This book is about spirits and events from 1890 to 1965 in the Big Bend area of the Rio Grande as it flows between Mexico and West Texas. The land is mesas of ancient limestones and shales and much younger mountains and spires of igneous rock which rose from inside the earth three hundred billion hours ago. (Dinosaurs became extinct about five hundred and seventy billion hours ago.) That volcanic activity also formed dikes and underground structures in the fractured and faulted sedimentary rock. Springs can be found in the driest parts of this desert landscape, and the intricate subterranean geology still hides the routes and sources of these waters. Hidden caverns and grottoes provide shade and water to only those who have wandered the land to discover its many secrets. This story is about the only man who knew them all-Juan Pablo Luna. And it is the story of the only woman he ever loved-the courageous and daring Consuelo Alvarez.