Pushing the River by Frank Bures

Pushing the River by Frank Bures

Tales of ambition, terror, rivalry, adventure, endurance, friendship, and love on the waters of the Mississippi River and beyond.

In this collection, award-winning writer Frank Bures tells true stories as varied as the waters, weather, and rhythms of a canoe trip. From the terror of two kayakers who barely escaped the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire in the Boundary Waters to two young campers who experienced a supernatural scare in Canada's Quetico Provincial Park in the 1970s to the author's own miraculous rescue, Bures shares varied takes on what happens when you push the river.

In the longest essay, an account of the battle for the Mississippi River paddling record, Bures narrates the lost history of the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby, an annual 450-mile race run on the Upper Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s that gave canoe-racing legend Gene Jensen his start--and which changed the course of modern canoeing. The tale includes the dominance of racers from the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, including many members of the Tibbets family, and the unacknowledged contributions of Ojibwe canoe builders Jim and Bernie Smith, whose design features are now part of the modern canoe-racing landscape.

Pushing the River is an essential read for anyone who loves what legendary canoeist Bob O'Hara called the sense of perpetual adventure that comes in the seat of a canoe, where you never quite know what you will encounter around the river's next bend.

Frank Bures is the author of The Geography of Madness. His stories and essays have appeared in Harper's, Aeon, Lapham's Quarterly, The Washington Post Magazine and other places. They have also been included in the Best American Travel Writing and selected as Notable picks for the Best American Sports Writing and the Best American Essays. He is a contributing writer for The Rotarian and a contributing editor for Poets & Writers. He lives in Minneapolis.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781681343129
ISBN 10	1681343126
Title	Pushing the River
Author	Frank Bures
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Minnesota Historical Society Press
Year published	2025-04-08
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable