To everyone, I wanted to take a moment to tell you how wonderful this book is. I first read it in Junior High School, I fell in love with it. I mustve read it 3 or 4 times since. Its a wonderful story, like all Steele books it leaves the reader spellbound at the end. The description says ages 9-12 but you can be MUCH MUCH older to enjoy this book. It is really a book for anyone with a sense of adventure and an imagination. :)

A true sense of the raw Oklahoma landscape, colorful Indian folk tales that help authenticate a bygone era, a bittersweet western epic.

Wagh, this Child first met up with Ol' Scratch some ten year back when, "Carry the Wind", was published. Each subsequent chapter from, "Borderlords", to "One Eyed Dream", have been read and re-read. After a long wait, Titus Bass joined us once again in, "Dance on the Wind", a wonderful adventure where we see Titus during his youth. In "Buffalo Palace", Terry C. Johnston shares the life of Scratch with his fans once more. This go around takes us through Titus's education from being a tin-horn who wouldn't know slow bull, from fat cow, into a grizzled trapper, minus a little hair. Along the way, Scratch earns his stripes after hardships and a will that won't quit. The adventures that we get to experience through Titus's eyes makes it difficult to wait for the third book in this trilogy. Terry, please hurry!

This book follows in the great tradition of Tim Ernst's Ozark Highlands Trail Guide. A complete and in-depth review of the Buffalo River Trail and the interesting sidetrails along the way. Very descriptive. The perfect companion for hiking the Buffalo River area. Should go alongside the Ozark Highlands Trail Guide on your bookshelf!

This book by the corageous and pro-active Dr. Neil Compton is a must-have for any river lovers or black/white photo buffs. There are approximately 88 photos by John Heuston that portray the gorgeous and pristine Buffalo National River in NW Arkansas. The introduction briefly explains the reasoning behind the compilation of the book. This river was almost dammed in several places until this collection of photos made it apparent that the natural beauty needed to be preserved for prosperity. Along with the Ozark Society Foundation and other unselfish environmentalists from the Ozarks, the Buffalo was saved and designated the first (and I believe only) national river on March 1, 1972. These actions have stimulated continuing land conservation in Missouri and Arkansas, and people of all sizes, race, and age can see what determination and passion can obtain. Trust me on this one; if you've never visited the river you will be magnetized by this book and if this area is your second home (as it is mine) you will smile ear to ear and cover to cover. See you down river.

I believe that Buffalo River Wilderness is a wonderful book. In my opinion, every home in America should own. The pictures were wonderful, and it made me want to go float the river myself. The paintings, as well as the photos, were beautiful!

This is an unflinching look at the reality of the American expansion west. The novel is historically accurate and refuses to turn away from the havoc and destruction caused as more and more American and European settlers came west in search of wealth and adventure. Underlying the suspense and well-drawn characters, there is an elegaic sense of loss especially as it relates to the extinction of the buffalo and the Native American way of life. Not only that, but the book features a strong well-developed female lead character. Shouldn't be missed.

Colonel Arnold's chronicle (with a Fifth Army patch oddly misidentified on the cover as that of the 473rd Inf. Reg. (sic)), is remarkable mostly for what it doesn't reveal. The author was G-3 (Plans and Operations Officer) for Division Commander Major General Edward M. "Ned: Almond, one of the most controversial officers of the American Army of World War II, and the man many consider responsible for the poor combat performance of the 92nd.
"Buffalo Soldiers" is useful for the detailed accounts of troop movements and Orders of Battle of the division and related units, but readers seeking a detailed analysis and evaluation of the division should see Shelby Stanton's excellent "Ten Corps in Korea", which organization also had racial difficulties and was commanded by: Ned Almond.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

THE BUFFALO WALLOW, A PRAIRIE BOYHOOD, by Charles Tennison Jackson (aka CT Jackson & Jack Tennison), is a much overlooked American classic. A memoir of his prairie boyhood, it was apparently written in 1952 (when Jackson was in his late 70's), then republished by University of Nebraska Press (Bison Books) in 1967. Copies are rare and should be treasured.

The Buffalo Wallow is a fond remembrance of Jackson's boyhood, growing up wild and "uncivilized" on the late 1870's/early 1880's western prairie farm/ranch of his Aunt Effie and Uncle Lige (presumably short for Elijah). Focusing on a two or three-year period when young "Chick" was "almost ten" to perhaps 12 years of age, this charming book's content, characters, style, and historical merit combine to equal anything Mark Twain put to paper.

Put into his Aunt Effie's care at age two when Chick's father leaves for parts and fate unknown (and his mother already dead),
the youngster grows to early boyhood with his slightly older cousin and confidante Ellis. They're poor, uneducated and overworked, but the boys grow up well-loved, well-fed, and
convinced they live in the "Center of America". Their days are spent avoiding work on Lige's newly broken farm fields, keeping out of Effie's way in the old sod house, conniving ways to escape the neighborhood's one-room schoolhouse, sleeping under the stars, and talking, scheming and contemplating
life's "mysteries" in their beloved buffalo "waller".

The buffalo waller is about the only piece of land unbroken by Lige's plows, a cool hideaway hollowed out in a corner of the family's treeless stretch of prairie. Here the boys squirrel away any piece of unwanted or unneeded treasure they can lay their hands on: a Confederate hat that Chick's legendary
"Colonel" father took off a rebel head while off winning the war, old muskets and coins, broken tools, and old "jeeografee" book.

It's that book that tells them the happen to live in the very Center of America, with roads leading in the four directions.
South leads to the ocean, North to the newly-laid railroad, West to "Californy" and Indians, East to the land of big towns, preachers and "politics". In turn, Chick and Eliis explore all four roads. Along the ways they meet up with fruit trees and rivers they never dreamed existed, run into a scraggle of "disappointing" Indians, come upon a "hanged man's rope" and a mysterious baby's grave, and run from a nearby town's brass band and Republicans' "too much excitement". There are also tail-bit dogs, old Texas longhorns, and real-life ghosts to learn from.

They have a little excitement at home, too, of a kind as wondrous as the prairie offers: courtship and a real live wedding, courtesy of their Aunt Effie's intrigues. Inspired by
a romance novel, the only book she's got besides her Bible, Effie is determined that shy, itinerant cowhand Earl Staley settle down and marry the only eligible female in the parts: a newly emigrated German girl the boys call "Miss Worsenever".

Peopled with characters like Earl's no-account cowboy friend Marion, old Mr. Gebauer and his German wife "down south" a bit,
mysterious "Rooshins" up north, and all manners of 1880's farm life and adventures, this book ought to be an American classic.
The Buffalo Waller is at once fascinating, charming and genuine
Americana, a priceless sliver of American history, written with the pure vision and heart of a boy who lived it.

My grade school was getting rid of some of its overstock by giving away some of its books. Dorothy M. Johnson's Buffalo Woman was one I happened to take. I am eternally glad I did. She does a wonderful job of pulling the reader into the story. When reading this book, you will begin to feel like you know the characters personally. The fact that they are Native Americans living about two hundred years in the past doesn't matter. Johnson's writing enables the reader to identify with them anyhow. I highly recommend this one, especially to those with an interest in Native American culture.