Damming the Osage: The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir - Softcover

Leland Payton; Crystal Payton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0967392586 ISBN 13: 9780967392585

Publisher: Lens & Pen Press, 2012

Synopsis

Only fragments remain of the native prairies of the upper Osage watershed. It has been two centuries since the warrior culture for which the river is named, and who maintained the buffalo grasslands by fire, was pushed west by displaced eastern tribes and land-hungry Americans. Two high dams have turned the main stem of the river into huge reservoirs. Leland and Crystal Payton find the tale of these transformations compelling, but turbulent. In journals of soldiers, explorers, and missionaries and in old newspaper accounts and court documents, they discovered a cast of passionate and sometimes doomed personalities.

DAMMING THE OSAGE is also a record of banking fraud, slush funds, and governmental misdeeds. Romanticism's penchant for hyperbole, Leland and Crystal Payton found, was not confined to mythic stories of Osage Indians. Brochures put out by the US Army Corps of Engineers laud the sterile, banal landscape created by dams as a natural paradise.

If changed by development, the authors found the present Osage valley landscape expressive. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, period maps, and vintage images, this book tells the dramatic saga of human ambition pitted against natural limitations and forces beyond man's control.

Wars have been fought over water since ancient times. DAMMING THE OSAGE chronicles efforts to develop the Osage River and the forces, both natural and political, that opposed its improvement. Before the Louisiana Purchase, the French and Spanish were thwarted in their effort to colonize the region by the powerful Osage Indian tribe. When the Americans arrived, efforts through engineering to make the river useful began, ultimately leading to a series of massive dams and reservoirs. This new 304 page book with 435 color illustrations weaves together tumultuous stories of centuries of conflict over how to exploit this important resource. Much of ecological, scientific and cultural value has been lost in the process.

About this title

About the Author:

Authors Leland and Crystal Payton have published a dozen books on popular culture and regional history. All are extensively illustrated with contemporary and vintage photographs, maps, art and artifacts. Like other Lens & Pen titles, DAMMING THE OSAGE is a quality, all color volume produced by a fine art book printer.

Review:

The Osage River, its ecology twice assaulted in Missouri by massive dams, is documented from its earliest history to the present day by this talented team of photographer and writer. The story of the river and its transmutation is told in moving and sometimes lyrical language, augmented on every page by color photographs. A must read for Missourians, especially those concerned about the future of our most precious natural resource the land. --W. Raymond Wood, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri-Columbia

The Conflicted Story of Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Reservoir is an in-depth history of how human development permanently transformed the upper Osage watershed. Two great dams have changed parts of the river into reservoirs, and the impact of this change upon the land and the people who call it home has been phenomenal. Lavishing illustrated with striking color photographs or historic black-and-white photographs on practically every page, Damming the Osage is part American history and part environmental history, yet retells true events and individual stories with the flair and excitement of an adventure novel. An altogether enthralling and seminal contribution to both public and college library shelves, highly recommended. --Midwest Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Lens & Pen Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0967392586
• ISBN 13: 9780967392585
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304