| | | List of Illustrations | | |
| | | Preface | | |
| | | Introduction | | 1 |
| 1 | | The First Half-Billion Years | | 25 |
| 2 | | Finding the Water: Boom and Bust, 1870-1940 | | 54 |
| 3 | | From Dryland to Dust Bowl: Not a Good Place to Farm | | 92 |
| 4 | | From Windmills to Gigot, Center Pivots, and IBP | | 122 |
| 5 | | A Tale of Three Water-Conservation Districts | | 161 |
| 6 | | Making Irrigation Work in a Risky World | | 197 |
| 7 | | The Future of Plains Irrigation: Searching for Sustainability | | 223 |
| 8 | | The Move toward a Drier World: The Summer of 1988 | | 267 |
| 9 | | A One-Time Experiment | | 286 |
| | | Appendix: Puzzling Out the Plains | | 313 |
| | | Notes | | 337 |
| | | Index | | 401 |