LOVER’S LEAP LEGENDS LOCATIONS

Many of the books Leland and I have produced combine our interests in pop culture and nature. These subjects may seem mutually exclusive, but such couplings do exist in reality. While working on two books on Ozark rivers, we encountered splendid precipitous landmarks called Lover’s Leaps. On both the Osage and James rivers we heard local tales (sometimes recounted with a dose of skepticism) of an Indian maiden leaping to her death when forbidden by her father, the chief, to marry her lover from another tribe. Digging into the subject, we found these fabricated tragedies have been attached to cliffs across America. Incredibly, many young ladies once teared up when told these sad tales. We collected old postcards and newspaper clippings about this bogus folklore and wrote a 352-page color-illustrated book published in 2020. These images are from trips we made to view famous Lover’s Leaps. Lover’s Leap Legends: From Sappho of Lesbos to Wah-Wah-Tee of Waco won a bronze medal in the popular culture category of the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Awards.