Seldom Seen: A Journey Into the Great Plains

Patrick Dobson

Jan 2009 · U of Nebraska Press

About this ebook

In May 1995, with nothing but a backpack and a vague sense of disquiet, Patrick Dobson left his home and a steady if deadening job in Kansas City, Missouri. Over the next two and a half months he made his way to Helena, Montana, letting chance encounters guide him to a deeper sense of who he was and where he was going. His chronicle of this journey charts his experiences with the seldom-seen people of the small towns, the far-flung outposts, and the Great Plains that make up "our America."

Ratings and reviews

I received my book in the mail a few days ago. I picked up the book at the end of a busy day, the time I usually do my reading. I could not put it down. It was instantly engaging. I've read Least Heat Moon's books and Frazier's Great Plains. This one was more personal and had deeper insight into people. They seemed really real. I loved it. I'm glad I ran into it online and bought it. I'm going to recommend it to my friends and family. Some of them live near these places. I think if I enjoyed it, they will be crazy about it.

A first-time author goes on walkabout in the Great Plains. Like countless people, freelance writer Dobson was feeling trapped. In 1995 he was working a dead-end job, and he felt aimless and helpless. The only thing that comforted him was that massive swath of land that stretched for hundreds of miles just west of his hometown of Kansas City, Mo. The Great Plains had been soothing to him as a child, even if he'd only taken in those endless golden oceans from his father's car window. Dobson wondered if he could enhance that feeling if he enveloped himself in the prairie, so he decided to walk from his front step to Helena, Mont., hoping that the Plains could somehow cure him. It did more than that. This isn't a book about the author's personal musings on the road, but rather a chronicle of the folks that, despite a lack of virtually everything except endless space, have decided to live on the prairie. More surprisingly, these people-the former carnival worker in Wyoming, the evangelicals in Kansas, the would-be rock star in Nebraska-were eager to let Dobson into their lives. The prairie, lovingly described by the author, becomes the fabric that holds these people together. Their stories, some as violent and powerful as a Midwestern thunderstorm, others as calm as a breeze, create a captivating narrative, and Dobson finds the common humanity that keeps people struggling against their circumstances and striving to succeed, in whatever form that may take. Restrained storytelling and a string of charming, relatable characters make the prairie seem like much more than a flyover region.

About the author

Patrick Dobson is a freelance writer, former journalist, and working member of Ironworkers Local Union no. 10 in Kansas City, Missouri. He is pursuing his doctorate in U.S. environmental history and American literature at the University of Missouri–Kansas City.