Remember the joy of gift-giving, and a no cost way of giving to our non-profit organizations whose efforts are aimed at preserving and giving all year long.

All profits from your purchases are used for the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Strong City, Kansas.

Listed below is a sample of our bestsellers. At PERC we handle an extensive line of books and gifts for your gift giving. 

The National Parks Pass costs $50 and is valid for you and your immediate family or vehicle passengers for one year from the month of purchase.

Experience Your America!

Order Your Park Pass Today!

A great way to help remember America's parks year-long! 
A great gift idea for the holidays!

Price: $4.95 each - Order Online

Your purchase of this calendar benefits the National Park Trust in its preservation efforts of our National System of Parks.

"Why were the parks created in the first place?" Was it the call of one person or the upwelling of the spirit of a nation?

So it is that this work is placed before the reader, to address the critical question of "Why our parks?"
         - Preface by Paul C. Pritchard

Price:$35.00
Order today - at special 10% discount

"And now we have a guide that can change as the park changes. Unlike existing guidebook that are out of date by the time they are printed, this book is what we have needed. A book that reflects the nature of the parks, places of change, classrooms to learning, gardens to be absorbed without taking."
        - Forward by Paul C. Pritchard
Retail Price: $24.95
Order today - at special 20% discount

Dandelions
Written by Eve Bunting.
Illustrated by Greg Shed.

When Zoe and her family arrive at their claim, nothing distinguishes it from the miles and miles of surrounding prairie.  Even after they build their soddie, the home can’t be seen from any distance.  Zoe has never seen Papa so happy or Mama so sad.  But when she takes a trip to the small prairie town with Papa, Zoe sees something that might make a difference to their new soddie, and to Mama’s life, too.

Price: $16.00

Insectlopedia
Poems and Paintings
by: Douglas Florian

The windows are open and the bugs are everywhere in Douglas Florian's spirited swarm of twenty-one spider and insect poems.  From swooping dragonflies and twirling whirligig beetles to marching army ants and feeding mosquitoes, here is one pest infestation you'll welcome into your home!

Price: $16.00

Blue Horizon: Story of a Tallgrass Prairie
By: Evelyn Lee  

Soundprints, in association with The Nature Conservancy, invites you to discover our world and its habitats.  Just as The Nature Conservancy works to preserve plants, animals, and natural communities, Soundprints is dedicated to teaching the children about them.  Inside this book is an exciting habitat to explore, and a whole new way of looking at it – through the eyes of one of the animals that lives there.

Available with read-along audiotape and stuffed animal toy

Price: $4.95

Cowboy Charlie:  The Story of Charles M. Russell
by Jeanette Winter

Winner of the 1995 Parent's Choice Award

Charles M. Russell was a boy with a dream.  But not just any dream.  Charlie's dream was to go west, to be a cowboy.  Sure enough, pretty soon Charlie was on a train headed to Montana - the land of open sky.  And the moment that Charlie first saw the frontier, his heart opened as big as the sky above.  At last, Charlie was home.

Price: $15.00

SORRY, THIS ITEM IS CURRENTLY
OUT OF PRINT

Trail Boss's Cowboy Cookbook
by Ron Kovach

Trail Boss's Cowboy Cookbook includes 458 recipes from 24 states and 8 countries. Not just a meat-and-potatoes cookbook, this collection of authentic rangeland dishes and the historical notes behind them will surprise and satisfy everyone from seasoned gourmets to casual cooks. With recipes for foods in 31 categories, including hors d'oeuvres, sauces and condiments, casseroles, game, Mexican dishes, breads, cakes and pies, and, of course, meat and poultry, Trail Boss's Cowboy Cookbook brings the best of cowboy cooking to your own kitchen.

Price: $16.95

Cowboy Culture
By: David Dary

Winner of several western writers awards.  Praised by several major publications including the New York Times and Time Magazine.  Dary covers five centuries of life in the old west.  Cowboy Culture brings together original research and skilled writing to tell us about the life of the pioneer cattlemen.

 “This book gives us a better understanding of that part of our past that we have always worshipped.  More than that, it gives us an idea of what we have lost” – Chicago Sun-Times

Price: $15.95

Fences, Gates & Bridges
By George A Martin

Fences, Gates & Bridges covers everything needed to know about fences and fencing, gates and even bridges.  All are discussed, from the simple to the complex or decorative. 

Price: $12.95

A Guide to America's Indians
by Arnold Marquis

This book provides in a useful format the basic information about American Indian practices that every tourist and armchair traveler needs and wants.  Lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps to aid the traveler as he visits Indian country, the book covers many of the different tribes in the lower forty-eight states.  It helps the reader interpret ceremonials and dances, art and craftwork, reservations and campgrounds.  Special sections cover museums, organizations and publications all devoted to America's first citizens.

Price: $19.95

Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them
By Rolfe Cobleigh

Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them, a classic from the Golden Age of American Farming, is as useful and pertinent for homesteaders and small-scale farmers today as it was when it was first published more than seventy-five years ago.  A wealth of labor- and money-saving projects fills its pages.

This book is a rare and engaging combination of nostalgic Americana and helpful instruction, sure to appeal to everyone inclined toward self-sufficiency and the country life.

Price: $12.95

The Homestead Builder, Practical Hints for Handy-men  By C.P. Dwyer

This practical classic, first published in 1872, is filled with handy advice on the best ways to plan and construct dwellings in any location, using wood, earth and gravel.  Included is no-nonsense instruction on how to erect log cabins and houses, slab houses, farm houses and many others; as well as guidance on building an outdoor oven, a cellar, fence  posts, gates, furniture and even on adding a walk in the yard or garden.  Originally written for those fanning out from the eastern cities to homestead, The Homestead Builder is a fascinating historical record and completely useful handbook that is sure to appeal to anyone interested in Americana or inclined toward self sufficiency.

Price: $12.95

This complete guide, originally published in 1859, includes every subject of interest to those who, for pleasure or business, own or use a horse.  In a comprehensive and concise manner. Horses, Mules and Ponies, and How to Keep Them offersa vivid historical portrait of horse-keeping prior to the Amercan Civil War, though much of it is still relevant and useful to today’s breeders and stablemen.

Henry William Herbert was the editor of the American Monthly magazine and the author of such titles as The Roman Republic, The Deer Stalkers and The Complete Manual for Young Sportsman

Price: $12.95

Pen & Ink Drawings of Kansas Barns including the histories
"All of the barns in the book are from my original ink drawings. Most of the barns are accompanied by a short history of the barn as related to me by various interested parties.  The two books have in them at least one barn from each of the 105 counties in Kansas. I have loved old barns ever since I was a little girl and these books and my annual barn calendars help me to preserve an important part of Kansas history." - Martha Knudsen

Price: $14.95

O.J. Reichman is Ecology Program Director at the National Science Foundation.  He has taught at Kansas State University, and is the coauthor of "Museum Backroom," a PBS documentary for which he won an Emmy.

He is author of several books on prairie and desert ecology.  In this book, he brings us back to see, in a real sense, the beauty of the Konza Prairie and grassland ecology in general.  The book reveals to us how and why the tallgrass prairie works as an ecological system.

Price: $13.95

Medicinal Wild Plants contains information on nomenclature, habitat, Indian use, Anglo folk use, use in medical history, some entries for recent scientific research, and cultivation. Kindscher frequently cites Eclectic medical use for the plants. These books are authoritative. Kindscher has thoroughly studied the ethnobotany of each and presented the most useful information. What is most striking to me about these books are Kindscher's frequent comments revealing that he has personally seen and tasted these plants, and sometimes tested the methods he writes about, something rare in the ethnobotanical literatue of North America.

Price: $15.95

Filled with valuable information for hobbyists, survival enthusiasts, family campers, and everyone who enjoys outdoor life, Mountainman Crafts and Skills is the essential illustrated guide to wilderness living and survival. How to make your own clothing, shelter, and equipment are all covered in step-by-step detail-through illustrations by the author himself.   Montgomery, an avid outdoorsman, presents information using a concise, no-nonsense approach.  Also provided are an extensive glossary and an annotated bibliography.

Price: $14.95

Here is a fully illustrated guide to wilderness living and survival. It is an excellent introduction to the study of Native American crafts and outdoor skills. This book not only describes the skills Native Americans have cultivated over hundreds of years, but explains in step-by-step detail-through over two hundred illustrations by the author himself - how to create all kinds of Native American handiwork. 

Price: $14.95 

Lynne Cherry has devoted her life to sharing her concern about environmental issues with others.  What most interested her in the story of the Nashua River is that through the energy of people who were willing to fight for what they believe in, the cleanup of the polluted river was a success.

Price: $16.00

Originally published in 1914, Shelters, Shacks and Shanties presents step-by-step tutelage on all aspects of outdoor accommodation.  D. C. Beard explains how to construct a variety of worry-free shelters appropriate to a natural environment that is by turns both friendly and foreboding. Included are a sod house for the lawn, a treetop house, over-water camps, and an American log cabin. Fully recognizing that the outdoorsman builds a shelter with the intention of inhabiting it, Beard explains how to build hearths and chimneys, notched log ladders, and even how to rig secret locks. Illustrated throughout with instructional line drawings, Shelters, Shacks and Shanties harkens back to the can-do spirit of the American frontier and belongs in the knapsack of every modern scout, young and old alike.

Price: $12.95

The true story of Henry and Rosa Ise and their efforts to both raise twelve children and to earn a living on the plains of 19th Century north-central Kansas has enthralled readers of all ages for over six decades. Little did world-renowned economist John Ise know when he set out to document his parents' tale that "Sod and Stubble" would today be acclaimed by scholars as the greatest of all primary documents ever published of the farmer's frontier on the Great Plains of North America.

Price: $15.95

The story of the Pony Express represents one of the most romantic chapters in the history of the American West. For a brief 19-month period, daring young couriers raced the 1,966 miles between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, relaying mail and telegraph messages in as little as 10 days. The Pony Express riders carried 34,753 pieces of mail across what was the most desolate and dangerous terrain in North America. Today, you can relive the adventure while retracing the route with The Traveler's Guide to the Pony Express Trail.  Use The Traveler's Guide to the Pony Express Trail to plan a thoroughly entertaining and educational trip and to enjoy a historic American adventure.

Price: $12.95