TRAVEL / United States / South / West South Central (AR, LA, OK, TX)

In this engaging biography of a remarkable man, Susan Croce Kelly begins by describing the urgency for “good roads” that gripped the nation in the early twentieth century as cars multiplied and mud deepened. Avery was one of a small cadre of men and women whose passion carried the Good Roads movement from boosterism to political influence to concrete-on-the-ground. While most stopped there, Avery went on to assure that one road—U.S. Highway 66—became a fixture in the imagination of America and the world.

Winter’s Hawk introduces the reader to the hawk’s biology, social behavior, and useful role in limiting destructive rodent populations. In sharing many anecdotes from his long experience in the field, Lish describes the hunting techniques  of Red-tails, their competition with other raptors, and their behavior in the presence of human observers.

Since he first dreamed of a career in photography, Guy Gillette has traveled regularly to his wife’s family’s ranch, located outside the small town of Crockett, Texas. Thanks to Gillette’s sense of composition, these wonderful black-and-white photographs, dating from the 1940s, led to his career as a magazine photographer. Collected here for the first time, they document small-town life in East Texas, where Guy Gillette’s sons, the musical duo the Gillette Brothers, still run cattle.

Speleobiology, the study of cave life, is a relatively new science. The diversity of species that live in caves, springs, and aquifers is just beginning to be documented, and much of the underground world has yet to be explored. The surveys of cave life reported in this book represent an important step forward in understanding the biodiversity of caves in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Oklahoma is home to nearly forty American Indian tribes, and includes the largest Native population of any state. As a result, many Americans think of the state as “Indian Country.” For more than half a century readers have turned to Muriel H. Wright’s A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma as the authoritative source for information on the state’s Native peoples. Now Blue Clark, an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, has rendered a completely new guide that reflects the drastic transformation of Indian Country in recent years.

One of the most important collections of modern Native American art assembled by one individual, the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection is an encyclopedic compilation of easel paintings and three-dimensional works. Showcased in this stunning catalogue, the collection comprises nearly four thousand items, including drawings, sculptures, prints, kachinas, jewelry, ceramics, rattles, baskets, and textiles.

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Eugene B. Adkins (1920–2006) spent nearly four decades acquiring his extraordinary collection of Native American and American southwestern art. His vast assemblage includes paintings, photographs, jewelry, baskets, textiles, and ceramics by many of the Southwest’s most renowned artists and artisans. This stunning volume features full-color reproductions of significant works from the Adkins Collection, some of which are reproduced here for the first time.

Oklahoma is well known as prime hunting and fishing territory, but red-dirt country also offers many opportunities for hiking, running, and off-road biking. Though trail guides for neighboring states abound, outdoorsmen Kent F. Frates and Larry Floyd found no such book for Oklahoma. The outcome of their collaboration, Oklahoma Hiking Trails, fills that void as the first comprehensive guidebook for the state. A welcome addition to the travel library of both locals and visitors, this illustrated guide extends a hearty welcome to hikers, bikers, runners, birders, campers, and photographers. For the amateur and expert alike, Oklahoma Hiking Trails covers trails accessible to the public across the state.