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Watershed Community:
a Century of East Idaho Authors by Anne Merkley (Editor) 90 Pages $10.00 Black & White ISBN: 978-1724470188 This book was conceived and prepared in conjunction with an Eastern Idaho Watershed Conference held at Idaho State University in Pocatello from October 21 through 23, 1999. Now out-of-print, the book is being revised and reissued, with the addition of illustrations. The “watershed” is actually a combination of three smaller river networks that form headwaters and feed into the great Snake River as it begins to wind across the southern half of the state of Idaho and ultimately join the Columbia River in Washington before that major waterway empties into the Pacific Ocean. Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, and Pocatello are the central communities established by Euro-Americans along this stretch of the watershed. Both book and conference were the coming together of different voices within Eastern Idaho watersheds, large and small. Both have portrayed the many-faceted relationships of people and the landscape, of people and people, of people and life. “The Past” includes the Northern Shoshoni Creation Story. The Euro-American view shows determination to harness energies of the great American West and to control natural forces – plus the tranquility that was found on the small family farm. Voices from the past speak of sharp contrasts between desert and water, and what water meant to those who dropped off along the way to the Eden of Oregon and to California. The writing of “The Present” reflects other aspects of survival besides economics. Water takes on dimensions of therapy, aesthetics, recreation, and the well-being of all life on earth. Among the contemporary authors in Watershed Community are Will Peterson, Charles Potts, Jackie Maughan, Krishna Strong, and Joan Juskie. |