"Fascinated by the recent creation of the 800-mile Oregon Desert Trail, an initiative by the conservation organization Oregon Natural Desert Association to link together and bring attention to eastern Oregon's lesser known but visually spectacular high desert and canyonlands, author Ellen Waterston seeks to write a book that both brings the landscape to the fore and also situates it in terms of the people who live there and care about the land, as well as the conflicts over land that are never far from the surface, such as those that erupted at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in January 2016. This is a book for general readers seeking a critical look at the way our conversations about land shape a place; it's also a book that evokes the people and natural world of eastern Oregon"--