In his newest book, Devils River, Patrick Dearen traces the 400-year history of the notorious river from the time of the first Spanish explorers to the modernization of southwestern Texas and the coming of the railroad. He vividly retells stories of Indian encounters, train robberies, and other horrific events that prove just how the name “Devils River” was coined. With his inimitable style, the author weaves together a variety of themes--military events, including the Civil War and stories about the Texas Rangers; the development of the first mail lines; and the introduction of cattle and sheep raising--into a comprehensive account of the violence and bloodshed surrounding the Devils River. The nature of the river’s history is such that very few anecdotes have happy endings, but Devils River contains stories of triumphs as well as disasters. Although this is an excellent account for historians studying the west, it is also very accessible to others with little or no background in early western history.

Del Rio. Val Verde. By the river. The Green Valley. The great grand parents and their kin came. By horse . . . wagon . . . stage coach . . . foot back. They settled the village. Helped name it Del Rio. Assisted in forming Val Verde County. Grandparents told stories: of their coming to live in the wonderful country where Devils River, the Pecos, and the Rio Grande meet . . . of early times in the boundary area where the Chihuahuan Desert from the west meets hills of the Edwards Plateau to the north and merges with Tamaulipas brush land from the south and the east. Times change. Winter-time tale-tellings before the fireplace on grand-dad’s knee . . . warm-weather story-sharings on the back porch in grand-ma’s lap . . . wisps of Prince Albert pipe smoke . . .twinkings of twilight fire-flies . . . all eroded away by movies, television, and cell phones. But there are still stories to tell. Tales to pass on. Things we want children – grandchildren – those still to come – to remember – in times yet to be. This book is a gathering of happenings – remembrances of events – glimpses of parenting – thoughts of yesteryear. It tells of: Horses and windmills and tarantulas . . . a wrong-way bus trip . . . a hidden wedding ring . . . sycamore trees . . . a lost bath and football shack showers . . . lions and toads and tin soldiers . . . a picket fence . . . old telephones . . . poison pig weed . . . a crusty old red rooster . . . building boats and reviving old cars . . . holiday traditions . . . hunting experiences . . . sailing fiascos . . . and more.

After midnight on December 10, 1964, in Ferriday, Louisiana, African American Frank Morris awoke to the sound of breaking glass. Outside his home and shoe shop, standing behind the shattered window, Klansmen tossed a lit match inside the store, now doused in gasoline, and instantly set the building ablaze. A shotgun pointed to Morris’s head blocked his escape from the flames. Four days later Morris died, though he managed in his last hours to describe his attackers to the FBI. Frank Morris’s death was one of several Klan murders that terrorized residents of northeast Louisiana and Mississippi, as the perpetrators continued to elude prosecution during this brutal era in American history. In Devils Walking: Klan Murders along the Mississippi in the 1960s, Pulitzer Prize finalist and journalist Stanley Nelson details his investigation—alongside renewed FBI attention—into these cold cases, as he uncovers the names of the Klan’s key members as well as systemized corruption and coordinated deception by those charged with protecting all citizens. Devils Walking recounts the little-known facts and haunting stories that came to light from Nelson’s hundreds of interviews with both witnesses and suspects. His research points to the development of a particularly virulent local faction of the Klan who used terror and violence to stop integration and end the advancement of civil rights. Secretly led by the savage and cunning factory worker Red Glover, these Klansmen—a handpicked group that included local police officers and sheriff’s deputies—discarded Klan robes for civilian clothes and formed the underground Silver Dollar Group, carrying a silver dollar as a sign of unity. Their eight known victims, mostly African American men, ranged in age from nineteen to sixty-seven and included one Klansman seeking redemption for his past actions. Following the 2007 FBI reopening of unsolved civil rights–era cases, Nelson’s articles in the Concordia Sentinel prompted the first grand jury hearing for these crimes. By unmasking those responsible for these atrocities and giving a voice to the victims’ families, Devils Walking demonstrates the importance of confronting and addressing the traumatic legacy of racism.

Devil's Den to Lickingwater tells the multifaceted tale of the Mill River in Western Massachusetts, from its emergence after the glaciers 20,000 years ago to the present. This is in fact the story of New England, and indeed much of America, as told by environmental historian John Sinton (co-author of Water, Earth and Fire: The New Jersey Pine Barrens and The Connecticut River Boating Guide). Little escapes Sinton's voracious historical appetite - the creation of the landscape, the disappearance and reappearance of native fish and animals, the Mill River as a Native American crossroads, the contrast between English and Native ways of managing the land, the transformations wrought by war, floods and industrial disasters, the extraordinary role of the Mill River in the U.S. Industrial Revolution, the exceptional personalities, from Sachem Umanchala to Calvin Coolidge. All this is told through the arc of the Mill River's history-beloved, abused, diverted, and ultimately reclaimed as an integral part of the landscape.

Texas and whitewater. Who knew? According to veteran paddler Steve Daniel, one doesn't have to be an outdoors expert to find whitewater fun and adventure in the Lone Star State. Sometimes all that's needed is a little rain and perseverance - and this handy guide to Texas rivers and creeks with the greatest prospects for whitewater.