Powder River: Let Er Buck: 07/04/15

Powder River: Let Er Buck by Maxwell Struthers Burt is the fourth of the Rivers of America series. This one focuses on the Powder river and basin, an area that stretches through Montana and Wyoming. The Power River also has the unique status of being the only river to cross the continental divide (probably because it starts at the divide).

The Powder River area is also the home to the Lakota. In so many of these Rivers of America, the indigenous peoples are glossed over or even openly mocked for the inability to hold onto the land or tame the river by modern day white man's standards. Maxwell Struthers Burt though speaks knowledgeably about their history and is able to see things from their perspective.

After the Sacramento River book, Powder River is my second favorite of the series. It's a good mixture of geography, geology, and history. Burt doesn't pad things with local color stories presented as fictional accounts of life along the river. It's a straight up recounting of the Powder river.

Five stars

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