By J. Scott Bestul and Kenny Salwey, 2001 Voyager Press, Inc.
I picked up The Last River Rat in anticipation of Kenny Salwey’s presentation at Canoecopia in Madison, Wisconsin, this past March. I was, in fact, midway through the book when I attended his presentation. A natural storyteller, Salwey won me over with his gentle demeanor, good nature and old-timey persona. Seeing him in person may have colored my perception of the book, but now I feel the main character as depicted on the written page seems to closely mirror the real McCoy.
Over the course of 12 chapters, co-author Scott Bestul accompanies Salwey, the titular river rat, on a series of outings on backwaters of the Mississippi River in west-central Wisconsin. Month by month, season by season, Salwey introduces Bestul and readers to the life he has led since his youth some five decades ago. He brings us along as he gathers mushrooms in the spring, setline fishes for catfish in the summer, hunts ducks in the fall and traps fur bearing critters in the winter. Most of us view such activities as hobbies, at best, or unsavory cruelties, at worst. For Salwey, they’re part of a lifestyle fully integrated with the flow of the river
Regardless of one’s feelings toward hunting or trapping, many readers will be struck by the simple, refreshing wisdom of Salwey’s point of view. For example, when Bestul seeks Salwey’s opinion on the anti-fur movement, the soft-spoken Salwey surprises his co-author with an extraordinarily gracious response: “Most of the people against it ain’t any different than you or me. They love the swamps and the hills and the river just like we do.”
He asserts that habitat degradation is the real problem, and an issue on which both hunters and animal rights activists can agree. In his estimation, if these perennial adversaries can get together behind a common cause – protecting wild places – they can sort out their differences later.
Inspiring his audience to value wild places is really the central current here. Much of this inspiration comes in the form of Salwey’s “River Rat Almanac” – journal entries interspersed among Bestul’s monthly narratives. These interludes set the scene and draw the reader into the beauty of the Mississippi. From majestic flights of waterfowl in azure skies, to cranky snapping turtles in boot-sucking swamp mud, Salwey engenders a deep appreciation for them all.
Making no bones about the hardships of surviving as a woodsman, fisherman, trapper, guide and all-around river rat, Salwey portrays this lifestyle as one that is no longer viable. The degraded habitat and diminished resources can no longer sustain this kind of life. But his immersion has fostered an appreciation that runs deeper than what even the most devout armchair nature-lover can muster. This deep appreciation for all things riverine, coming from one who knows them so intimately, carries a weight beyond what most nature writers can credibly foster.
For example, in Salwey’s world the canoe is more than recreational craft. It doesn’t carry him on epic journeys into exotic locales or on death-defying plunges down boulder-choked rapids. Rather, it serves as the single best way to get around his backwater haunts. He paddles slowly, deliberately and softly (much like he speaks) through his swampy domain. Despite the utilitarian purpose, the elegance of the craft is not lost. If anything, it becomes exalted to a status far above that of a simple plaything.
If the purpose of this book was to help cultivate a greater appreciation for rivers, it worked for this reader. I look forward not only to getting my canoe in the water more often this season, but also to reading Salwey’s follow-up volumes, Kenny Salwey’s Tales of a River Rat: Adventures Along the Wild Mississippi and The Old-Time River Rats: Tales of Bygone Days Along the Wild Mississippi.
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