Books in the Bur Oak Books series

This text contains seven short stories by Carrie Young.

Frank P. Donovan was one of the first writers to provide a complete exploration of the major steam railways that served Iowa. This collection of Donovan's essays describes the history of the state railroad systems and the companies who ran them.

Educates prairie owners and managers about grassland ecology and gives them guidelines for keeping prairies diverse, vigorous, and viable. This title presents the tools necessary to ensure that grasslands are managed in the purposeful ways essential to the continued health and survival of prairie communities.

Offers a loving ode to the prairies of the Midwest, to west central Iowa, and to family connections that stretch from the authors's Swedish ancestors to his parents to his wife and children. Throughout he embraces "the opportunity, as always, to settle, to remember, and be ready".

First printed in 1858, this was written to recruit emigrants to Iowa. A Home in the West tells of Walter and Annie Judson who one March night decide to move to the West in search of a better life. It portrays the challenges and transformations of the period and includes the Panic of 1857, the Mormon Handcart Expedition and Native Americans in Iowa.

Summarizing the geological, archaeological, and ecological features that shaped Iowa's modern landscape, this book recreates the once-wild native communities that existed prior to Euroamerican settlement. It examines the dramatic changes that overtook native plant and animal communities as Iowa's prairies, woodlands, and wetlands were transformed.

Tells the story of the first structure built on the Iowa State University campus. This book provides a comprehensive history of the Farm House from its founding days in 1860 to its role as the center of activity for the new college to its second life as a National Historic Landmark and welcoming museum visited by thousands each year.

Set within the thoughtfully presented contexts of the technological revolution in American agriculture, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the emerging culture of affluence, The Farm at Holstein Dip is both a loving coming-of-age memoir and an educational glimpse into rural and small-town life in the US of the 1940s and 1950s.

Covers archeology, history, and culture of different native nations that have called Iowa home since prehistory. This book focuses on the tribes most connected to Iowa since prehistoric times: the Ioway, Meskwaki, Sauk, Omaha and Ponca, Otoe and Missouria, Pawnee and Arikara, Illinois Confederacy, Santee and Yankton Sioux, and Winnebago.

Acts as a manual for identifying the butterflies of Iowa as well as 90 percent of the butterflies in the Plains. This guide begins by providing information on the natural communities of Iowa, paying special attention to butterfly habitat and distribution. It then covers the history of lepidopteran research in Iowa and creating butterfly gardens.

Thirty-five years and many acres after planting his first patch of prairie flowers, Carl Kurtz is considered one of the deans of the great tallgrass prairie revival. The Prairie Enthusiast called the 2001 edition of his book a "readable and understandable introduction to prairie and the general steps in carrying out a reconstruction." Now this second edition reflects his increased experience with reconstructing and restoring prairie grasslands.Kurtz has completely revised every chapter of the first edition, from site selection and harvest to soil preparation, seeding, postplanting mowing, burning, and growth and development. He has written new chapters on establishing prairie in old pastureland and on the judicious use of herbicides, including a table that shows particular problem species, the types of herbicides that are most effective at controlling them, and the timing and method of treatment. New photographs illustrate species and steps, and Kurtz has expanded the question-and-answer section and updated the references and the section on midwestern seed sources and services.Tallgrass prairie is critical wildlife habitat and an important element in flood control and stream water treatment. The process of reconstructing and restoring prairie grasslands has made great strides in recent decades. Carl Kurtz's indispensable, step-by-step guide to creating a diverse and well-established prairie community provides both directions and encouragement for individual landowners as well as land managers working with government agencies and nonprofit organizations that have taken up the task of reconstructing and restoring native grasslands.