[1] It is a "semi-historical" account of a canoe trip made by the author during the fall of 1957 down a stretch of the Brazos River in North Central Texas, between Possum Kingdom Dam and Lake Whitney.

The book presents both the author's account of the trip itself and numerous stories about the history and settlement of the area around the river and of North Central Texas.

Only three of the dams were built on the river, but at one time up to thirteen were proposed at various locations along its course to the Gulf of Mexico.

The success of Goodbye to a River is often cited as a major reason that the proposed dams were never built.

[citation needed] The book is acclaimed as a work of both conservationism and history and has been compared to Walden by Henry David Thoreau.