Description
In A Doubtful River, photographers Robert Dawson and Peter Goin and essayist Mary Webb explore the ways the Truckee's multifarious users relate to the region’s aridity and the precious waters of the river. Dawson’s and Goin’s eloquent photographs record unforgettable images of the Truckee River’s course from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada to desert-bound Pyramid Lake and the ways the river and the land beside it have been used and reshaped by human needs, greed, and carelessness. Webb’s essays offer a moving verbal counterpoint, focusing on the people who depend on and adjudicate the river’s water. The sum of the elements of this book is a memorable picture of the complexity of water allocation in a region where conflicting traditions about the uses of the land and its resources, a rapidly growing population, and limited supply make water the most precious commodity of all. Available in hardcover and paperback.

Reviews
"A Doubtful River issues a poignant call to take a hard look at our place in the West. Its engaging stories and direct photographs provide an important lesson and warning for the contemporary West about the reality of scarce water." —John Rohrbach, Associate Curator of Photographs, Amon Carter Museum

"A Doubtful River shows just how unnatural nature can be. The Truckee River is just one of the world's thoroughly reworked rivers, but by investigating their local waterway so thoroughly in word and image, these writers and photographers teach us that there's hardly a place left where we people haven't gotten our feet wet and taken charge of the flow. Read it before you take your next drink or swim!" —David Rothenberg, editor of The New Earth Reader: The Best of Terra Nova

“This dammed and diverted river is worthy of any kind of scientific study, but in this case, art and perspective provide a stronger symbol of abuse than does a detailed environmental investigation. In successive layers, the authors provide an introduction to the geology, topography, climate, and ecosystems that are part of the natural landscape in western Nevada. Urban and cultural explorations—of mining, Native Americans, recreation, ranching, and urban sprawl—add additional complexity to the issues that first focused attention on the valuable water carried by the Truckee. In a large-format book, this story is coupled with a wide variety of contemporary and historical photographs, combining to produce a vivid and engaging reading experience and a powerful message.” —Kim Long, The Bloomsbury Review, July/August 2004

“No mere coffee-table book, A Doubtful River's deeply resonant interplay of prose and photographs expresses a point of view.” —Chris Robertson, CEAH Newsletter, Spring 2001

“A Doubtful River is both a valuable resource and a beautiful production. Webb’s essays are poignant and well-written, at times playful and at other times critical. Dawson’s and Goin’s photographs are, without exception, superb, defining place and the precise moment of place.” —Simmons B. Buntin, Terrain.org, October 2001

“No array of statistics can convey with such dazzling force the living conundrums of a great Western river and its people as do these startling photographic images and personal histories. A Doubtful River is an interdisciplinary model of natural history that every state and region of the West—indeed, the country—needs to emulate if we are to grasp what the vital convergence of our rivers, our land, and ourselves reveals: water is life.” —Frank Bergon, author of Wild Game

Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations
Authors' Introducation: Nevada—The Leave-It State
1 A Season of Drought: The Truckee River
2 Snow Stories: Truckee and Lake Tahoe
3 Truckee River Canyon Stories: Storage and Use
4 Desert Stories: The Lower Truckee River
5 Ranching Stories: The Lahontan Valley and Stillwater
6 Pyramid Lake Stories: The End of the Truckee River
7 Listening: Lessons of the Truckee River
Notes
Suggested Readings
Acknowledgments
About the Authors