Sumario: | Organized as a series of monthly journal entries, this book is the author's response to ten years of exploring the rough and unexpected beauty of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Oklahoma. A combination of memoir, natural history, Native American history, and geology, this book is enriched by 20 color photos and a map, to appeal to both the seasoned visitor as well as the newcomer to the refuge. The national wildlife refuge that's the focus of the book was among the first established by President Theodore Roosevelt. This action helped save the Wichita people from miners and land speculators, and the harsh yet scenic area became the nation's first bison refuge, established to keep this American icon from slipping into extinction. In the twenty-first century, the refuge hosts more than a million visitors a year, most of them coming to hike the trails, climb the rocks, photograph bison and prairie dogs, or simply commune with a beautiful, wild area that remains a spiritual landscape for the Kiowa and Comanche Indians who call it home.
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