A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY

The following books, publications, and links are given in no particular order.

• My top choice for books on the Upper Mississippi River Valley is Immortal River: The Upper Mississippi River in Ancient and Modern Times, by Calvin Fremling. It is published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and it appeared in 2004. The book covers the geology, ecology, and human history of the river valley.
• The Wikipedia article on the Mississippi River.  Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia.
• John Madson, Up On The River: An Upper Mississippi Chronicle, Penguin Books, 1986. This is a charming book, a good read! [John Madson is a naturalist and writer, and he has another excellent book on prairies, called Where the Sky Began.]
• Past Cultures of the Upper Mississippi River, by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Pat Middleton, Discover! America's Great River Road: Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Heritage Press, Stoddard, WI 1989. [This is about the Upper Mississippi River Valley. It contains a great deal of useful information about geography, history, and tourism for the section of the river from Dubuque northwards. The author also has a web site at www.greatriver.com, giving links to many web sites concerning the Mississippi River Valley. The author has two other books, covering the Mississippi from Dubuque to New Orleans.]
• William J. Burke, The Upper Mississippi Valley: How The Landscape Shaped Our Heritage, Mississippi Valley Press, Waukon, Iowa. [This covers the region north and south of the County of Allamakee in Iowa, principally between Pairie du Chien, Wisconsin and Winona, Minnesota. The book is an accounting of both the human history and the natural history of this region.]
• Pamela Eyden, Molly McGuire, & Reggie McLeod (Editors), Big River Reader, Big River Pub., Winona, Minnesota, 1996. [This is subtitled "An Anthology of Stories about the Upper Mississippi, from the First Four Years of Big River". The main parts are titled: 1) Working, Living and Playing on the River; 2) River Wildlife; 3) River History; 4) River Ecology. An interesting potpourri.]
• Robert Sayre (Editor) Take This Exit: Rediscovering the Iowa Landscape, Iowa State University Press, 1989. [This is an account of the "vernacular landscape" of Iowa. It gives much more meaning to what you see when traveling about Iowa, including along the Mississippi River.]
• Robert Sayre (Editor) Take The Next Exit: New Views of the Iowa Landscape, University of Iowa Press, 2000. [An interesting extension of the preceding book listed above.]
• Iowa Wildlife Viewing Guide, Falcon Press, Helena, Montana, 1995. [This is a guidebook to wildlife viewing in Iowa, including regions along the Mississippi River. It is part of a general series of such guides for all states, and it makes use of local authorities in its preparation. It is available in most local bookstores. ISBN 1-56044-349-9]
• Jean Prior, Landforms of Iowa, University of Iowa Press, 1991. [This was prepared for the Iowa Dept of Natural Resources. It gives a geologist's view of Iowa, including the "driftless area" of northeast Iowa. The author is a senior research geologist for the Iowa Geological Survey.]
• Iowa's Natural Heritage, published jointly by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the Iowa Academy of Science, 1982. [This is a beautiful "coffee-table book" which also imparts a great deal of information about all aspects of the natural history of Iowa.]
• Cornelia Mutel, The Emerald Horizon - The History of Nature in Iowa, University of Iowa Press, 2008.
• Lori Erickson and Tracy Stuhr, IOWA Off the Beaten Path - A Guide to Unique Places, 7th ed. The Globe Pequot Press, Chester, Connecticut, 2004. [The first author is a frequent contributor to The Iowan magazine. She fills in background information on interesting places around Iowa.]
• Sylvan Runkel and Alvin Bull, Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands, Wallace Homestead Book Co., Des Moines, 1979. [The flowers shown are much the same as those in all states of the upper midwest.]
• Gladys Black, Iowa Birdlife, University of Iowa Press, 1992. [Gladys Black died in 1998, but for decades was probably the best known ornithologist in Iowa. For a short history of Gladys Black and her contributions, see here.]
• Frank McSherry, Charles Waugh, & Martin Greenberg (Editors), Mississippi River Tales, August House, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1988. [Short stories of fiction set along the Mississippi River, from Minnesota to Louisiana.
• Noah Adams, Saint Croix Notes: River Mornings, Radio Nights, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1990.· [This is written as a diary, talking from a personal perspective about life in the Saint Croix Valley, near to the Twin Cities. The Saint Croix is a large tributary of the Mississippi River. According to the author, these notes were read on a radio program that followed immediately the radio show Prairie Home Companion, in the World Theatre in St. Paul.]