AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho, April 12, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Cutting between the desert and the mountains of southeastern Idaho, the Snake River flows. Long revered by Native Americans and European trappers alike, the river's significance has been forgotten in the complexity of modern times. The new book, The Whole Dam Story: The Drowning and Rising of a River City in the West (now available through AuthorHouse), by Ella Marie Rast, remembers the history of the river, the dam, the falls and the people.
The Whole Dam Story focuses on the past 200 years of stories occurring at American Falls located on the Snake River. In the early days, the Native Americans that lived in this region respected the fragile environment that was necessary for their own survival. However, when the Europeans came, with ideas of grandeur about fur, gold and cattle, they had little awareness of this fragility.
"Speculators and promoters found no value in the sagebrush forest. However, the soil was exceptionally fertile; all it needed was water. Water represented economic potential and that possibly encouraged entrepreneurs to descend with irrigation schemes. Few succeeded," Rast says.
Thoroughly researched, the book details many stories surrounding the area, detailing settlers' hopes and dreams and Native Americans' loss of freedom and land. As people began to seek their fortunes in the wilds of the West, the American Falls area, with its fertile soil, became a hot spot for settlers. However, many found themselves surrounded by failure in the midst of a swirling web of politicians, speculators and failed banks. The railroad sprang up across the nation, cutting through the area with more promise. However, it wasn't until the 1920s that American Falls, Idaho became one of the most publicized cities in the country. A giant hydroelectric dam changed everything. Rast tells the story of how the dam was built and what that meant for the community and the nation at large.
The Whole Dam Story is not just about one area. Rather, it represents a microcosm for the hopes and prospects of the West driven by ideas of fortune and manifest destiny.
A member of the Idaho Writer's League, Rast is a native of Idaho and the daughter of a Russian immigrant who found life in Idaho's desert harder than in Russia. She attended a one-room country school in her childhood. After graduation, she escaped Idaho for nursing school in Portland, Ore. After her children were grown, she left Oregon and returned to the state of her birth.