Böcker av Thomas A. Buhr

As one of the country's most popular recreational streams - with an international reputation for fly fishing - the Au Sable River is a crown jewel of Michigan waterways. However, underneath its surface lies a history of controversy and conflict. For twelve thousand years, its sylvan banks and clear waters have attracted everyone from the First People of North America to European explorers and American settlers. They came to trap, lumber, hunt, fish, canoe, and lately, to conserve. The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River is an up-to-date, comprehensive, and unified account of the region's history, from pre-European times through French and English exploitation, American Manifest Destiny, resource extraction and redemption, the rise of outdoor recreation, and the legacy of pollution from modernization. The Big Water is a tale of the Wild West ways of early industrialization that flows hopefully towards a future where we try to live in harmony with wild places.

Arthur Jenkins, recently widowed and adrift in grief and the morass of middle age, retreats to a cabin in his native state of Michigan, hoping for a fresh start. That's when his oldest friend, Eddie Fletcher, also in retreat after being relieved of duty by the Army while serving in Iraq, calls him on the pretense of a few days of fly fishing up north. But Eddie had more on his mind than fishing. Two college students from Central Michigan University went missing more than 20 years ago while on a trip to the Au Sable River. Not a trace was ever found. What they did find were altars, stone circles and evidence of something called Werewolf Parties. Eddie is convinced that the authorities bungled the investigation by pinning it on a notorious serial killer called Big Foot, and he wants Art to help him solve the cold case. Nothing like someone else's personal tragedy to help kill the time.And so it begins. With the help of Eddie's Army buddy, licensed private investigator Zachariah Phoenix, the three wade into the often-hostile backwaters of Michigan's northwoods, looking for old bones, answers and a new lease on life.