# River Books?



## Stiff N' Wett (Feb 18, 2010)

So, I just finished "There's This River" which is now one of my favorite books. I've read "Down the Great Unknown" and "John Wesley Powells's Life and Legacy". What are some other good river books.


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## bucket52 (Apr 26, 2010)

*River Books*

Those are both good ones, read them this past year. 

I really got into "the Doing of the Thing" which tells the incredible story of Buzz Holstrom and the first solo decent down the Colorado River. Also features stories of Salmon, Rouge, Green and even a full West to East trip starting with the Columbia and traveling all the way to New York City!

Long book, worth your time!

MN


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## atg200 (Apr 24, 2007)

Brothers on the Bashkaus is a great book about a bizarre rafting trip in the Altai in Russia - very fun read. The Very Hard Way biography of Bert Loper can be tough slogging at times, but is good to get a feel for early river trips in the desert canyon country.


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## Kyle K (Dec 17, 2008)

Bucket52 is right, "The Doing of the Thing" is a great read and Buzz Holmstrom makes most of us look like super lightweights. Fretwater Press is a small publishing house and all they do is river books. I also highly recommend "Sunk Without a Sound". 

The author of these books and owner of Fretwater is Brad Dimock, one of the most experienced Grand Canyon guides of all time. He's still working down there. He did the first descent of the Little Colorado back around 1980 (60 mile class IV+ canyon that runs into the GC). In addition, he was one of the early pioneer rafters in Chile. Here's a link for you...

The Doing of the Thing The Brief, Brilliant Whitewater Career of Buzz Holmstrom by Vince Welch, Cort Conley & Brad Dimock


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## Jensjustduckie (Jun 29, 2007)

"A Canyon Voyage" a really well written narrative of the 2nd Powell expedition down the Green and Colorado rivers. The voyage took them 2 years, the wintered over near Lee's, awesome story and history of the rivers.

"Undaunted Courage" is a long but well written story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the quantities of wildlife and natives they encountered were amazing. I can't imagine being stalked by a grizzly bear on the open plains, scary.

I recommend both but haven't finished Canyon Voyage yet.

Also I second the recommendation for "Sunk Without a Sound" which is a great true story and still a mystery as to what happened to the couple who disappeared.


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## Stiff N' Wett (Feb 18, 2010)

Cool, thanks guys that should keep me busy for the next couple years.


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## phlyingfish (Nov 15, 2006)

I enjoyed _Never Turn Back_. It's the biography of Walt Blackadar, one of the original Idaho badasses.


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

_An Innocent on the Middle Fork_, by Eliot DuBois, is the amazing story of a solo trip down the Middle Fork in 1942, in a collapsible kayak on extreme high water.

_A River to Run_, by Glen Wooldridge, is a collection of Rogue River stories.


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

Some more of my favorites:

_Woman of the River_, by Richard Westwood, is the story of Georgie Clark.

_The Doing of the Thing_, by Welch, Conley & Dimock, is the story of Buzz Holmstrom.

_Snake River of Hells Canyon_, by Carrey, Conle & Barton is a mile-by-mile history of the canyon. There is a companion book _The River of No Return_.

_John Day River Drift and Historical Guide_, by Arthur Campbell, is almost impossible to find, but worth the hunt if you plan to float the John Day.


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## Osprey (May 26, 2006)

Canyon Voyage and Down the Great Unknown for sure....I'll add River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado by Colin Fletcher. His account of of his solo run from source to sea.


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## OpusX (Jul 29, 2010)

I enjoyed "Hell or High Water". Others have already mentioned other one's I would recommend...While not a book, this article (and an excerpt of the advertised book, "The Liquid Locomotive", which I have not read) is a good read. Walt Blackadar's journal entries of his solo descent of the Alsek: Walt Blackadar's Solo Descent of Alsek River on WetDawg.com


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## MountainMedic (Apr 24, 2010)

really enjoyed this one


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## Mike Hartley (May 1, 2006)

This is a fine read about the politics, personalities, and river runners on both sides of the Glen Canyon dam issue.

A Story That Stands Like a Dam: Glen Canyon and the Struggle for the Soul of the West by Russell Martin.


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## FLOWTORCH (Mar 5, 2004)

If you liked "There's this river" then you will like the short the stories in "The liquid locomotive". Count introduced me to that book.


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## teletoes (Apr 16, 2005)

I enjoyed “River of Doubt: Theodor Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey”. It’s the true story of Roosevelt’s search for adventure by mapping a tributary of the Amazon after losing the 1912 election. 

They did things different back then. 

One thing you'll learn is Teddy Roosevelt was a Bad Ass Mo-Fo!


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## cpollema (Mar 9, 2009)

Another fun read is "Adios Amigos" by Page Stegner. Its a series of short stories about trips down the Colorado, Green, Yampa, San Juan, and Dolores rivers.


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## Rockhead (Sep 17, 2007)

Read the journals by the Kolb Brothers. Also the lost journals of Powells "First through Grand Canyon" first trip are very interesting. Comparing his version to his crews is fun. Dellenbaugh's "A Canyon Voyage" will give you a pretty good history of early canyon adventures. Micheal Gighlearli's "Canyon" is perhaps the best overall history of Grand Canyon boating. I have about 50 more if your interested.


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## The Mogur (Mar 1, 2010)

If you're looking for guidebooks, try the Quinn series: _Handbook to the Middle Fork, Handbook to the Rogue, Handbook to the Klamath, Handbook to the Deschutes, Handbook to the Illinois_, and maybe some others. Their mile-by-mile, rock-by-rock descriptions are the most detailed ever published. If anything, they are _too_ detailed, because of the propensity for rivers and rapids to change.


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## Boilerblues (Jun 15, 2007)

I'll second "River of Doubt" and "Undaunted Courage".


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## oarframe (Jun 25, 2008)

Boilerblues said:


> I'll second "River of Doubt" and "Undaunted Courage".


I'll thirds them and raise the ante with the arch 'Hell or High Water" book by Ian Baker "The Heart of the World"

Some other offerings (may not all be river books but good reading imho):
"The Very Hard Way" about Bert Loper 
"River Horse" William Least Heat-Moon
Anything written by Eric Shipton or Bill Tilman
"Endurance"
"Kabloona in a Yellow Kayak"
"Kayaking the Vermillion Sea"


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## Ole Rivers (Jul 7, 2005)

For everything you've ever wanted to know about water in Colorado, here's a list of 250 books in "Colorado Water History: A Bibliography" gathered together by Colorado State University in 2008. Although much has been written about water in Colorado, never have these various writings been catalogued in a single reference guide. You can check out any of these books through the library.

http://www.cwi.colostate.edu/publications/is/105.pdf

I've researched some of these books, theses and dissertations for the recent HB 1188 rafting recreational access and use bill and now for my submitted Governor's River Access Dispute Resolution Task Force public comments in regards to historical use of natural streams around the time of Colorado's statehood (1876) to evidence and confirm the Public Trust Doctrine traditional and modern rights of navigation, commerce, fisheries, recreation, environment, scenic beauty, etc, here in Colorado. Not exactly light reading, but may be useful for your specific areas of interest.

In particular, this book (only about 3 copies made) may be close to your original request for books about rivers (and boating):

65. Crampton, C. Gregory and Steven K. Madsen. "Boating on the Upper Colorado: A History of the Navigational Use of the Green, Colorado, and San Juan Rivers and Their Major Tributaries". Sacramento, California: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1975. (164 leaves)


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## Ole Rivers (Jul 7, 2005)

teletoes said:


> I enjoyed “River of Doubt: Theodor Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey”. It’s the true story of Roosevelt’s search for adventure by mapping a tributary of the Amazon after losing the 1912 election.
> 
> They did things different back then.
> 
> One thing you'll learn is Teddy Roosevelt was a Bad Ass Mo-Fo!


Speaking of Teddy Roosevelt, you may want to check out a new sportsmen's advocacy group based here in Colorado:

Bull Moose Sportsmens Alliance

The Bull Moose Sportsmen's Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 organization that will champion a Complete Sportsmen's Agenda that focuses on conservation, recruitment and retention of hunters and anglers, and 2nd Amendment rights that apply to sportsmen. We will advance this agenda through education, grassroots organizing, issue advocacy, and connecting sportsmen and policy makers.

Colorado State Senator Dan Gibbs and former DOW legislative liaison and presently running for Clear Creek County Commissioner Tim Mauck are among the founding members.


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## nicho (Mar 18, 2009)

This is a good book. Talks about trips in the Grand Canyon. Also issues facing the Grand and impacts of the dam as well as history. *Michael P. Ghiglieri.*


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## funrivers (May 14, 2008)

Don't overlook books by Richard Bangs (founded SOBEK). The Lost River and Rivergods are good accounts of first descents in Africa.


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## Ole Rivers (Jul 7, 2005)

*A toast to Samuel Adams!*



cpollema said:


> Another fun read is "Adios Amigos" by Page Stegner. Its a series of short stories about trips down the Colorado, Green, Yampa, San Juan, and Dolores rivers.


Wallace Stegner, probably Page's father, is The Man as far as US Western history is concerned. One of his books, "Beyond the Hundredth Meridian" (1953) is about John Wesley Powell and the second opening of the US west. However, there's one section in it, from pages 77-82, which documents Captain Samuel Adams' (tough name to remember, huh?) Blue River (Colorado) expedition in July-August, 1869, right around the time of Colorado's statehood (1876), all the 55 mile way of the Blue from Breckenridge to the Blue/Colorado Rivers' confluence at Kremmling and then down a ways (through Gore Canyon in a makeshift raft! Yeh, man!!!) of the Colorado. I found, via footnotes in Stegner's book, Samuel Adams' (makes me thirsty for a beer just thinking about his name!) original manuscript recounting this historical navigation of the Blue at the Huntington Library in LA and now have a copy of it. This journal, along with a clearly typewritten day by day text version of the manuscript (have a copy of this also), sent to and in the Congressional Record in 1870 requesting $20k remuneration for the expedition info, evidences and confirms navigability of the Blue, no problemo. So, if anyone gives you a hard time while boating, fishing and or otherwise using and enjoying the Blue, give them a copy of those 6 pages in Stegner's book.

This book has been among my best (but not only) reference finds so far in researching historical (at the time of Colorado statehood) navigation and commerce using boats on natural streams here in Colorado and is a good read about Powell and the West to boot.

You may want to look at some of Wallace Stegner's other books, too. One of the libraries at Utah University is named for him.

Now, the only beer I drink is good ole Samuel Adams!!!


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## mania (Oct 21, 2003)

running the amazon by joe kane is great. and if you can find In kayak through Peru by Piotr Chmieliński you wont be disappointed.


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## Riff Raft (Aug 13, 2009)

*my fav crikkin book*


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## teletoes (Apr 16, 2005)

Ole Rivers said:


> I found, via footnotes in Stegner's book, Samuel Adams' (makes me thirsty for a beer just thinking about his name!) original manuscript recounting this historical navigation of the Blue at the Huntington Library in LA and now have a copy of it. !!


If possible and legal, please make this available online. 

Stegner makes Samuel Adams out to be some kind of comic huckster. E.g. sending someone back to Breckenridge for more matches. I’d love read his firsthand account.


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## liquidphoto (Oct 22, 2010)

Canyon by Ghiglieri, A RiverRunners Guide to the History of the GC (Crumbo).


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## Ole Rivers (Jul 7, 2005)

teletoes said:


> If possible and legal, please make this available online.
> 
> Stegner makes Samuel Adams out to be some kind of comic huckster. E.g. sending someone back to Breckenridge for more matches. I’d love read his firsthand account.


Stegner's opinion of Adams had to do with Adams' arithmetic for the overall distance between Breck and California, maybe some elevation miscalculations and his somewhat dramatic characterizations of the events at times to increase the value of the expedition in order to get compensated by Congress. However, nowhere did Stegner dispute Adams' complete and successful navigation down the entire length of the Blue which is my main focus of interest. The vessels pretty much fell apart several times and had to be rebuilt as they crashed their way down the river, especially in the two canyons. Adams just wanted to beat Powell to the punch to find a commercial trade route from the Rockies to California and figured it'd be some sort of cake walk. Several of the location points mentioned can be easily identified... confluence of the Swan into the Blue, Green Mountain canyon, camping at Deep Creek area, valley section (Blue Valley Ranch area), some of the rapids in Gore, etc. In that respect, and while not perfect, Adams' account makes pretty good sense to confirm and evidence the right to use and enjoy the Blue and the submerged land beneath it for navigation, fisheries ("...catching a number of the finest trout..." was mentioned while at the "Fall [Deep] Creek" camp in the "Rocky" [GM] canyon) and commercial purposes under the Public Trust Doctrine.

As for reprinting the whole account online, the manuscript is in hard copy, take a while to image and pdf, plus written permission would have to be obtained from the library to do so. I have a request form but it would take a bit of time to go through the process. Also, the document is very fragile and faint and is bound tightly with a very stiff cover making it difficult to work with. They were very reluctant to make a copy of the original manuscript, however, the typewritten text is much easier to make copies and is much easier to read than the written version. With the library's written permission, I'd be happy to make copies of the typewritten text or those interested could get it directly from the Huntington. The journal is nifty because of its handwritten, navigation confirming nature and the typewritten text is great because of its clearly read and also navigation confirming nature of the day by day (July 12 - August 15, 1869) account. A pretty unique situation... handwritten in 1869, then the guy follows up by presenting it on December 19,1869 and printing it in 1870 for the Congressional Record, no less, and conveniently timeframed at the time of Colorado's statehood to meet one of the navigability test requirements.

Here's some brief excerpts... "About four months since I went to Breckenridge, which is about eight miles from the main divide or summit of the Rocky Mountains, organized an expedition of eleven men, with four boats constructed upon the ground, the largest of which was twenty-two feet in length. The limited time I had to construct these, the quality of the lumber, the capacity of the mill for sawing, and the rapid falling of the water in the river, prevented me building the boats in every respect as I could have desired..."

"This smooth surface continued until we entered the Grand River in the Middle Park."...

And, to think, Adams and his crew then rafted through Gore in, maybe, a first descent, with little, if any, scouting on some broken down pos Tom Sawyer green pine logs lashed together with belts or twine or God knows what, probably wearing suits and ties with flat leather sole shoes, a few waterlogged matches, a compass, salt, flour, an iron skillet, a couple hatchets, a pencil, paper and some beef jerky, all the while figuring they were going from Breck to Cali in a few boof filled sunshiney days, greeted at the end of the trip in the Rose Bowl parade as pioneering heroes, go to Disneyland and then, in horse and buggy complete with ribbons and bows, trot into DC to pick up a cool $20k (probably a buncha miyyun in today's $$$) from Congress for their efforts.

Anybody down for a reenactment, Sam Adams beer included in memoriam?

Hey, mebbe some of Stegner's characterizations were on the money...


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## malloypc (Jun 6, 2009)

Lots of my favorites already listed. One notably missing and IMO a must read is:
We SWAM The Grand Canyon - By Bill Beer
The true story of a cheap vacation that got a little out of hand. In 1955 Bill Beer and John Daggett, at the time both recently out of the military, and in their mid 20s, footloose, and more or less unemployed conceived the idea of swimming the Colorado River through the 279 miles of the Grand Canyon-principally because they couldn't afford a boat. This simple idea escalated into a national news story and has been one of the legends of the Grand Canyon ever since. Never equalled nor duplicated, their illegal venture and many of its dangers, comic episodes, innovations, side effects and long term ramifications are the story of this book.

You can get it on Amazon for ~$25, but you can save a few bucks by ordering it directly from Bill's widow Sue Beer We SWAM The Grand Canyon - By Bill Beer


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## peak (Apr 7, 2006)

two more:

_Rock Me on the Water_, by Renny Russell...With the help of David Brower, he and his brother co-authored _On the Loose_, a hippy/cult classic of 1969 consisting of photography, poems, and calligraphy inspired by the brothers vagabonding throughout the west. When _On the Loose_ was at the publisher, the brothers went down Deso and had an accident...Renny is now a guide on the Grand as well, and _Rock Me on the Water_ is a memoir of sorts, that swirls all about the rivers and landsapes of the west. I loved it.

Another Wallace Stegner: _Encounters with the Archdruid_. The third part of this one is an account of the Author's float on the Colorado with Floyd Dominy (dam builder) and his antithesis, David Brower...


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## Highside (Jul 11, 2008)

Wow didnt know there were so many river books out there! One I must add is: The very hard way: The Bert Loper story by Brad Dimock. Loper is one of if not the founding father of river running, most famous for dying while running the Grand at 80.


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## atg200 (Apr 24, 2007)

Well, that was the third time the Very Hard Way was recommended in this thread.

Another good one is Down The River by Edward Abbey. Wish I could have done a river trip with him.


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## billfish (Nov 22, 2009)

*river books*

"The Big Drops- 10 Legendary Rapids" by Rod Nash
"If We Had a Boat" by Roy Webb, great Green River book
"River Gods" by Richard Bangs and Christian Kallen


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## Boilerblues (Jun 15, 2007)

Not a river book, but a facinating book (or set of books) is the trilogy biography of Teddy Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" is about his life before the presidency, "Theodore Rex" is about his presidency, and "Colonel Roosevelt" is about post presidency (Colonel Roosevelt is released in November). I've listened to the audiobooks, and it is detailed without being boring. He was an amazing man, and certainly a hero to anyone who loves the outdoors.


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## Andy H. (Oct 13, 2003)

If you run rivers in the West, "Cadillac Desert," by the late Marc Reisner is a must-read for its perspective on Western water resource management.

Another good one is Westwater Lost and Found by Milligan. 

-AH


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

If you like "big" books, this one is excellent: 

W. H. Calvin's THE RIVER THAT FLOWS UPHILL (Sierra Club Books 1987)


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## mkashzg (Aug 9, 2006)

*Westwater History*

I just finished a good book on the history of the Westwater settlement in Utah in the late 1800's and early 1900's leading up to the early river runners and first descents of the canyon. The book is called 'Westwater Lost and Found' by Mike Milligan. It was very interesting to learn who first attempted and completed the canyon in their various crafts as our sport has progressed.


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## mhelm (Jun 28, 2008)

One of my favorite books is Back from Tuichi. Its about a misadventure in Bolivia. I read it while spending a month in Bolivia and it was one of the fastest reads. Very interesting book. Amazon.com: Back from Tuichi (9780679424581): Yossi Ghinsberg: Books


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## yakmom (May 31, 2006)

Richard Bangs was already listed but his book: "Adventure without End" is in the same style as "liquid locomotive" and is a fantastic read. Also, "Breaking into the Current: Boatwomen of the Grand Canyon" by Louise Teal. Finally, anything by Pam Houston is always a good read.


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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

"Running the Amazon" by Joe Kane is a book about the first descent from source to sea, very good read.


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## Stiff N' Wett (Feb 18, 2010)

Just finished "Paddle to the Amazon" by Don Starkel about him and his son canoeing from Canada to the Mississippi, down the gulf up a canal and down the Amazon a 12,000 mile trip, great book. "Liquid Locomotive" is my favorite river book yet.


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## CWorthy (Jun 22, 2005)

I just finished "Hell's Half Mile: River Runner's Tale of Hilarity and Misadventure" by Michael Engelhard. It's got some great stories in it. I also agree that Cadillac Desert, Sunk Without a Sound, The Doing of the Thing and There's This River are River Classics as well. 

I also have an old dog-eared copy of "No Shit, there I was" volume 4 with a couple of great river stories in it - I take them on every river trip. There's a story about a guy who takes his family on a Dolores trip that is priceless, so, if you ever come upon a copy, I heartily recommend you grab it :lol:


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## TakemetotheRiver (Oct 4, 2007)

CWorthy said:


> I just finished "Hell's Half Mile: River Runner's Tale of Hilarity and Misadventure" by Michael Engelhard. It's got some great stories in it. I also agree that Cadillac Desert, Sunk Without a Sound, The Doing of the Thing and There's This River are River Classics as well.
> 
> I also have an old dog-eared copy of "No Shit, there I was" volume 4 with a couple of great river stories in it - I take them on every river trip. There's a story about a guy who takes his family on a Dolores trip that is priceless, so, if you ever come upon a copy, I heartily recommend you grab it :lol:


Another vote for _There's This River_ and _Hell's Half Mile_- short story collections are great because they can be read aloud on a slow afternoon of motoring or sitting around camp.


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