What makes a river? Its direction? The terrain over which it flows? The strength it gains from rains and snows? In providing a comprehensive biography of a river whose course was reversed by man, Libby Hill enables us to ponder these questions and come away with a deeper understanding of our own willfulness to manipulate nature, as well as our stubborn refusal to acknowledge subsequent consequences.

Hill explains nature’s hand in creating a slow moving river, that river’s magnetism for attracting commerce, and the engineering might that brought about unfathomable change and degradation. She also recounts the losses for Native Americans, the opportunities for settlers and industrialists, and the ongoing struggle among environmentalists to restore purity, and support wildlife and water quality.