Rivers Remembered
Travels along America’s grassland rivers
reveal a forgotten past and a possible future.
For many Missourians, when they hear the word “river,” they think of an Ozark riverway. But is it possible that we are overlooking the state’s most interesting rivers in favor of its most scenic ones?
George Frazier, in his novel Riverine Dreams: Away to the Glorious and Forgotten Grassland Rivers of America, explores what are some of the least revered riverways in the country. Included is Missouri’s namesake river, both an upper stretch in Montana and its lowermost section from Kansas City to St. Louis, as well as the Grand River, which meanders through the northwest section of the state until its confluence with the Missouri River. This book also explores the Kaw, South Platte, Niobrara, and Purgatoire Rivers through Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.
Early in the book, George recounts an attempt to float the Grand between Albany, Missouri, and Gallatin in late autumn. As he settles in for the night after hours of paddling and portag- ing over deadfalls caused by erosion, a storm descends that knocks over his tent and sends his boat floating downstream, never to be seen again.
Still, he continues exploring along the river, leading him to experience one of the only places in Missouri where prairie chickens display their mating rituals each spring. Then the river brought him to a region of Missouri that was the site of a bloody conflict, known as the Mormon War, between Mormon settlers and an unwelcoming local community.
The book’s tone is approachable and engaging, and George is a gifted nature writer who describes the subtle charms of grasslands with wildlife imagery ranging from majestic to tragic. The book also has a rich mix of reporting, personal experience, and researched history.
In the final chapter, George participates in the MR340, a 340-mile kayak and canoe race from Kansas City to St. Charles, to experience the lower Missouri River without going at it alone. Throughout his travels on grassland waterways, he takes stock of a natural force all but missing from the landscape today: the prairie. More than 30 percent of Missouri’s landmass was once unplowed prairie, but today, that has been reduced to just acres. Restoration projects have sprung up, but systematically bringing back the level of biodiversity found in native tall- grass prairies before they were turned by a plow is a tall order. It is uncertain whether it can be done at all.
Weaving the past, present, and future of this vital biome and the waters that sustain it, George underscores a quiet paradox: many of our nation’s most iconic wild places have endured not just because they were deliberately protected, but because they were not well-suited for development. Not able to be used for farming or building infrastructure, areas like Mark Twain National Forest and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways have remained largely untouched. In many cases, these landscapes have simply endured because they offer no more compelling use than to remain wild.
George does not dwell solely on what has been lost. He spends a good deal of the book describing efforts at restoration and rewilding taking place throughout the region today. In certain parcels of the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, the Missouri River is beginning to regain some of its previous characteristics. Meanwhile at Dunn Ranch Prairie, prairie chicken populations persist but are unstable. The changes wrought by channelization and mechanized agriculture cannot be undone.
Throughout the book, George highlights an emerging balance between conservation and commerce. Ranchers graze cattle on native prairie while farmers benefit from restored floodplains that reduce downstream flooding. Though some damage cannot be undone, these working landscapes offer a glimpse of a possible future.
RIVERINE DREAMS: AWAY TO THE GLORIOUS AND FORGOTTEN GRASSLAND RIVERS OF AMERICA
George Frazier, 296 pages, nonfiction, University of Chicago Press, hardcover (6 by 9 inches), $24.20.
This book review was orginally printed in the March/April 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
