You’ll notice in our annual Lodging/Restaurant
guide that we’ve included the stories of several noted chefs from top restaurants
around the lake. It’s always interesting to talk with people who have “discovered”
Lake Superior in the process of following their careers. The case with
most of the chefs that we talked to is even a bit more compelling to us.
Not all chefs around Lake Superior have origins from outside
the basin, of course. But those who have found employment here after years
of training elsewhere have a couple of common threads to their story. Either
they’ve always wanted to live in the Lake Superior region or they have
discovered it as a result of job hunting. Their final decision to come
here was because the lake region is where they wanted to live, not just
for the job. Why, we asked? There are generally three factors: clean water,
no traffic and no crime. They stress that the region offers a way to get
away from the big cities where crime, stress and other factors have negative
effects on their families.
These may not be the largest reasons for most people who
live in the Lake Superior region, but they were such strong factors for
these people that we think they deserve more consideration. We’re often
accused of a bit of insanity for living in such a sparsely populated and
oftentimes cold part of the continent. We all know that our region offers
outstanding recreational opportunities, spectacular scenery and about as
friendly a welcome as you’ll find anywhere. In the back of our minds we’ve
also known that we’re in a relatively safe, crime-free zone. To say it’s
the direct result of living near such a large body of water would be presumptive,
but the size of Lake Superior certainly does help put life in a perspective
that translates to equality and fairness.
Large companies like DMR Consulting Group of Toronto, who
are expanding to Duluth, Minnesota, have elected to develop new offices
in the region because the people they hire here have a high standard and
ethic for work. If you are friendly to everyone and respect their place
in the scheme of things, it naturally carries into other aspects of life.
That is attractive to almost anyone. And, like a virus, it has a way of
infecting your own attitudes with a positive outlook. We find these same
characteristics on every shore of this lake.
Whatever your reasons are for choosing to live near or visit
Lake Superior, it’s encouraging to think that a body of water may have
such a profound, common influence on us all. That may be its true untapped
resource.
Paul L. Hayden
Editor
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Why
Lake Superior?