River of the Golden Ibis

From its idyllic source in the Green Swamp, the Hillsborough River winds past columns of cypress and matted shrubs and opens into Tampa Bay, part of Florida's urbanized, publicized western Suncoast. The river is not a long one, but its legend in contemporary America is far-reaching. In a narrative that is as exciting to read as it is historically compelling, Gloria Jahoda traces the Hillsborough River's origin to prehistoric times, chronicles the arrivals of the conquistadores, the missionaries, and the marauders greedy for treasure, and points out how twentieth-century ambitions threaten to destroy the environment as surely as earlier encroachment annihilated native peoples.