Leave Only Footprints
Where Can I Read the Book?
The 2025 UM Common Read is
Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park
by Conor Knighton
1. First-year students received a copy of Leave Only Footprints during summer orientation.
2. UM Libraries provides access to 2 digital copies of Leave Only Footprints that can be read online, one user at a time, or downloaded for up to 3 days on a single device. To access a digital copy of the book, go to libraries.olemiss.edu and search for "Leave Only Footprints" in the OneSearch box. You will have to log in with your Ole Miss WebID and password to access the e-book. The book is accessible through the EBSCOhost platform.
3. Inside the J.D. Williams Library, students may check out a RESERVE copy of the book at the main desk on the 1st floor for 24 hours. On Reserve for EDHE 105/305 are 2 copies of Leave Only Footprints, 2 copies of The A Game, and 1 copy of The Ole Miss Experience under the instructor name: Melissa Dennis. There is 1 print copy of the book in the main stacks.
4. Finally, a copy of all Common Read titles (2011 - present) are available in Archives & Special Collections (but these can only be viewed inside the library).
If anyone needs help with finding books or finding other library materials for the Common Read, please email Melissa Dennis at mdennis@olemiss.edu
On the Trail
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Conor Knighton - On the TrailTo celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service, Conor Knighton spent all of 2016 "On The Trail,” visiting each one of our national parks. Along the way, he produced a series of reports for CBS Sunday Morning. Some of those segments can be found here.
Chapter 1 - Sunrise (Acadia)
Chapter 2 - Water (Hot Springs, Biscayne)
Chapter 3 - Animals (Everglades, Channel Islands, Pinnacles, Death Valley)
Chapter 4 - God (Yosemite, Capitol Reef, Lake Clark)
Chapter 5 - Sound (Great Sand Dunes, Katmai)
Chapter 6 - Trees (Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwood)
Chapter 7 - Mystery (Crater Lake, Congaree)
Chapter 8 - Borders (Big Bend, American Samoa)
Chapter 9 - Volcanoes (Lassen Volcanic, Hawaii Volcanoes, Haleakala)
Chapter 10 - Ice (Glacier Bay, Glacier, Kenai Fjords, Wrangell-St. Elias)
Chapter 11 - People (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion)
Chapter 12 - Home (Mesa Verde, Great Smoky Mountains)
Chapter 13 - Canyons (Grand Canyon, Black Canyon of the Gunnison)
Chapter 14 - Forgiveness (Dry Tortugas, Petrified Forest)
Chapter 15 - Caves (Wind Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave)
Chapter 16 - Light (Great Basin, Saguaro)
Chapter 17 - Travelers (Theodore Roosevelt, Voyageurs, Denali)
Chapter 18 - Love (Canyonlands, North Cascades)
Chapter 19 - Food (Gates of the Arctic, Kobuk Valley, Cuyahoga Valley)
Chapter 20 - Mountains (Guadalupe Mountains, Rocky Mountains)
Chapter 21 - Diversity (Mount Rainier, Shenandoah)
Chapter 22 - Disconnecting (Isle Royal, Olympic, Virgin Islands)
Chapter 23 - Sunset (Grand Teton, Yellowstone)
Excerpts
"One week, I was marveling at lava in Hawaii; the next, I was in awe of a glacier in Alaska. Our country's natural beauty is as diverse as the people who live in it. Setting aside these places for the enjoyment of all was, and is, a uniquely American idea, and I've never felt prouder to be an American."
"Much has been made about how divided we are as a country. But you don't really feel that in the National Parks. They're places where red and blue can come together, sometimes in the same vista. Naturalist John Muir once wrote, 'Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.' You may need that now more than ever. Fortunately, there's no shortage of cathedrals. I encourage you to go out and see one for yourself this year."
Excerpts from:
Whitaker, B., & Knighton, C. (2017). Conor Knighton is winding up his year-long journey through our national parks. New York: VIQ Solutions Inc. Retrieved from http://umiss.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/other-sources/conor-knighton-is-winding-up-his-year-long/docview/1855020170/se-2