michener is a story teller to his bones. he believes in being thorough. very thorough. so thorough that he often begins his tales millions of years in the past and tells of the geologic development of the area he's writing about. then the earliest creatures. then the beginnings of civilization. in this story about the development of the american west, the human story line eerily mimics the geologic timeline. it began with explosive conflict (development of the continents / early american and indian relations). it moved onto inspiring growth and innovation (creation of the rockies / settling of the west). and it ends with a slow demise (destruction of our environment / apathy of our society). given this trajectory, the book left me feeling down.

in addition to the guiding tangent of the book, it has moments of strong imagery that will sear indelible marks on the walls of your brain. some good. some not good. but they happened and michener does a fine and just job of capturing much of the history that took place.

as a personal aside. the first half of this book has three core locations. the primary one, and the one which the book gets its name, centennial, occurred very close to the town i grew up in, fort collins, colorado. at one point michener goes back east to follow someone coming west. for this he begins in lancaster, pennsylvania, the county where i was born. and then many trips are made to the most populated city westward city of the time, saint louis, where i now live. these moments are so disconnected from what i knew the relation only proved mention-worthy. more than anything it makes the book seem like a work i was meant to read.