Discover how the prairie was forged by fire at the Central Library this Sunday
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Fire has long been intertwined with the history of the prairie.
Just as ocean storms have defined coastal towns in Maine and Massachusetts, the unpredictable nature of fire has altered many lives on the prairie. Julie Courtwright, a Kansas native and assistant professor of history at Iowa State University, looks at how prairie fires have determined the course of history and even made their way into pop culture in her her new book, Prairie Fire: A Great Plains History.
She approaches the region’s unique relationship with fire by weaving together first-person accounts over the last six centuries, from the Native Americans to Little House on the Prairie. Courtwright is giving a talk at the Central Branch (14 W. 10th St.) of the Kansas City Public Library at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 1.
