Many Rivers to Cross: Of Good Running Water, Native Trout, and the Remains Of Wilderness [Paperback]

M.r. Montgomery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 1996

Thoughtful, witty, and beautifully written, Many Rivers to Cross details M.R. Montgomery's journey into the physical and emotional territory of the American West as he explores the meaning and experience of wilderness.

Montgomery's travels take him from the headwaters of the Columbia River to eastern Oregon and to Big Goose Creek, where General Custer's reinforcements camped and went fishing instead of joining the battle at Little Bighorn. He guides us through overlooked locations in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, and Oregon -- all of the last best places. And of course there is the ever-present quest for trout, from the Bonneville cutthroat to the rare Apache.

There are indeed many rivers to cross, and M.R. Montgomery shows us that each is in just the right place.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To the author, the sight of a young woman swimming nude in a river was depressing; water warm enough for skinny-dipping was not good trout water. A writer for the Boston Globe and avid fly fisherman, Montgomery traveled to the West seeking pristine streams and native cutthroat trout. His journeys took him from Arizona to Montana, up the Missouri, down the Columbia, across the Colorado and the Rio Grande, into the Great Basin. He fished Rosebud Creek, near the Little Bighorn; he followed the trail of Lewis and Clark, observing that they had ignored fish in their reports. Montgomery found the last best place in the Oregon desert?a brooklet one foot wide and less than that deep, where he caught the rare trout. This engaging narrative is not just for those who fish but any reader interested in wilderness. Illustrations.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This splendid book is more about the search for the lost West than fishing for trout. Montgomery decided to roam the West's expanses looking for areas that have been untouched, or at least not much touched, by humankind and catching what fish he could. Not surprisingly, he didn't find many such areas--a small river here, a little creek there, even a ditch in the desert with just enough water to support a few trout. Along the literary retracing of his way, he tells tales of the Old West, discusses the strange and unusual people he met, and notes the near perpetual presence of cattle, munching and trampling their way across the countryside. In fact, he gets pretty angry at these Big Macs on the hoof for their destruction of free-flowing streams and the habitats they support. As for fishing, Montgomery pursued the cutthroat trout, which, though looked down on by "pure" fly fishers, is the native western trout (the rainbows and browns are foreigners introduced long ago to "improve" the fishery). Jon Kartman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1ST edition (March 18, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684818299
• ISBN-13: 978-0684818290
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,872,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a marvelous book that deserves a wider audience., April 3, 1999

By 

charles falk (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Many Rivers to Cross: Of Good Running Water, Wild Trout, and the Remains of Wilderness (Hardcover)

The valuable insights, gentle humor and wistful beauties it contains should not be reserved just for the fishing fraternity. M R Montgomery describes, with wit and sensitivity, his search for the last remaining bastions of the native trout of the mountain west, the cutthroat. He describes the people who help him on his quest with humor and with empathy. In those remote places, his interest and his eyes wander to show us paticularities of landscape and peculiarities of the flora and fauna that cohabit there with the trout. Beneath the surface Montgomery is addressing concepts like "wilderness", "preservation" and "stewardship" without referring to them directly. He begins his story near the Little Big Horn Battlefield, but the last stand that he wants us to contemplate is not Custer's.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare find, January 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Many Rivers to Cross: Of Good Running Water, Native Trout, and the Remains Of Wilderness (Paperback)

Montgomery's gentle quest for the last haunts of native cutthroats is worth reading twice. A more gifted writer than most of his more celebrated contemporaries.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A literate oasis in the field of angling books, November 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Many Rivers to Cross: Of Good Running Water, Native Trout, and the Remains Of Wilderness (Paperback)

The late American author, William Humphrey (a fine writer and fly fisherman), noted that there were two types of people that wrote about fishing-fishermen that wrote and writers that fish. He recommended reading the latter. M.R. Montgomery of The Boston Globe fits into the latter class. This elegant book takes the reader into the vanishing world of the cutthroat trout in the western United States.