In the Country of the Kaw: A Personal Natural History of the American Plains

by James H. Locklear

328 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2024

Reviews

[Danica Lam]

The breadth of knowledge packed into "In the Country of the Kaw" impressed me. Although I grew up in Kansas and have often sought solace from the natural environment surrounding the Kaw, I know very little about the ecosystems that sustain the Kaw watershed region, and less about good stewardship of this same region that sustains me. I read this book to learn more, and like any good author, James H. Locklear piqued my interest in learning more and continuing to reflect.

Locklear shared the terms "boomers" and "stickers," coined by author Wallace Stegner and popularized by author Wendell Berry. Not to be confused with the generational boomer group, here boomers refer to those who are motivated by money, ambition, and success; where stickers refer to those motivated by a deep love of home, community, and the land. Boomers treat landscapes as temporary tools they can leave behind, where stickers plant roots in and seek to care for a place. Does our society support stickers? Not very well, in my opinion.

I don't have a solution for the masses, but I can continue trying to be a better steward myself.

[Thomas Isern]

An impressive work in the venerable tradition of literary nonfiction on the Great Plains. I'll confess, I was won when Locklear declared the Smoky Hills the Heart of America. Strong on natural history, perhaps less so on human history, the overall effect is that of a botanist rampant on the country, another venerable tradition of the region. With eyes open and tongue in cheek, as when he invokes Jude, the patron saint of hopeless cases, as the patron saint of the much-afflicted Kaw, and more broadly, the Great Plains. The guy has been places and tracked the rock wrens to their crevices. There is critical affection in the work.

[Lynne]

I enjoyed the book. I would describe it as a combination of ecology, agriculture, and geology of the Kaw Watershed but also as a sort of love letter to the region. Anyone with a natural sciences background will appreciate and already have some understanding of the information presented but there is still room for learning. I can imagine myself standing on some divide peering into the drainage basin and seeing forever and into the past or kayaking down the river which I've done many times. This is a "slow food" experience, not something to rush as you read but to dabble and peruse.

[Rhonda]

I live in the country of the Kaw, grew up next to the Smoky Hill River, and I found this a fascinating look at all aspects of the countryside in the drainage basin of the Kaw, geology, fauna, flora, human history, and extremely readable.

[PottWab Regional Library]

A

[George Frazier]

A new voice in the annals of the Kansas River, Locklear has written a riverine botany of the Kaw Valley, a poignant cultural and natural history of the longest true prairie river on earth.