The air in Grand Junction’s downtown district hangs heavy with the scent of old paper and dust

The air in Grand Junction’s downtown district hangs heavy with the scent of old paper and dust. It is July 2026, but inside Out West Books, the climate control hums against the Western Slope heat. The shelves are packed. The staff is making recommendations that cut through the usual marketing noise.

They aren’t pushing bestsellers for the sake of sales. They are pointing toward history that refuses to be polite.

The store’s owners and staff selected two titles this week for SunLit, The Colorado Sun’s literature section. Both books challenge the standard narrative of how the West was won. They focus on who was actually there, and what happened to them.

The first pick is The Westerners by Megan Kate Nelson. The book arrives in March 2026 from Scribner at $31. Marya Johnston, the store’s owner, says it is a keeper. She notes that much has been written about Nelson’s work already. Johnston threw her hat into the ring anyway.

The book tells two stories at once. It tracks Indigenous peoples, Black Americans, Mexican Americans, and immigrants moving through the 19th-century West. It also shows how later generations tried to erase them. The national mythology that followed lionized white settlers and individualism. It ignored the rest.

Johnston is captivated by Jim Beckwith, also known as Beckwourth. He was born into slavery. His life twisted like barbed wire. He worked as a mountain man and trapper with Jim Bridger in the Uintahs and Wyoming. He lived with the Crow tribe in Montana. He traded at Fort Vasquez and Bent’s Fort in Colorado.

He returned to California for the gold rush. Then he came back to Colorado. He led a charge at Sand Creek.

Johnston points out that locals see his name everywhere without knowing why. There is Beckwith Hall on the Western Colorado University campus. There is Beckwourth Pass in the Sierras. They are named for the same man. His story weaves through Nelson’s book alongside other underrepresented figures like Sacajawea and Maria Gertrudis Barcelo, the richest woman in Santa Fe.

The second recommendation is This Vast Enterprise by Craig Fehrman. Simon & Schuster published it in April 2026 for $35.

Fehrman dispels familiar myths about the Lewis and Clark expedition. He argues that the early 19th century was darker than we remember. Thomas Jefferson’s obsession with expanding America beyond the Louisiana Purchase drove the mission. The expedition’s success did not rest solely on Lewis and Clark. It depended on many others.

Fehrman ventures into uncharted territory to offer a more accurate account. He shifts the focus from the leaders to the broader enterprise of exploration and survival.

These are not light reads. They require attention. But they offer an unvarnished view of the region’s past. For neighbors in Grand Junction and beyond, that matters. We live with these names on our roads and buildings. It is time we understood the people behind them.

The staff at Out West Books made their choices clear. They want readers to look closer. They are not asking for blind trust in the standard story. They are offering evidence.

Johnston says pick it up. The books are there.