Book Review: ‘Hush of the Land’ a wilderness original

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

I looked down at the book and it was all sticky. The tea in the cup had spilled in the pickup truck and the honey in the bottom was all over the cover.

Rats, I thought. I wanted to take “Hush of the Land: A lifetime in the Bob Marshall Wilderness,” back into the Bob Marshall Wilderness with me and finish reading it. I had already read a big chunk of it on a previous journey.

But I didn’t want to take a book covered in honey. So I made a difficult choice for an old English major.

I tore the cover off. Then shoved it in my pack.

I hope Smoke Elser will forgive me. “Hush of the Land” is a series of stories by Elser, a renowned outfitter, guide, and conservationist from Missoula, as told to Eva Maria-Maggi. Maggi is a writer and friend of Elser’s who crafted the tales out of hundreds of hours of recorded interviews. Maggi holds a Ph.D. in political science and teaches Wilderness Policy and Packing at the University of Montana.

The stories in this book range from the gut-wrenching tale of Cheese, the faithful dog who would forever call the Bob Marshall home, to Elser’s and other fellow-minded conservationist’s efforts to preserve the Great Bear and Scapegoat Wildernesses.

(The title, “Hush of the Land” comes from a phrase turned by conservationist Tom Edwards who argued that what wilderness really preserves is the “Hush of the Land.”)

It’s a beautifully written book and every chapter is an engaging read. A good book should be like an onion, peeling apart layers of the story as one goes and Elser and Maggi have done a masterful job of that.

While it’s written chronologically, one can just as easily pick it up in a middle chapter and be engrossed in a tale in minutes. In short, it’s an easy read, perfect to stuff in a pack for a backcountry journey.

(Though if you’re bear paranoid, you might want to skip the chapter on grizzlies. Rather than reveal the story, let’s just say trees, no matter how small, still come in handy when evading an ornery griz.)

The book isn’t just tales of the wilderness, it also explores the difficulties of packing and guiding folks in the wilderness. For example, while on one hunting trip, a client decides to go off into another drainage and Elser has to find him in the dark of night in the rain, as a mountain lion is on his heels.

The book is the perfect celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.

“Hush of the Land” is a paperback published by Bison Books and is available at local bookstores as well as Amazon and other retailers.

Coauthors Elser and Maggi will be in Kalispell for an evening of storytelling and reading on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at  6 p.m. at the Flathead Valley Community College. This book event is free and open to the public and co-sponsored by the Flathead Valley Community College Natural Resource and Conservation Management Program, Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation, and Back Country Horsemen of the Flathead.