th edition, 2009) Silver City, NM, High-Lonesome Books, *''Country Sports II – More Rabid Pursuits of a Redneck Environmentalist,'' (2015) Silver City, NM, High-Lonesome Books,

Fiction

* ''Home is the River'' * ''Signal to Depart'' * ''Forty Freedoms'' He was also the editor and publisher of the short-lived 1980s outdoors literary quarterly, ''Basin & Range''.

References

__FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon, M 1945 births American nature writers American male non-fiction writers 2019 deaths Writers from Syracuse, New York Writers from Minnesota Writers from New Mexico Schoolteachers from Texas American conservationists Trinity University (Texas) alumni University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American male writers American male novelists 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers American magazine writers People from Silver City, New Mexico