Draining
the Great Oasis: An Environmental History of Murray County, Minnesota
| Draining the Great Oasis is a collection
of essays on the environmental history of Murray County, Minnesota.
Located on the tall grass prairie of southwestern Minnesota, Murray
County is a land of contrasts. It is composed of floodplains, river
valleys, wetlands, and uplands formed by glaciation. With wet and
dry seasons and cycles, climatic extremes characterize it. In the
last hundred and fifty years this land has been bent and shaped to
serve commercial agriculture and an industrial nation. In twenty unique
essays, fifteen authors from different disciplines and perspectives
examine this transformation. They probe the multifaceted relationship
between human beings and their environment, examining topics ranging
from weed control and horse ecology to wetlands and recreational landscapes. |
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|
These essays include:
| A Wet and Dry Landscape |
by Anthony Amato |
| Crops and Land Use |
by Geoff
Cunfer |
| Geology |
by Thomas Dilley |
| Soils |
by Neal Eash |
| Wetlands |
by Doug Spieles |
| Mammals |
by Elizabeth Desy |
| Birds |
by Janet Timmerman |
| Birding |
by Robert Janssen |
| Native Prairie |
by Janet Timmerman |
| Lake Shetek |
by Beth Spieles |
| Draining the Great Oasis |
by Janet Timmerman |
| Ditches |
by Geoff
Cunfer and Dennis Guse |
| Roads |
by Joseph
Amato |
| Horse Ecology |
by Geoff
Cunfer |
| Barns |
by David Pichaske |
| Weeds |
by Nancy Brown |
| Hogville |
by Lisa Gerber |
| Crazy Acres |
by Richard Vanderziel |
| A Home Lake |
by Jim Muchlinski |
| Bibliographic Essay and Annotated Bibliography
|
by Beth Spieles |
|
| Like other new environmental microhistories,
Draining the Great Oasis captures the nuances and detail of
a specific place, while addressing the broader experiences of southwestern
Minnesota and other North American prairie regions where great ecological
transformations have accompanied large-scale agriculture. Draining
the Great Oasis offers new themes and approaches that will stimulate
both environmental and local history. |
Crossings Press, 2001
#33
Price:
| $25.00 per individual copy |
| $15.00 per book for orders of five
or more copies |
|
