Duluth, Minnesota - October 18, 2001

A Duluth, Minnesota, publication recently earned two awards from an international magazine association.

Lake Superior Magazine received gold and silver honors in writing categories from among this year's entries for the International Regional Magazine Association (IRMA) awards. Lake Superior Magazine is the David among Goliaths in this association. The 20,000-circulation publication competes with magazines that range upwards of 400,000 circulation, such as Arizona Highways, Down East, New Mexico, Vermont Life, The Iowan and Canada's Cottage Life and Beautiful British Columbia.

The top Gold for Historical Feature was awarded to the magazine's own Senior Writer, Hugh E. Bishop, for a story titled “Sailing into History: Edmund Fitzgerald” that appeared in the October/November issue of 2000. The story, published during the 25th anniversary month of the fateful wreck, reviewed the four main theories for why the Fitz sank. Bishop also wrote a book on the sinking of the great freighter called The Night the Fitz Went Down, published by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., parent company of Lake Superior Magazine. Most recently, Bishop also authored a history of Lake County, Minnesota, called By Water and Rail and wrote a special section in the August/September issue outlining the history of Split Rock Lighthouse and profiling the new keeper and his family who have lived there for almost two decades.

The IRMA Silver honor for an Essay went to northern Minnesota freelance writer and fighter of wild fires Peter Leschak for his feature "Fire!" published in the June/July 2000 issue. In “Fire!” Leschak gives his account of fighting a wildfire near the boundary waters. The area remains of concern for massive future fires because of a July 1999 blow down of millions of trees that remain within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Leschak recently released a book called Trails by Wildfire (Pfeifer-Hamilton, Duluth).

Publisher Cindy Hayden and Associate Publisher Paul Hayden, along with Art Director Mathew Pawlak and Communications Director Nicki Spoors, were to head to Montana to receive the awards on September 15, but the annual association meeting was cancelled because the terrorist attacks halted air travel around and into the country. Some association members, especially those from Canada, Ireland and the East Coast, were not able to get flights into Montana at that time. The awards were announced later by e-mail.

Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. currently publishes 16 books about the Lake Superior region and also publishes Lake Superior Magazine, a full-color consumer publication printed six times a year in Duluth, Minnesota. The magazine is available by subscription, at newsstands and from the publisher's office at 325 Lake Avenue South, Suite 600, Duluth, Minnesota 55802. For more information, call 888-BIG LAKE (244-5253) or log onto www.lakesuperior.com