Contents

Author’s Foreword (About Me)

Part One: Deep Time

1. Chapter 1 Older Than the Hills
2. Chapter 2 How the Hills Were Cut

Part Two: The Human River

1. Chapter 3 The First People
2. Chapter 4 Osage Country and a River’s Name
3. Chapter 5 Hollows and Households
4. Chapter 6 War Comes to the River
5. Chapter 7 Pine, Ties and Rails
6. Chapter 8 Getting Across
7. Chapter 9 The River Becomes a Destination
8. Chapter 10 Who Gets to Keep the River?
9. Chapter 11 The River Since the Park

Part Three: How the River Works

1. Chapter 12 A River with a Basement
2. Chapter 13 Under the Bluffs: The Caves
3. Chapter 14 Highs and Lows
4. Chapter 15 Gravel and the Changing Holes
5. Chapter 16 The Living River
6. Chapter 17 Clean Water

Part Four: River Life

1. Chapter 18 What We Call Things
2. Chapter 19 Swimming, Baptizing and Gigging
3. Chapter 20 Floating the Jacks Fork

Part Five: The River Mile by Mile

1. Reach A The North Prong
   From the headwaters to the Prongs · North Prong miles 17.0 to 0 · Plates A1 and A14
2. Reach B The South Prong
   From the headwaters to the Highway Y bridge · South Prong miles 15.9 to about 0.4 · Plates A1 and A15
3. Reach C Low Water to Steel Bridge
   From the junction of the prongs to the Highway 17 bridge · miles 0 to 7.0 · Plate A3
4. Reach D Steel Bridge to Muck Forty
   From the Highway 17 bridge to Muck Forty Hole · miles 7.0 to 11.0 · Plate A4
5. Reach E Muck Forty to Rymers
   From Muck Forty Hole to the Rymers landing · miles 11.0 to 16.5 · Plate A5
6. Reach F Rymers to Bay Creek
   From the Rymers landing to the mouth of Bay Creek · miles 16.5 to 25.9 · Plates A7, A8 and A9
7. Reach G Bay Creek to Alley
   From the mouth of Bay Creek to the head of the Alley Spring Campground · miles 25.9 to 31.3 · Plate A9
8. Reach H Alley
   From the campground river front to McCormack Bay · miles 31.3 to 33.0 · Plate A10
9. Reach I Alley to Eminence
   From McCormack Bay to the head of the Eminence riverfront · miles 33.0 to 38.0 · Plates A11 and A16
10. Reach J Eminence to the Mouth
    From the head of the Eminence riverfront to the Current River · miles 38.0 to 46.2 · Plates A12 and A13

Part Six: On the River

At the back of the book

1. Acknowledgments
2. The Oral History
3. Glossary
4. Chronology
5. The Open Ledger
6. Endnotes
7. Bibliography
8. Gazetteer Index