november, 2026
Event Details
Join us for the Dallas launch of The River That Made Texas: A Forgotten History of the Trinity, with river historian Scot McFarlane, naturalist Ben Sandifer, and the Texas Rivers Protection Association.
A conversation and Q&A about the book will be followed by a signing and storytelling session with conservationists and river advocates, including the East Texas organization Save The Cutoff.
About the book
The Trinity has shaped Texas through flood and drought, commerce and conflict. In The River That Made Texas, Scot McFarlane follows the people who have called its banks home—from the Comanche and steamboat pilots to enslaved and free people, sharecroppers, and urban residents. Their stories reveal a river that has been both a route and a barrier to freedom, a source of livelihoods, and a force in the state’s economic and environmental history.
About the author
Scot McFarlane is a Maine-based river historian who grew up along the Trinity in East Texas and founded the Oxbow History Company. His work explores people’s relationships with rivers and streams, and has appeared in Environmental History, Southern History, Slavery and Abolition, and Texas publications. He previously worked with the American Historical Association and Historic New England’s Recovering New England’s Voices initiative.
About the speakers
Ben Sandifer is a Dallas author, photographer, and environmental advocate. A Certified Master Birder and Honorary Lifetime Texas Master Naturalist, he serves as a citizen scientist with the Texas Stream Team and as naturalist for the Dallas Hunting and Fishing Club.
Alexander Neal is a water resources professional and secretary of the Texas Rivers Protection Association. A former Dallasite now based near the Brazos River, he has worked across Texas as a park ranger, wildland firefighter, and water resources specialist.
Save The Cutoff is a nonprofit conservation organization founded in 2022 by hunters and fishermen in Henderson County. It works to restore public access to a historic section of the Old Trinity River and preserve its longstanding hunting and fishing traditions.
