Description: It is an area that has captivated and inspired travelers, philosophers, and artists for centuries. Long celebrated as one of the most visually stunning regions of the American landscape, it is also one of the most historically significant. And now, this vast, 25,000-square-mile expanse known as the Nebraska Sandhills is brought to life with passion, perspective, and ecological timeliness in an unforgettable collection of essays by author Stephen Jones.

By turns graceful and penetrating, introspective and universal, ruminative and prescient, the 20 essays in The Last Prairie limn the essence of Sandhills life. Taken together, they are a stunningly rich pageant of the Great American West, writ large. After more than a decade spent combing the region he calls an "earthly paradise", Jones delivers a series of riveting accounts of the Sandhills' flora and fauna, wildlife, and rich cultural history. Fascinating descriptions of bald eagles, trumpeter swans, and the annual migratory flight of a half-million sandhill cranes stand alongside equally vivid accounts of trailblazing homesteaders, range wars, and devastating prairie fires. The author's vast historical canvas lends a rare perspective and urgency to the book's discussion of recent efforts to save the Niobara River from dams and developers. And in depicting the life of the Plains Indians and their noble resistance to the encroachments of white settlers, Jones speaks eloquently to such timeless themes as humanity's search for community and the ties which bind man and nature. The Last Prairie is an extraordinary triumph of the essayist's art.

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