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The Upper Basin Chronicles
"The Upper Basin Chronicles" comprises a weekly serial on the soil and water conservation adventures and misadventures of a cast of characters in the Upper Mississippi River basin. Posted each Tuesday, the Chronicles seek to bring forward in story form relevant environmental issues facing people and communities in the upper Midwest. Your feedback is important and very valuable. Thanks for reading!
Keep Your Manure..., Chapter 1 (2/19/02)
Dirty Beans, Chapter 2 (2/26/02)
Hold It or Drain It, Chapter 3 (3/05/02)
The Lord's Bounty, Chapter 4 (3/12/02)
Nothing Like Family, Chapter 5 (3/19/02)
Ain't Fit to Drink, Chapter 6 (3/26/02)
Smells Like Money, Chapter 7 (4/02/02)
Upstream, Downstream, Chapter 8 (4/09/02)
Rose's "Mother Earth Day Appeal, Chapter 9 (4/16/02)
Watching Wet Land, Chapter 10 (4/23/02)
A Willow Stump Waits..., Chapter 11 (4/30/02)
The Greenish-Gray Glow, Chapter 12 (5/14/02)
By Golly, That's a Storm!, Chapter 13 (5/21/02)
A Blister Forming, Chapter 14 (5/28/01)
Cast of Characters
Laura Paruzzi, early 30's, liberal environmentalist Buddhist
biologist elementary school teacher
Alexander Murphy, early 40's, Iowa farmer, conservative single parent with children
struggling to make ends meet
The Murphys, Alexander's extended family; immigrant great-grandparents
homesteaded the farm, grandparents and parents worked it before him
Teresa, Alexander's grandmother, matriarch, 90s
Owen, father of Alexander, retired, cancer, 70s
Michael, age 10
Rose, age 8
Lucy, age 2
Ruthann Garcia, farmer, late 30s girlfriend of Laura, Murphy's
neighbor
Rick Garcia, late 30s, husband of Ruthann, federal agency field conservationist
Rachel Garcia, age 13
Ramon Garcia, age 10
Harold Mundt, early 70s, corn and bean grower, cattle and feedlot
entrepreneur
Daniel Mundt, Lutheran rural circuit rider pastor, late 30's, son of Harold
Delbert Crawford, retired neighborhood farmer, who helps out with his draft
horse team.
Helen Wilson, branch banker; farm loan and real estate
specialist
Stephanie Wilson, age 13, best friends with Rachel Garcia
Johnny Wilson, age 8, boy in Laura's class
Frederick Hermann, agricultural co-op manager, Helen's boyfriend
George Jorgensen, state game warden
Myron Jorgensen, implement seller, brother of George
Father Norbert Marquette, parish priest where the Murphys and the Garcias attend mass.
Lottie Thompson, mid-20s, Ioway member from Oklahoma, North Central Iowa University graduate student
Beverly Norton, small city municipal water and waste water treatment
engineer
The Vangs, market gardener family, sponsored by Daniel Mundt
as immigrants.
Mai Vang, age 8, student in Laura's class, best friend of Rose Murphy
William Vine, mid-30's, small company president with a new product
and a toxic wastewater problem
Edna Parker, corporate board of directors member in William Vine's company,
mid-60s; environmentalist, philanthropist.
Richard Roth, attorney in an environmental NGO (non-governmental organization), late 40s
The Longs, an urban black family with a small boat who like
to get out on the Mississippi to get away.
Michele Long, African-American, North Central Iowa University professor
of geology with graduate students
The Allens, Lutheran suburban family of four, beautiful lawn,
minivan, cabin up north with shoreline erosion problems.
The Caldwells, a hard-living family from a tough neighborhood
Fishing folk, including contestant bass fishermen and women,
immigrants, kids, and Mom and Pop and the six-horse.
Boaters, including power, sail, human-powered, personal watercraft, and towboat.
Hunters, including duck, geese, deer, upland bird, and varmint.
About the author
John P. Gabbert, an Iowan by birth, and veteran technical writer and editor
is presently a full-time graduate student at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.
He is working on a masters of science degree in Resource Analysis. Raised in
southeast Iowa, the son of daily newspaper journalists, he worked on farms as
a young man, and shoveled enough corn and hog manure to write about it.
