That Wild Country

An Epic Journey Through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands

By: Mark Kenyon

Narrated by: Mark Kenyon

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

From prominent outdoorsman and nature writer Mark Kenyon comes an engrossing reflection on the past and future battles over our most revered landscapes - America’s public lands.

Every American is a public-land owner, inheritor to the largest public-land trust in the world. These vast expanses provide a home to wildlife populations, a vital source of clean air and water, and a haven for recreation. 

Since its inception, however, America’s public land system has been embroiled in controversy - caught in the push and pull between the desire to develop the valuable resources the land holds or conserve them. Alarmed by rising tensions over the use of these lands, hunter, angler, and outdoor enthusiast Mark Kenyon set out to explore the spaces involved in this heated debate, and learn firsthand how they came to be and what their future might hold. 

Part travelogue and part historical examination, That Wild Country invites listeners on an intimate tour of the wondrous wild and public places that are a uniquely profound and endangered part of the American landscape.

©2019 Mark Kenyon (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

A Must Read!

This is a must read for everyone. Not just outdoor enthusiasts. A profound look into our history and future of public lands that most of us take for granted.

Growing up near the Boundary Waters and currently living in the PNW, the outdoors and public lands have been a staple for me my entire life. Unfortunately, I have taken them for granted. Mr. Kenyon has educated me on how and why we have the public lands that I have enjoyed for over 50 years of my life.

Mr Kenyon did a phenomenal job of balancing his personal journeys through the areas that he researched and the historical significance behind our public lands.

Due to That Wild Country, I have a newly found need to get involved to save our public lands as they were meant to be.....for everyone’s enjoyment for generations to come.

In addition, That Wild Country has helped me understand that all sorts of people with all types of interests enjoy our public lands. I will no longer be irritated as I hear ATV’s, hear loud music, watch IG chasers for the perfect post, or watch the raucous crowds around a pristine alpine lake. Public lands are for all of us to enjoy however we each chose to enjoy them! Thank you Mr Kenyon for shifting my mindset.

I also believe that public lands can possibly be the one unifier that brings our country back from its great political division. As a self defined ultra liberal, I have always fully supported hunting and fishing. If we all stand together to protect and grow our public lands and not be short sighted for short term profits, future generations will be able to hunt, fish, hike, backpack, or do what ever they want to do on our shared national treasures.

I wanted to like this book more...

As a fellow Michigander and National Park enthusiastic, I really wanted to like this book. I hoped it would be interesting and informative, but at some point—at least for me—it became dreadfully boring. I could not bring myself to finish the book with three hours left. To his credit, Mark Kenyon did his research and knows his stuff. This one just wasn’t for me.

Beautifully Told!

Mark Kenyon does a wonderful job of taking the listener through the history of our public lands while sharing his epic adventures in various parks, forests and other public places. I recommend this for anyone concerned about our natural spaces and protected lands, regardless of your reasons and to anyone wondering why they should be.

Fantastic Journey

Very well put together. Mark’s ability to bring to light the history behind the ongoing controversy over our nation’s public wild places, while sharing with us his personal encounters within these places left me wanting to get out more and see them. His words painted majestic pictures as I listened to his narration of this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves our countries beautiful landscape.

Great History but annoying

the historical aspects of this book was well done and the highlight. for every chapter of historical information you get a chapter of personal experiences. these personal chapters wouldn't be bad except the over use of similies and narrated thoughts and voice changes makes them difficult to get through. i ended up skipping each personal chapter so i could listen to the historical ones and found i got everything i needed from the book and enjoyed it a lot more.

amazing, and I hope my kids listen to this someday

loved it. it is a seminal worth within this genre. it bring a tear to my eye as I realize how this book makes the understanding of what "public land ownership" is accessible to all. thank you for a good read.

Excellent read!

I am skeptical when an author narrates his own book, but Mark Kenyon’s passion really comes through and makes this book a great audio “read”. Both informative and entertaining. Makes me want to get some trips planned.....
Very well done!

Like A High Schooler's Diary

Epic Journey? No, it wasn't. The author stuffed this book with corny personal backpacking and traveling experiences with his family in the manner of a juvenile diary. Who cares? At times he wandered into overtures about nature, and that was fine, but it pales in comparison to Thoreau, Wallace Stegner, Glenway Wescott, John Krakauer, John McPhee or Rick Bass. OK, maybe it was ridiculous of me to hope for that. The only worthwhile themes were bits of information about the history of the various agencies involved in managing our wildlands, like the BLM and NFS, and so forth. All of that is available in better books. Notably, he forgot to mention the Army Corp of Engineers, a significant destroyer or savior of our land, depending on how you look at it.
But it gets worse. The narration was slurred, stacked with conjoined words, mispronunciations, and overall sloppy speech. So often, either hubris or a low budget results in authors thinking they're also good narrators. I'm sorry to say that for me, this book was a waste of time. If you buy this, consider skipping the chapters about family travels.

Marginally interesting

This book has some interesting stories about the history of our public lands. But it’s too much filler, which is Kenyon’s personal experiences in those lands. Which was really quite boring to me. If you’ve never experienced life in the wilderness then it will give you an idea of what it’s like. But if you’re an avid outdoorsman, then I think you’ll be much more bored than inspired.

Too political

Too political. I thought it would be a history of the acquisition of the lands.