BEYOND THE STONY MOUNTAINS

Mishmash of American history, ecological survey, and travel guide surveys the state of Lewis and Clark’s route as it exists today.

Naturalist Botkin traveled this road previously in Our Natural History (1995), which traced Lewis and Clark’s journey along the Missouri River. Here, he follows their trail with an eye to the changes that have occurred in the 200 years since the explorers blazed their way west. He makes some direct comparisons when focusing on the unique features of the environment that the two men catalogued—the Cahokia Mounds near St. Louis, the Loess Hills outside of Omaha, the lost midwestern prairies, the shape of the Missouri river, the Great Falls in Montana—but Botkin will not be constrained by his own literary device. His text roams far and wide, covering the geological forces that formed the landscape, the native flora and fauna and how it fares today, the climatic changes that are characteristic of different areas. The author extensively contemplates the behavior of rivers over time, considering various dams, power schemes, fishing efforts, bird habitats, conservation efforts, and floods. He compares historical attitudes toward wildlife with contemporary ones and (although it is not the main thrust of the work) puts forth his own philosophy of coexistence with the wild, a strategy that’s equal parts conservation and intelligent development. Botkin also gives practical advice on how to see the sites he discusses: “State Route 50 crosses the Platte River at Louisville, Nebraska (reached from Lincoln by car via Interstate 80 to State Route 370).” All in all, there’s unfortunately little of Lewis and Clark, since they provide the emotional thrust to the subject. Botkin may feel passionately about the land he discusses, but there’s scant evidence of it in his choppy, flat, and oddly repetitive prose.

A wealth of information, frustratingly jumbled.