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Book Review
| Draining the Great Oasis: An Environmental History of Murray County, Minnesota. Edited by Anthony J. Amato, Janet Timmerman, and Joseph A. Amato. Marshall, Minn.: Crossings Press. 2001. xix + 232 pp. Illustrations, tables, maps, notes, bibliography. Cloth $25.00, paper $15.00.
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| Draining the Great Oasis is a pleasure to read for anyone interested in the environmental history of the tall grass prairie of Murray County, Minnesota. The book consists of twenty short essays (chapters), with sixteen different contributors coming from a variety of occupations in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities—all of whom clearly have vast local expertise of Murray County. Anthony J. Amato, Janet Timmerman, and Joseph A. Amato skillfully edited the short essays so that they mesh together very well, making them clearly readable to a diverse interdisciplinary audience. |
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The first ten chapters focus on describing the natural environment of Murray County over the past two centuries, emphasizing broad aspects of the environmental landscape, crops, geology, soil, wetlands, mammals, birds, and prairie. A few chapters also specifically describe Lake Shetek and the prairie wetlands at smaller geographic scales. |
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Historical emphasis provides the continuity that binds the different chapters together, as several chapters describe similar historical aspects but in different views, such as assessing the historical significance of the Nicollet Expedition on initial land transformation and settlement. Environmental transformation of wetlands (e.g., the muck) from human activity is a central theme—corresponding to popular historical environmental ideas of emphasizing human triumph as well as environmental destruction over nature. |
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The past natural environment before dredging, roads, agriculture, and other human disturbance is described quite positively, in terms such as "sportsman's paradise." However, societal benefits and positive perceptions of a transformed landscape, such as reduced disease from wetland clearance and prospects of increased agricultural economic benefits also are described adequately, leading the discussion toward restoration and preservation issues. Clear and basic descriptions of natural processes are well-presented and also raise the importance of understanding extremes and variations of the natural environment, scientifically a bit beyond what is normally found in environmental history books, yet enabling the reader to see the importance of these processes in the past and present, regardless of human impact. The chapter on geology is a bit weaker than the others in terms of closely linking relevant content to other disciplines, as it could focus a bit more on shorter geological timescales such as glacial activity to relate more closely to today's human landscape. |
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Chapters 10–19 focus more on specific human impacts on the environment, environmental policies and conflict, and changing environmental perceptions on the Great Oasis and Murray County, such as drainage methods, ditches, road systems, horse ecology, barns, weed invasions, hog farming, hay and dairy production, and utilization of Lake Shetek. Chapter 20 provides a bibliography on a diverse range of topics on Murray County. Of particular note are three chapters by Janet Timmerman (Birds, Native Prairie, and Draining the Great Oasis). Timmerman perhaps knows more about Murray County and the Great Oasis than anyone, and her enthusiasm is evident in her writing, with specific knowledge on prominent immigrants, petitioners, and farmers, the history, and exact dates of important meetings, providing a clear sense of place prior to, during, and after the great transformation of the Great Oasis. |
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All of the chapters in the second half of the book are complementary and necessary to read to properly understand the simultaneous, yet rapid environmental transformation of the early-mid twentieth century as caused by the interrelationships of multiple human factors. Topics discussed include ditch development, expanding transportation networks, the change from horse power to tractor power, introduction of European weeds and subsequent use of inorganic chemicals, and hog and horse ecology. |
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The cultural landscape also is described in some detail, so one can envision the changing appearances of barn types over time, as well as recreational and lakeshore development of Lake Shetek as an "inland town" and "home lake." Ethics and the environment appear prominently in more recent developments, addressing concerns of pollution, agricultural corporations, sewage developments, and continued controversies on ditches in the Great Oasis. |
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Some useful photographs and graphs are included in the book. The cartographic quality of some of the maps and graphics could use some improvement, but this is not a significant shortcoming. Draining the Great Oasis is clearly a unique edited collection of contributions, demonstrating a baseline example of how a broad interdisciplinary perspective should be conducted to assess historical environmental change at the county and smaller geographic scales. It is a keeper for anyone interested in prairie wetland environments and describes numerous viewpoints from different disciplines, particularly concerning the historical component, that are important in analyzing wetland restoration projects. |
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Reviewed by Cary J. Mock, assistant professor of geography at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. His research focuses on historical environmental change, historical climatology, and physical geography. |
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