Standing Up to the Rock

There is a ranch that runs for several miles along the last free-flowing stretch of the Snake River. A beautiful but harsh environment, hellishly hot in the summer and cut off from the outside world for much of the winter, the area is also in the middle of two equally harsh controversies: one over the breaching of the dams on the lower Snake and the other concerning new land management plans in Hells Canyon. T. Louise Freeman-Toole, a sixth-generation Californian, moves to a small Idaho town, little suspecting how profoundly she will be affected by her new life and surroundings. Her frequent visits to the last homestead ranch on the middle Snake River and her friendship with the eighty-year-old ranch owner and his daughter lead her to discover the spirit of the West and her own place there.