Place and Public Land Conflicts in the Shawnee Hills Karen Wolf Southern Illinois University Carbondale, [email protected]
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Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 5-1-2014 Blood, Mud, and Money: Place and Public Land Conflicts in the Shawnee Hills Karen Wolf Southern Illinois University Carbondale, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Wolf, Karen, "Blood, Mud, and Money: Place and Public Land Conflicts in the Shawnee Hills" (2014). Dissertations. Paper 867. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLOOD, MUD, AND MONEY: PLACE AND PUBLIC LAND CONFLICTS IN THE SHAWNEE HILLS by Karen Wolf B.A., Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1999 M.A., Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology In the Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale December, 2013 Copyright by Karen Wolf, 2013 All Rights Reserved DISSERTATION APPROVAL BLOOD, MUD, AND MONEY: PLACE AND PUBLIC LAND CONFLICTS IN THE SHAWNEE HILLS by Karen Wolf A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Anthropology Approved by: David Sutton, chair Susan Ford Jane Adams John McCall Andrew Balkansky Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale October 28, 2013 AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF KAREN WOLF, for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in ANTHROPOLOGY, Presented on SEPTEMBER 4, 2013, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: BLOOD, MUD, AND MONEY: PUBLIC LAND CONFLICTS IN THE SHAWNEE HILLS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. David Sutton This dissertation examines conflicts involving the use of public land for both extractive resources and recreational purposes in Southern Illinois from an anthropological perspective. These conflicts are examined in terms of place, western ideas of nature and culture, and the debate concerning conservation versus preservation. The beginning point for this work was the question of whether or not place building influences conflicts over public land. The conflicts that this work encompasses are logging, hunting, use of off-road vehicles, equestrian, and hydraulic fracturing. My goal was to look at different recreational conflicts of Southern Illinois and determine how issues of place, nature and culture, and conservation versus preservation ethics play into those conflicts. What I found is that all of these factors are inextricably intertwined and that both sides of these conflicts are informed by the identities and place- making of those involved and the perception of those identities and places. i DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to Chris… eye on the objective, semper. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many who deserve my thanks for aiding me in this dissertation. First and foremost, to my family, Chris, Olivia and Jill for their extreme patience, support, inspiration, education and place. To my mom and dad for both funding my initial college experience as well as helping both economically and with great patience in all of my many graduate school years. To my committee for encouragement and guidance on issues both great and small, especially David Sutton and Susan Ford. I would like to thank all of those whom I have talked with over the years about Southern Illinois and what makes this space a place for those that live here. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... i DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER I........................................................................................................................................ 1 ORIGINS ........................................................................................................................................... 1 There’s No Nature Here .............................................................................................................. 6 Place and Conflict ........................................................................................................................ 8 Horse Muck ................................................................................................................................. 9 Theory and Practice ................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER II..................................................................................................................................... 16 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................ 16 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................... 16 Backyard Anthropology ............................................................................................................. 18 Research and the Shawnee Forest ............................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER III.................................................................................................................................... 23 THE SPACE AND HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS ....................................................................... 23 Water and Stone ....................................................................................................................... 25 History of Land Use ................................................................................................................... 28 Forest Again ............................................................................................................................... 31 The Forest Today ....................................................................................................................... 33 The Economy Today .................................................................................................................. 34 CHAPTER IV ................................................................................................................................... 40 ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY – A WALK IN THE WOODS ............................................................. 40 Place I ........................................................................................................................................ 41 Place II: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow ...................................................................................... 44 Place III ...................................................................................................................................... 45 Human Environment Interface: Ecological Anthropology ........................................................ 48 iv Human Environment Interface: Nature and Culture ................................................................ 57 The Wilderness Debate ............................................................................................................. 60 Rough Terrain ............................................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER V .................................................................................................................................... 70 RECREATION AND CONFLICT IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS ................................................................... 70 Introduction: Cycles of Conflict ................................................................................................. 71 Forest Again? ............................................................................................................................. 72 Cutting and Conflict ................................................................................................................... 74 The Lines Are Drawn ................................................................................................................. 76 Conflicts Between Environmental Groups ................................................................................ 81 Conflict of Another Color .......................................................................................................... 92 CHAPTER VI ................................................................................................................................... 94 BLOOD ........................................................................................................................................... 94 Headless Deer and Dead Coyote ............................................................................................... 94 The Long History