An inauspicious beginning -- St. Joseph, Missouri: The edge of the wilderness -- The ox whisperer -- Koyaanisqatsi -- The independent Oregon colony -- And the rains came down : the sublime awful -- Save a horse, ride a cowboy -- An inch deep and a mile wide -- Boredom and disease -- Men and masculinity -- Incidents and accidents -- Up the elk's penis : a family ascent -- Death in the afternoon -- Ayres Natural Bridge and Independence Rock -- Eating dust : a week on the trail -- Into the void -- Ghosts of the pioneers -- Love in the time of typhoid -- What lies beneath -- The valley of hope
