Sign-In
Cart
Prairie Fire: A Great Plains History
Paperback
Environmental StudiesGeneral World HistoryRegional: Midwest
ISBN13: 9780700635139
Publisher: Univ Pr Of Kansas
Published: Jan 3 2023
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.94
Height: 0.65 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A Kansas Notable Book
Prairie fires have always been a spectacular and dangerous part of the Great Plains. Nineteenth-century settlers sometimes lost their lives to uncontrolled blazes, and today ranchers such as those in the Flint Hills of Kansas manage the grasslands through controlled burning. Even small fires, overlooked by history, changed lives--destroyed someone's property, threatened someone's safety, or simply made someone's breath catch because of their astounding beauty.
Julie Courtwright, who was born and raised in the tallgrass prairie of Butler County, Kansas, knows prairie fires well. In this first comprehensive environmental history of her subject, Courtwright vividly recounts how fire--setting it, fighting it, watching it, fearing it--has bound Plains people to each other and to the prairies themselves for centuries. She traces the history of both natural and intentional fires from Native American practices to the current use of controlled burns as an effective land management tool, along the way sharing the personal accounts of people whose lives have been touched by fire.
The book ranges from Texas to the Dakotas and from the 1500s to modern times. It tells how Native Americans learned how to replicate the effects of natural lightning fires, thus maintaining the prairie ecosystem. Native peoples fired the prairie to aid in the hunt, and also as a weapon in war. White settlers learned from them that burns renewed the grasslands for grazing; but as more towns developed, settlers began to suppress fires-now viewed as a threat to their property and safety. Fire suppression had as dramatic an environmental impact as fire application. Suppression allowed the growth of water-wasting trees and caused a thick growth of old grass to build up over time, creating a dangerous environment for accidental fires.
Courtwright calls on a wide range of sources: diary entries and oral histories from survivors, colorful newspaper accounts, military weather records, and artifacts of popular culture from Gene Autry stories to country song lyrics to Little House on the Prairie. Through this multiplicity of voices, she shows us how prairie fires have always been a significant part of the Great Plains experience-and how each fire that burned across the prairies over hundreds of years is part of someone's life story.
By unfolding these personal narratives while looking at the bigger environmental picture, Courtwright blends poetic prose with careful scholarship to fashion a thoughtful paean to prairie fire. It will enlighten environmental and Western historians and renew a sense of wonder in the people of the Plains.
Also in
Regional: Midwest
Twin Cities by Trolley: The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul
Isaacs, Aaron
Diers, John W.
Hardcover
Lake Minnetonka
Westonka Historical Society
Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society
Wayzata Historical Society
Paperback
Scandinavians in the State House: How Nordic Immigrants Shaped Minnesota Politics
Bergman, Klas
Paperback
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Larson, Erik
Paperback
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Egan, Timothy
Paperback
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Paperback
Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie
Marcotty, Josephine
Hage, Dave
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District
Johnson, Hannibal B.
Paperback
Spooky Michigan: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of the American Heartland
Cain, Áine
Greenlee, Kevin
Hardcover
Heart of American Darkness: A Story of Murder and Revolution on the Early Frontier
Parkinson, Robert G.
Paperback
The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits
Miles, Tiya
Paperback
The Great Black Swamp: Toxic Algae, Toxic Relationships, and the Most Interesting Place in America That Nobody's Ever Heard of
Wensink, Patrick
Paperback
White Pines and Stone: The Hunt for the Springfield Three
McDermott, Dylan
Whitcomb, Christopher
Hardcover
Wrecked: The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy
Nelson, Thomas M.
Podair, Jerald
Paperback
The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
Johnson, Walter
Paperback
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
Green, James
Paperback
What's the Deal with Dead Man's Curve?: And Other Really Good Questions about Cleveland
Sweeney, Jim
Paperback
Brooding Upon the Waters: A Memoir of Farming, Fishing, and Failure in America's Lost Landscape
Schaap, Howard
Paperback
One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season
Ballard, Chris
Paperback
The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North
Adams, Michelle
Hardcover
Lake Michigan Gales & Tales: Vanishing Ships, Tragic Wrecks, and Historic Rescues
Passwater, Michael
Paperback
Wilder Weather: What Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaches Us about the Weather, Climate, and Protecting What We Cherish
Boustead, Barbara
Paperback
The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North
Adams, Michelle
Paperback
It Happened in Nebraska: Stories of Events and People That Shaped Cornhusker State History
Partsch, Tammy
Paperback
Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures: Great Lakes: Legends And Lore, Pirates And More!
Varhola, Michael
Paperback
Girl Without a Country: The Untold Story of a Landmark Fight for U.S. Citizenship
Ramseyer, Rick
Paperback
The Maid and the Socialite: The Brave Women Behind Green Bay's Scandalous Minahan Trials
Drews, Lynda
Paperback
Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan: Personal Histories of Two Icons of American Architecture
Thoreson, Trygve
Paperback
Chicago's Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City
Smith, Carl
Paperback
The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
Perry, Douglas
Paperback
Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
A Keg of Their Best: Brewing in the Beer State Capital--From the Beer Baron Era to Modern Microbrews
Shepard, Robin
Paperback
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit - Updated Edition
Sugrue, Thomas J.
Paperback
City of Champions: A History of Triumph and Defeat in Detroit
Weineck, Silke-Maria
Szymanski, Stefan
Hardcover
Spooky Great Lakes: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker
Cramer, Katherine J.
Paperback
Spooky Wisconsin: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Fishes of the Chicago Region: A Field Guide
Pescitelli, Stephen M.
Willink, Philip W.
Veraldi, Francis M.
Paperback
It Happened in Michigan: Stories of Events and People That Shaped Great Lakes State History
Burcar, Colleen
Paperback
Murder at Minnesota Point: Unraveling the Captivating Mystery of a Long-Forgotten True Crime
Sauve, Jeffrey M.
Paperback
Spooky Indiana: Tales Of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, And Other Local Lore, First Edition
Hoffman, Paul G.
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Glory Days in Tribe Town: The Cleveland Indians and Jacobs Field 1994-1997
Hamilton, Tom
Pluto, Terry
Paperback
The Nastiest Saloon in Iowa: Murder, Prostitution, and Corruption in the Heartland
Donovan, David P.
Donovan, Rose M.
Paperback
Vintage Cavs: A Warm Look Back at the Cavaliers of the Cleveland Arena and Richfield Coliseum Years
Pluto, Terry
Paperback
When Democrats Won the Heartland: Progressive Populism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992
Haala, Cory
Paperback
Evanston Speaks: Oral Histories of Transformation and Triumph from a Progressive City
Hurtig, Elliott
Hardcover
The Lions Finally Roar: The Detroit Lions and the Road to Redemption in the NFL
Morris, Bill
Paperback
Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa: Environmental Transformation Along the Des Moines River
Mason, Kevin T.
Paperback
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Hardcover
We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy by Paul Johnson
Johnson, Paul
Paperback
Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - 70th Anniversary Edition
Crowe, William S.
Paperback
Land of the Burnt Thigh: A Lively Story of Women Homesteaders on the South Dakota Frontier
Kohl, Edith Eudora
Paperback
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy
Nesteroff, Kliph
Paperback
Crime & Corruption on the Michigan Railroad: Stories from the Victorian Era
Delaware, Michael
Paperback
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul
Abbott, Karen
Paperback