Exploring the Big Woods: A Guide to the Last Great Forest of Eastern Arkansas is both a natural history and a guide to one of the last remnants of Mississippi bottomland forest, an ecosystem that once stretched from southern Illinois to the Gulf Coast.

Crossed by the White River and its tributaries, which periodically flood and release nutrients, the Big Woods is one of the few places in the Mississippi River Valley where this life-giving flood cycle persists. As a result, it is home to an unusual abundance of animals and plants.

Immense cypresses, hickories, sweetgums, oaks, and sycamores; millions of migrating waterfowl; incredible scenery; and the complex relationship between humans and nature are all to be discovered here.

Exploring the Big Woods will introduce readers to the natural features, plants, animals, and hiking and canoeing trails going deep into the forests and swamps of this rare and beautiful natural resource.

With 68 compellingly beautiful photographs, Turner Browne documents a fast-disappearing way of life for the people who live on the lower White River and issues a plea to save the river from irreversible damage by the Army Corps of Engineers. By demonstrating that the endless dredging and flood control projects of the ever-active Corps are destroying the river's natural beauty and the livelihoods of those who make the river their only home - on houseboats and along its banks - he argues graphically and heroically for the preservation of a unique culture and of a great river. The black-and-white photographs, taken between Batesville, Arkansas, and the confluence with the Mississippi River, tell a story of loss, nostalgia, and fortitude as they portray the river's remarkable character and the exceptional lifestyles of acorn gatherers, sturgeon fishers, mussel divers, and others who extract a meager but satisfying existence from the river's resources. The damage the Corps of Engineers has wrought, including cleared forests, piles of debris, and "containment structures," certainly tolls a death knell for much of this natural waterway. The Last River is a journey, a journey probably never to be taken again.

From the time the Waverly first steamed up the White River to Batesville from the Mississippi River in 1831, the haunting blast of river whistles signaled service, comfort, and delight for residents along this major Arkansas waterway. In a terrain that lacked good roads, steamboats contributed significantly to new economic development and settlement of the region. They carried animal hides, cotton, and rendered bear oil downriver to market and transported settlers, food staples, and manufactured goods upriver. For a hundred years these elegant boats were used for mail delivery, excursion parties, and freight hauling, eventually bringing about their own demise when they hauled in the material to build the railroads.

Over 120 black-and-white photographs, sketches, and maps illustrate the colorful text. Interwoven with the history of steamboats is that of ferries keelboats, flatboats, and Civil War tinclads, all of which plied the White River in the 1800s and early 1900s. A keenly researched regional study, this book is nonetheless representative of conditions and activities on similar river systems in many parts of America during the same period. Steamboats and Ferries on the White River pays lasting tribute to the golden age of steam travel.