Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa: Environmental Transformation Along the Des Moines River by Mason, Kevin T.

In Retracing the Dragoon Trail in Iowa, historian Kevin T. Mason presents a vivid and deeply researched account of Iowa's evolving landscape, beginning with the 1835 expedition of the First U.S. Dragoons. Drawing from archival records, maps, government surveys, Indigenous histories, and ecological data, Mason explores how Iowa's prairies and wetlands gave way to farms, towns, and transportation networks. He situates these environmental shifts within the broader forces of Manifest Destiny, military expansion, and settler colonialism, while amplifying the voices of the Sauk, Meskwaki, Dakota, and other Indigenous nations whose histories are often marginalized.

But Mason doesn't just write about history--he walks it. His 371-mile journey retracing the original dragoon route across Iowa blends scholarship with storytelling, captured through video essays, photography, and writing. This modern-day trek, featured on Iowa PBS's Iowa Life and Iowa Public Radio's Talk of Iowa, brings the past into the present, offering a compelling look at how landscapes remember. The result is a powerful contribution to environmental history, regional studies, and Indigenous scholarship--one that reveals the layered interactions between land use, policy, and historical change.

Author: Kevin T. Mason
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Published: 04/01/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781611865691

About the Author

Kevin T. Mason is an assistant professor of history at the University of Northern Iowa. Mason formerly served as an associate professor of history at Waldorf University, where he chaired the Department of History, Geography, and Political Science. He is the author of "Inkpaduta in Iowa: Dakota Decline, Dispossession, and Erasure" in The Annals of Iowa, a Mildred Throne & Charles Aldrich Iowa History Award winning article. He has also published in Little Village, the Middle West Review, and the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.