Bird Creek flows unmarked through E. L. Kittredge's Montana ranch, making discovery difficult for even the most dedicated traveler. The creek once appeared on maps as a thin line, barely visible in a maze of county roads. Now, like the creek itself going underground in drought, that line has disappeared from official Montana state guidebooks, omitted to simplify the map for tourists wedded to interstate highway travel. Defiant of the mapmaker's current reality, the creek still runs, even if sometimes unseen. But the creek has whispered its secrets to Kittredge and her family for decades, and she seeks larger meaning from it, in all its fraught complexity. Using the creek as her literary lens, Kittredge grounds her essays in hope for a "better year next year." As she explores an increasingly contested West, one where new settlers encounter both acceptance and deep resentment from those who came before, she advocates adapting to new ways of seeing, knowing, and being--all vital for a sense of belonging and place.
E. L. Kittredge lives and works on her family ranch. She founded My Artrepreneur Program, which, over two decades, has helped artists across the nation build sustainable businesses in art. Kittredge continues to advocate for the folk arts, along with cultural awareness and preservation. She is the author of Artrepreneurship: Sustaining the Creative Life.
"Crossing Bird Creek is an expansive and heartfelt reflection on the evolution of rural life in the American West and the interplay of landscape and culture in the formation of the Montana spirit."--Kimberly Gibson, Inclusive Innovation Postdoctoral Scholar at the Experimental Smart Farm at the University of California, Merced "Crossing Bird Creek, appropriately, ranges wide. E. L. Kittredge leads the reader on a thoughtful and remarkably comprehensive meander through a place so dear and so much itself that it cannot help but to be made lovely to us through all of its history (kind and bitter both), 'drifting, ' as she writes, 'through time and space.' This book is exemplary for its clarity in demonstrating the knowledge, connection, and submission required of a people who aim to settle in a wild place, no matter where on the globe that particular place may be. A beautiful and deeply humane dispatch on horseback from the high, hard West."--Ben Aguilar, director of operations for the Berry Center in Henry County, Kentucky "In this engaging collection of essays centered on her family's central Montana ranch, rancher, scholar, and teacher E. L. Kittredge recounts the hardships and joys of a youth spent mucking stalls, raising chickens, and rounding up cattle. In addition to glimpses of a fast-vanishing way of life, Crossing Bird Creek provides clear-eyed insight into what all of us--rural and urban residents alike--may be losing as Montana's farming and ranching traditions and culture disappear."--Tom Dickson, previous editor of Montana Outdoors "The future of the northern Great Plains, 'Flyover Country' to some, and 'Next Year Country' to its farming and ranching stewards, will be shaped by our ability as a society to truly understand its social, agricultural, and ecological history and communities. The rich prose of this treatise is far deeper and broader than the namesake 'humble' creek of the title. This book about place and our relationships to it finds its center in generations fully lived on a west-central Montana ranch where both the land and its animals are 'kin.' Rich in metaphor, it stitches together history, memories, stories, and the wisdom of elders, authors, and philosophers. It asks of us that we (individually and collectively) recognize and inhabit our physical, cultural and imaginary landscapes and 'inscapes' to become aware, open, alive, whole. Perhaps in so doing, we may heal communities. Such healing is certainly needed in these times, across all fences (both real and metaphorical)."--Daniel Casey, retired coordinator of the Northern Great Plains Joint Venture "The relationship between the land, the animals, and the people is a subject that's been mined countless times in the history of the West. So when someone comes out with a book that focuses on that aspect of our identity, it's important that they have their own unique perspective and approach. Thankfully, E. L. Kittredge brings that element to her wonderful, eloquent collection of essays, Crossing Bird Creek. Whether it's describing her experience as a young girl, dangling with her boot caught in a makeshift stirrup or reflecting on the rich historical significance of Bird Creek itself, Kittredge brings her life in Montana to the page in a way that is purposeful, profound, and relevant. This is a beautiful collection."--Russell Rowland, author of 56 Counties: A Montana Journey
