The History of Starved Rock provides a wonderful overview of the famous site in Utica, Illinois, from when European explorers first viewed the bluff in 1673 through to 1911, when Starved Rock became the centerpiece of Illinois' second state park.

Mark Walczynski pulls together stories and insights from the language, geology, geography, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and agriculture of the park to provide readers with an understanding of both the human and natural history of Starved Rock, and to put it into context with the larger history of the American Midwest.

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Mark Walczynski has written 'the' history of Starved Rock not 'a' history of this place. The distinction is worth noting because the author has produced an exhaustively researched historyand because he takes care to distinguish the past as informed by the historical record from the body of lore associated with Starved Rock.