Adios Amigos: Tales of Sustenance and Purification in the American West

Page Stegner’s extensive writings on American history have made him a popular and critical favorite. Adios Amigos maintains his high standard. These essays expertly interweave natural history, conservation polemic, ecology, and wilderness adventures on a number of the West's major whitewater rivers. Stegner moves effortlessly from his own experiences on the Colorado, Yampa, Green, San Juan, Dolores, and Missouri rivers to first explorations by historical figures like Lewis and Clark and John Wesley Powell to modern controversies that threaten the continued existence of these special places. From its opening essay, a hilarious, albeit hazardous, journey down the Owyhee River in southeastern Oregon, to its final impeachment of Lake Powell, Stegner's articles are rich in vivid detail, laced with sardonic humor, and always grounded in a passion for the West — both its heady past and the promise of its future.