Every existence has its pulse points," writes Ted Leeson in this brilliant new book, "those places where life rises somehow closer to the surface and makes itself more keenly felt. Spring creeks have been mine." Jerusalem Creek is an exploration into the unique landscape and of the "driftless area" of Wisconsin. Left untouched by a succession of glaciers that continually reshaped the surrounding territory, the driftless area slowly weathered into a region of hundreds of narrow valleys carved by hundreds of small spring creeks that, taken together, make up ten thousand square miles of trout country. But for all its size, the driftless country "is a geography of small concealments" - of coves and hollows, oak groves and shady bends, winding brooks and trout: "It is not a landscape that you hike up, or climb down into, or stand out looking upon; it is one that you slip inside of," and this book presents the view from within.
From the rumour of an old fishing log that first sends him into driftless country in search of trout, to a recognition of the loss and compromise that lie at the heart of many landscapes and many lives, Leeson reflects on waters and people - and the nature of his spring creek country. At times thoughtful and hilarious, passionate and wry, he journeys into the special charms of small-scale waters and pastoral spaces; the nature of meandering in trout streams and trout fishermen; ruminations on dairy cows, honeybees, and the Midwestern character, family and angling companions, Amish farmsteads, the memory of a missing photograph, the equivocal dream of owning a trout stream, the ways in which the past endures in the present. Jerusalem Creek tells the story of how we create the places we love - and how they in turn create us. This is a wise, poignant, and haunting book.