Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today

Lewis and Clark at the meridian of time: Botkin uses the Lewis and Clark expedition as the basis from which to illustrate his lessons on evolution of landforms, flora, fauna, and above all, river ecology and riparian environments. His frame ranges from the earliest geologic eras to the present, using the wonderfully detailed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark diaries as the starting point for comparisons both back and forward through time. The spread of the Anglo-European population along the route of the Corps of Discovery, and the resultant economic pressures, are among the largest of the forces he describes. It's a very bright device, especially because the author quotes liberally from the diaries; the imagery and accuracy of their descriptions cannot be duplicated, and their notoriously inventive grammar and spelling are irresistible. The charm of Lewis and Clark's naïve use of the English language does not transfer to modern authors, however. While this book has many pluses, a few of which I will touch on below, it is so badly edited that it is seriously distracting. Carelessness with respect to standard usage and other details, including above all, accuracy, casts aspersions (merited or not) on the reliability of an author's message. Besides some oddities of organization and stylistic peculiarities, there are numerous minor and major grammatical mistakes, awkward punctuation (lots and lots of semi-colons), and factual errors. Here are two examples, the first an incoherent metaphor from page 46: "The trees grew remarkably fast - some were twenty or thirty feet high and up to five inches in diameter - as thick as a wrist - after five years." Whether diameter, circumference, or maybe radius, was the intended measure, none conjures up a tree or a wrist of feasible proportions. On page 4, the identification of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers is reversed in the legend for a satellite photograph of the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers. Given that the theme of the book centers on watersheds, this is a critical mistake. Production values are exceptionally poor. Many of photographs are so dark and muddy that the details the author is directing us to are lost. Several of Botkin's own are flecked with dirt (see, for example, pages 19, 51, 67, 78, and 154.) Even if from pre-digital originals, a careful scan, a few minutes at the hands of a competent PhotoShop user, and the cleaned up new prints with straightened horizons would have added to the clarity, and therefore to the credibility, of this text. Worse, colors in the some of the diagrams and figures are so far off from the keys that it's literally not possible to interpret them. More suggestions for improvement: Clear line-drawn maps would have added greatly to the utility of this book, as would a bibliography or further readings list. Finally, there are places in which interpretations of antiquated usages and extreme misspellings of Lewis an

Dr. Dan Botkin has delivered an important and timely contribution to the voluminous literature associated with the on-going commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. "Beyond the Stony Mountains," provides a synthetic and desperately needed overview of the Lewis and Clark expedition vis a vis the geography of the trail environments. While many of the titles associated with the Corps of Discovery provide detailed assessments of particular aspects, Botkin's most recent contribution provides an ecological historical perspective of the landscape dynamics associated with two hundred years of change. This change, documented in well-researched analysis spanning over ten years of work, highlights the interconnected cultural and ecological factors associated with landscape change. Moving beyond typical social, economic, and political history of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Botkin pinpoints key examples of the historical geography and provides insights unique to the ecological mind. Moreover, Botkin's analysis proves a key assertion provided by Dr. Gary Moulton, Editor, "the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition." Despite copious examinations of the data and information contained in the Journals, it is possible to extract additional, meaningful analysis from the pages of the text. This analysis is, of course, dependent on the perspective of the investigator and the particular critical lense through which the Journals are examined. In Botkin's case, we have a holistic, naturalist's approach that defines the heuristic methodology. Again, such an analytical approach presents a substantial contribution to the literature and serves as a point of convergence for many researchers looking to document scientifically specific aspects of landscape dynamics through the story that is the Lewis and Clark expedition. Botkin's contribution provides a wealth of new information, geographical theses for discussion, and a modern foundation for the continued examination of the significance of change along the Lewis and Clark trail. Provided that change is one of the few constants we can assign to the legacy of the Corps of Discovery, it is important that we dig deeply with Dr. Botkin, beneath the surface, and examine the geographical lessons contained in the Journals. It is only through a scientific assessment of where we have been that we have some sense of where we are and, most importantly, where we are going collectively as nation living in the shadow of the Stony Mountains. Congratulations to Dr. Botkin for this worthwhile contribution.