Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River

Winner: National Outdoor Book Award A Kansas Notable Book The upper Arkansas River courses through the heart of America from its headwaters near the Continental Divide above Leadville, Colorado, to Arkansas City, just above the Kansas-Oklahoma border.Max McCoy embarked on a trip of 742 miles in search of the river’s unique story.Part adventure and part reflection, steeped in the natural and cultural history of the Arkansas Valley, Elevations is McCoy’s account of that journey. Going by kayak when he can-by Jeep, on foot, or by other means when he has to-McCoy takes us with him, navigating the Arkansas River as it reveals its nature and tests his own.Along the way, and when he isn’t battling the current for his overturned kayak; braving a frigid Christmas Eve along the river; or joining the search for a drowning victim, he steps out to explore the world beyond the river’s banks.Here for instance is Camp Amache, where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.Here is Ludlow,