Of Rock and Rivers: Seeking a Sense of Place in the American West Review

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Of Rock and Rivers: Seeking a Sense of Place in the American West ReviewThe old adage that you can't judge a book by its cover doesn't hold true here. The lovely cover photograph is just a hint of the joys to be found inside.
My daughter suggested that I read this lovely book by Ellen Wohl -- who is a Professor of Geology at Colorado State. Her specialty is fluvial geomorphology. In every day terms this means how moving water shapes a landscape over time. The book is a marvel of beautiful, poetic writing that will fill your mind with images of the American West. All of it is wonderful but I particularly loved her descriptions of rafting on the Grand Canyon. You can see her maturing as a scientist and human being with each passing page as she describes her family's move from the Midwest to Arizona and her many outings into mountain and canyon.
If you like John McPhee, you'll likely enjoy this book but her writing style is different. She comes at the landscape with the mind and eye of a scientist but with a lyrical spirit that comes across in the writing. Not many scientists are good communicators and even fewer can really write well. Dr. Wohl is an exceptional writer and one can only hope that she follows this book up with more to come.
If you have a love of the west, wild places, canyons, rocks and rivers and want a deeper understanding of how humans have shaped and are shaping the land we inhabit -- you should read this. I wish the photos were in color but they are nice and really, it's the great descriptive writing that's the star here.
Of Rock and Rivers: Seeking a Sense of Place in the American West OverviewThis beautifully written and deeply personal collection of essays paints a progressive view of the American West as seen by a geologist. Ellen Wohl traces her twenty years of living and conducting research in the natural landscapes of the West as she investigates the conflict between environmental history and widely held romanticized views of the region. Wohl grew up in Ohio, subscribing to a common perception of the American West as an unchanged frontier. Moving to Arizona, she became enthralled with how the landscapes and ecosystems of the West have undergone change, both through geologic time and during the historical era of European settlement. These essays tell of her early training as a geomorphologist and provide a memorable account of her research in the rivers of the West. As the lessons accrue, Wohl gives us the benefit of her experience and shows how years of studying and living in the Colorado Rockies have enhanced her understanding of landscape change through time. Building on the literary tradition of Joseph Wood Krutch, Terry Tempest Williams, and John McPhee, Wohl provides an up-to-date portrait of the West and brings a new urgency to the call for conservation of the region's land, water, and resources.

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