Gray Gold: Lead Mining and Its Impact on the Natural and Cultural Environment, 1700–1840

The Illinois Country continues to be a region of North America rich in history, both during the colonial period and as a western frontier of a young United States. Mark Milton Chambers adds to that history with Gray Gold: Lead Mining and Its Impact on the Natural and Cultural Environment, 1700–1840. His fascinating study builds upon the innovative scholarship of a number of historians in recent years, such as John Reda's From Furs to Farms: The Transformation of the Mississippi Valley, 1762–1825, which examines the two principal states that emerged from the region: Missouri and Illinois. Arguably the most prolific scholar in the field is historian Carl Ekberg, author of French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times. Chambers took a course from Ekberg and ultimately answered his call for more scholarship on the “country full of mines,” an area on the west...