Places of Grace: The Natural Landscapes of the American Midwest

ISBN-13: 9780252023231 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 160 str.

Gary Irving; Gary Irving; Michal Strutin

Opis

This stunning collection of photographs uncovers the mystery and beauty of a part of the country that for most people is hidden in plain view. Places of Grace reveals both the physical splendour and the natural history of a ten-state region encompassing Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The Midwest is full of useful, productive lands, a breadbasket ideally suited to raising crops and livestock. There is another Midwest, however, marked by lands that historically have resisted human purposes: the dark swamp forests of the far north, Nebraska's arid Sand Hills, the rockbound Flint Hills of Kansas. Such lands as these, although difficult to cultivate, are valuable in terms not calculable in units produced or metric tons shipped. Many have been preserved as national parks or wildlife refuges. All hold secrets for the careful observer: Above a twisted sandstone gorge, golden autumn leaves drift thickly over the floor of an Indiana hardwood forest, their crunch underfoot releasing crisp, earthy odours. A copper and gold tall grass prairie shimmers under the sun from horizon to horizon. In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the se