San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX

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  • A section of the Brazos River is seen inside Stephen F. Austin State Park. (Photos by Jerry Touchstone Kimmel)

    1 5 jpg Brazos River Stephen F Austin State Park.jpg
January 30, 2012

Down by the River

Kimmels’ new book showcases their affection for the Brazos

By Jeff Walker Features Editor

San Marcos — The year was 1967 when Jim Kimmel first read John Graves’ classic narrative “Goodbye to a River,” a loving tribute to the Brazos River and its rugged, natural beauty. Graves’ landmark book set the path for what Kimmel and wife Jerry would be doing for the rest of their lives.

Their first date, in fact, was on the Brazos.

“Jerry and I were studying at Baylor, and we built a kayak and started chasing rivers. We have always enjoyed roaming the countryside and his book was the inspiration for that,” Jerry said.

Forty years later, the two have retraced Graves’ steps  and provided their own love letter to the Brazos, “Exploring the Brazos River: From Beginning to End.” Written by Jim and photographed by Jerry, the two spent a total of six weeks along the river, from the headwaters in Eastern New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico, exploring via kayak and meeting people along the way.

For a waterway that the two have a long, devoted connection with, both Jerry and Jim hope their new book illustrates their affections of the river and inspires others to seek its beauty.

“When you mention the Brazos, people say it’s muddy or nasty; it doesn’t have a good reputation,” Jerry said. “We wanted to cast a different light on it. I wanted to be holistic and comprehensive with the river. I’ve never really found a book that treats a river in a holistic way, from climate to archeology to politics to the whole business of how a river works and the way it influences people. That’s what I wanted to do with this, and I think I did that.”

“Exploring the Brazos River: From Beginning to End” breaks the river up into several sections, each devoted to an individual chapter.  “The Lost River” explores from the Clovis area down to “Lubbock,”  “Many Arms of God” looks at the area from the Caprock Escarpment to Possum Kingdom Lake; “John Grave’s Dammed River” studies down to Waco; and finally “The (Almost) Free Brazos” deals with Waco down to the gulf.

There are also chapters that study the Brazos as an ecological system, as well as the plant and animal species of the  river and its potential future.

Jim is a geography professor at Texas State University. In 2006 the couple completed “The San Marcos: A River’s Story,” a similar book devoted to their hometown water way. While Jerry says the San Marcos was a much more intimate experience, the sheer size and length of the Brazos was a wonderful, welcoming challenge.

She has almost 200 photos in the new book.

“There’s just so many sections of the Brazos: From the Permian basin area to the lower coastal plains, you can go to each place and feel like you’re in a different world,” she said. “As an exploration of beauty, it just pulls you like a ribbon through the state.”

And both hope readers will open the pages and begin to feel the same.

“I wanted the general public to read this book and use it to explore the Brazos and learn about the Brazos, and appreciate other rivers as well,” Jim said.

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