In 1879 Edwin Curtiss set out for the St. Francis River region of Arkansas. By the time Curtiss completed his 56 days of fieldwork, he had sent nearly 1,000 pottery vessels to the Peabody Museum. House brings us a lively account of the work of the 19th-century fieldworker, the Native culture he explored, and the rich legacies left by both.

These stories tell of the myriad ways God invents to pour out His love on broken humanity. There is no heart so hard that He cannot soften it, no obstacle so great that He cannot overcome it, no human so isolated that He cannot find them.

An inspirational bucket list for anyone interested in rafting, kayaking, or canoeing—from armchair traveler to recreational paddler to hard-core white-water enthusiast. From the Penobscot to the Potomac, the New to the Suwannee, the Colorado to the Snake, America’s Great River Journeys entices people to experience America from its free-flowing waterways. Vivid descriptions of our nation’s fifty finest river trips are complete with stunning photos of each leg of each journey, an engaging narrative, and practical tips about the length of trips, seasonal preferences, difficulty of white water, joys of camping along the shores, availability of professional outfitters, and other details. Through beautiful photography and compelling writing, America’s Great River Journeys is a celebration of the best rivers for canoeing, kayaking, and rafting—from Alaska to Florida—along 7,000 miles of our nation’s spectacular waterways in twenty-eight states.

A fictionalized account of La Salle's exploration of the Mississippi River Valley.

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting for an engaging read aloud experience! A mighty river. A long history. For thousands of years, the Elwha river flowed north to the sea. The river churned with salmon, which helped feed bears, otters, and eagles. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, known as the Strong People located in the Pacific Northwest, were grateful for the river's abundance. All that changed in the 1790s when strangers came who did not understand the river's gifts. The strangers built dams, and the environmental consequences were disastrous. Sibert honoree Patricia Newman and award-winning illustrator Natasha Donovan join forces to tell the story of the Elwha, chronicling how the Strong People successfully fought to restore the river and their way of life.

A sweeping history of the Mississippi River—and the centuries of human meddling that have transformed both it and America. The Mississippi River lies at the heart of America, an undeniable life force that is intertwined with the nation’s culture and history. Its watershed spans almost half the country, Mark Twain’s travels on the river inspired our first national literature, and jazz and blues were born in its floodplains and carried upstream. In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of this wild and unruly river, and the centuries of efforts to control it. Over thousands of years, the Mississippi watershed was home to millions of Indigenous people who regarded “the great river” with awe and respect, adorning its banks with astonishing spiritual earthworks. The river was ever-changing, and Indigenous tribes embraced and even depended on its regular flooding. But the expanse of the watershed and the rich soils of its floodplain lured European settlers and American pioneers, who had a different vision: the river was a foe to conquer. Centuries of human attempts to own, contain, and rework the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jefferson’s expansionist land hunger through today’s era of environmental concern, have now transformed its landscape. Upholt reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineering—government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams—has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer. Carrying readers along the river’s last remaining backchannels, he explores how scientists are now hoping to restore what has been lost. Rich and powerful, The Great River delivers a startling account of what happens when we try to fight against nature instead of acknowledging and embracing its power—a lesson that is all too relevant in our rapidly changing world.

The Pulitzer Prize– and Bancroft Prize–winning epic history of the American Southwest from the acclaimed twentieth-century author of Lamy of Santa Fe. Great River was hailed as a literary masterpiece and enduring classic when it first appeared in 1954. It is an epic history of four civilizations—Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American—that people the Southwest through ten centuries. With the skill of a novelist, the veracity of a scholar, and the love of a long-time resident, Paul Horgan describes the Rio Grande, its role in human history, and the overlapping cultures that have grown up alongside it or entered into conflict over the land it traverses. Now in its fourth revised edition, Great River remains a monumental part of American historical writing. “Here is known and unknown history, emotion and color, sense and sensitivity, battles for land and the soul of man, cultures and moods, fused by a glowing pen and a scholarly mind into a cohesive and memorable whole.” —The Boston Sunday Herald “Transcends regional history and soars far above the river valley with which it deals . . . a survey, rich in color and fascinating in pictorial detail, of four civilizations: the aboriginal Indian, the Spanish, the Mexican, and the Anglo-American . . . It is, in the best sense of the word, literature. It has architectural plan, scholarly accuracy, stylistic distinction, and not infrequently real nobility of spirit.” —Allan Nevins, author of Ordeal of the Union “One of the major masterpieces of American historical writing.” —Carl Carmer, author of Stars Fell on Alabama