Reflections on the Neches: A Naturalist's Odyssey along the Big Thicket's Snow River Book

"When Geraldine Watson's father was a teenager around the turn of the last century, he spent a summer floating down the Neches River, called Snow River by the Indians. Watson grew up hearing his tales of the steamboats, log rafts, and the flora and fauna of the region. So when she was sixty-three years old, she decided to repeat the odyssey in her own backwater boat built from memory." Reflections on the Neches is both the story of her journey retracing her father's steps and a natural and social history of the Neches region of the Big Thicket. The Neches is one of the last "wild" rivers in Texas now being subjected to dams. Watson's story captures the wildness of the river and imparts a history of its people and animals that has never been written in such detail before. She discusses everything from ants to wolves, from the local timber companies to the generations of woodsmen living in the thick of the forest, with equal fascination. Illustrated with drawings by the author and including maps of her journey, Reflections on the Neches will appeal to all those interested in the Big Thicket region and those indulging a feeling of wanderlust - and float trips - down the river.