A view of Arizona history and historically-based fiction set in Flagstaff, Arizona, is told in the four books of the Small Mountain Quartet. Spanning the years from 1880, when Flagstaff was founded, to 2001, the books relate the history of Flagstaff, the Coconino National Forest, and Woody Mountain, a small lava cone ten miles southwest of town. The lives of the people, both real and imaginary, who lived in and around Flagstaff, are told in the richly developed tapestries.
Geology and wildlife, forest rangers and fire lookouts, Western artists and Western newspaper editors, loggers and ranchers, scientists and hot shot firefighters, Flagstaff doctors and their wives appear in the pages. After years of careful research, Ashworth wrote of Coconino fire history in 1990, 1996, 2000 and 2001, logging regulation, Western water law, forest restoration, medical development, the changing lives of Western women, the fire lookout experience—the history of the West touched at one point.
Three of the books include indexes and bibliographies to assist researchers in locating sources and information.
