St. Louis author of ‘The Wild Mississippi’ says to ‘take your time’ to observe river unknowns (2024)

Gavin MichaelsonLa Crosse Tribune

When Dean Klinkenberg first moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, for college, he almost immediately fell in love with the Mississippi River. His passion project that delves into the unknowns of the river is now on the market.

The new book, “The Wild Mississippi,” explores the 2,340 miles of the Mississippi River, highlighting the wildlife living along and in the body of water along with a state-by-state guide to activities in cities and towns along the river.

“Today, we look at the Mississippi maybe we see a great route for transportation, or we see pretty views,” said Klinkenberg. “But I don’t think a lot of us fully understand how complex the river’s natural world is, and how many different sorts of components there are in the river’s natural world. … It’s been over 15 years, and I swear every time I go out there I discover more that I didn’t know.”

The book offers an inside look at new things to do on the Mississippi, featuring several hiking, biking and paddling spots, natural history museums and aquariums, and over a hundred parks, forests and wildlife refuges.

“There’s always something new to learn,” said Klinkenberg. “This book will kind of take people a little deeper into the river’s world and help them understand the different parts of the river’s world better, why they matter, and how they’re connected to each other and the life that all of these different components support.”

Klinkenberg, who lives in St. Louis, has written other nonfiction books, including “Road Tripping the Great River Road” as well as fiction novels, frequently with a river theme, including “Rock Island Lines” and “Keeping Secrets in St. Louis.”

For “The Wild Mississippi,” Klinkenberg said he visited every place mentioned in the book, aside from two locations.

“It’s really the accumulation of a lot of years of research,” said Klinkenberg. “I’ve been lucky enough to sort of see the river from the seat of a canoe and a lot of different places, but also read a lot about the ecology of the Mississippi from textbooks and academic papers. I like to think I have the ability to sort of combine those two.”

The book fuses his own experiences on the river with different sources to help readers develop an understanding of the river without reading like a textbook. Klinkenberg said his book will provide everyone, regardless of knowledge of the river, with a good foundation to understand the complexity and diversity in the river from its source at Lake Itasca to the end at the Gulf of Mexico.

The book explores a plethora of landmarks along the river. From the Upper Mississippi Wildlife and Fish Refuge near Winona, to the Quad Cities Riverfront and the St. Louis Riverfront, there is much to explore within the book.

(Among places he highlights in Missouri are the Mississippi River Water Trail beginning in Saverton; the Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge in Annada; and Jefferson Barracks Park.)

“There’ll be some things in there for people who may already know a lot about Mississippi, especially if they know a lot about their part of the river but maybe not so much about other parts of the river,” said Klinkenberg.

Being near the river has provided Klinkenberg with a sense of calm, and he is excited to have the opportunity to help teach more people about what more the river has to offer.

“I really think the beauty and the joys of spending time along the Mississippi come from slowing down and just taking the time to look around and to listen. The river sort of invites us to slow down and do that,” said Klinkenberg. “You have to do that to begin to really fully appreciate just how lush and abundant that world is. I hope people will take the book, and they’ll go to the river, and they’ll take their time.”

A solo event with Dean Klinkenberg is being planned, his publisher says. Before then, he will talk to Boyce Upholt at 6 p.m. June 18 at the Schlafly library branch, 225 North Euclid. The discussion features Upholt's book, "The Great River." left-bank.com