Keith Edgerton

Keith Edgerton currently teaches early American history, environmental history, and Montana history, at Montana State University-Billings where he has been a professor of history there for the last 24 years and where he is currently the chair of the history department there.  He holds a B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Montana and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Washington State University.  He has published and has spoken on a variety of western history topics including his true passion, Lewis and Clark.  He has published two books, one on the history of the Montana Highway Patrol and one based on his doctoral research entitled Montana Justice:  Power, Punishment, and the Penitentiary published by the University of Washington Press in 2005. Keith lives in Billings with his “amore” and significant other, Professor Lenette Kosovich.  They love to cook, travel, make killer home brew, and in the summer canoe through the scenic White Cliffs region of the upper Missouri.  Between them they have five boys in various states of adulthood.

Allen Glazner

Allen Glazner is a geologist, educator and author with particular expertise in volcanoes, tectonics, and mountain building. He believes strongly that understanding the geologic underpinnings of the planet greatly enhances one’s enjoyment of the landscape and everything that lives on it. A native Southern Californian, Allen earned geology degrees from Pomona College and UCLA before embarking on a 38-year career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

While his research focus is on the American Southwest, Allen has field experience many other countries including Iceland, Alaska, the Caribbean, South Africa, Mexico, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. An award-winning teacher, he has led dozens of field trips for groups ranging from the general public to academic specialists, and has trained astronauts and National Park personnel in the field and classroom. In addition to over 150 academic papers, he has coauthored several books for the public including Geology Underfoot books on Death Valley, Yosemite National Park, and Southern California. 

Allen was a runner and now is an avid cyclist and hiker. He enjoys photography, especially landscape, aerial, and 3D-reconstructive. Reading, especially fiction, is one of his sedentary pursuits. See landscape photos and more at allenglazner.com.

Howard Topoff and Carol Simon

Howard Topoff and Carol Simon are biologists specializing in the fields of Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. After receiving their Ph.D. degrees, they spent their scientific careers as professors at The City University of New York, and as Research Associates at The American Museum of Natural History. Their field research on animal behavior is conducted in Central and South America, Africa, and the southwestern corner of the United States. As study leaders on Natural History tours for over 35 years, they have developed an extensive series of educational and entertaining multimedia presentations, which they offer to vacationing guests who enjoy location-specific enrichment programs.

Bill Sapp

Bill Sapp is originally from southern California and received his BA and PhD in anthropology from UCLA where he focused on the development and administration of early civilizations in Peru. For the past 20 years he has worked as an archaeologist and Tribal liaison for the US Forest Service, both on the San Bernardino National Forest in southern California and currently on the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico. In this capacity he has worked with over 100 different Tribes and Pueblos from the Pacific Ocean to the Pecos River. 

He believes that understanding the lifeways of the people who inhabited the land before Europeans arrived enhances ones understanding of the incredibly complex landscapes that make up the American Southwest. The rugged and seemingly inhospitable deserts and mountains were the supermarkets of the first peoples, providing not only food and other goods for their material culture, but shaping their social and political structure as well as influencing their religious beliefs. Knowing how these things work provides a new lens through which to view the landscape and understand the indigenous peoples, who themselves are not gone.

Bill has been leading tours in North and South America for over 20 years and considers that knowledge of the past is a good way to understand the present. He also likes to surf, play the drums, and ride his Triumph Bonneville motorcycle.