In preparation for the 20th anniversary of this publication, I perused the earliest issues, looking for an explanation: How could a small family magazine survive 20 years?

Yes, it was quite some time ago that photographer Tom Jesperson and entrepreneur Patricia Campbell got this dream into print, initially as Lake Superior Port Cities magazine in 1979. Sharing Joe Huie, then Duluth’s prime minister of fine Chinese food, with the original subscribers was just one of the initial attractions.

As issues followed, Duluth’s Glensheen estate, the then infant Railroad Museum and Bayfield, Wisconsin’s Old Rittenhouse Inn drew broadening support. Still a quarterly, reader mail asked for more and broader tales from the whole lake. In fact, it always was a magazine about Lake Superior.

A timely story about Sigurd Olson made a powerful case for the good care that Lake Superior deserves and an Isle Royale story, the first of many, confirmed the need for such values. Caring for the family’s nutrition was one of chef Bea Ojakangas’ early messages. Her beauty and skills have graced many pages over the years.

Jim Marshall’s Skipper Sam II is often seen plying the waters of Lake Superior as he gathers material for his columns and books. Here, it comes through the Duluth Ship Canal.

Those early issues are indeed a treasure house of things now passed - please take time to look them over on a rainy afternoon. But you should know more about the wonderful people who helped make Lake Superior a destination for folks from around the world.

I wrote for and then invested in the magazine in 1981, when I got to know Pat, Tom and the staff after they moved into the office next to mine. Bill Meierhoff contributed furniture and a reasonable rent. We’ve been in the Meierhoff building (Waterfront Plaza) ever since.

In 1983, under the skilled guidance of editor Barbara Landfield, art director Roberta Baker added color and a broadening lakewide coverage.

This led to 1985, when associate publisher Cindy and editor Paul Hayden were married in a lovely December ceremony at Duluth’s Glensheen Mansion to make the magazine a real family venture.

The economic challenges of a quarterly magazine were substantial and it really became a “make or break” period of time. Lars Fladmark of then Harcourt Brace Jovanovich advised that we should fold it. Wise counsel from the likes of Donn Larson and Howard Klatzky suggested that we increase the frequency and Donn thought the name could be improved.

So, we changed from four issues to six per year, as we are today. In 1986, the name was shortened to Lake Superior Magazine, surprising us with the added interest. Newsstand and subscriber development followed.

Behind the scenes, we had added a graphic arts business called Lake Superior Typesetters, so we could afford state-of-the-art equipment. The juggling between our own work and outside client work challenged us all.

There are so many people who have helped along the way - Michigan’s Dixie Franklin, Duluth’s Mary Morse, Wisconsin’s Claire Duquette, Ely’s Jim Brandenburg, former employees Donna Creps, Judy Spooner, Judy Ann Johnson Barber, Shelby Sher, Sandy Smith and Cindy Kalash Peterson, to name just a few. How can I begin to name them all? 

In 1987, we were invited to join and did affiliate with the International Regional Magazine Association, which has enabled us to survive in business because we help ourselves to the very best wisdom of the staffs of magazines like Arizona Highways, Down East and Wisconsin Trails.

For our 10th anniversary, founder Tom Jesperson again graced the pages of the magazine with several of his views and thoughts - “the lake will remain and the stories continue.”

A major decision capped the 10th year celebration, as the Lake Superior Magazine team decided that the Lake Superior Travel Guide, which premiered in 1988, would become a carefully updated annual “bible” of exploring Lake Superior.

Jim Marshall is noted for his wealth of information on Lake Superior and the people of the lake, which is reflected in his magazine columns.

It had been quite a project, since publishing is complicated to begin with and adding an additional major product is no small challenge. I want to name so many more names, but by now I know I won’t have the space to do justice to all. 

We decided to expand the company by diversifying into book publishing and people like Fred Wolff, Fred Stonehouse, Bonnie Dahl, Dan Lenihan, Dan Fountain and Howard Sivertson submitted successful manuscripts to publish. We’ve sold more than 30,000 copies of our first shipwreck book. Most others have more than 10,000 in print, a respectable number for a small family publishing company.

We have a philosophy of striving for the “win-win” and have always named as many names as we can, but I’m realizing there are literally hundreds of people who have contributed to our success. Key support came from major Duluth institutions. Duluth’s “Port Beams” by Davis Helberg rates near the top of our readership surveys. Customers like Davis of the Seaway Port Authority of Duluth and Dale App of USS Great Lakes Fleet, Sister Kathleen of St. Mary’s Medical Center and Robert McGreevy with Glass Block gave us the advertising commitments we needed to expand and grow.

Seven annual issues, nine book titles and a wall calendar have contributed to regionalizing Lake Superior, and our eight “outside” phone lines sometimes are inadequate. Shipping publications about Lake Superior to retailers around North America as well as responding to orders from that continent and more than 20 foreign countries did indeed expand our mail room’s skilled team.

Weekly “victory” meetings on Monday mornings have long been one of Cindy and Paul’s top priorities, with a subtle guideline: all present are asked to describe what is their most successful or the most positive activity of the preceding week, setting the team off to a positive start. Despite the occasional challenge of “some weeks are just like that,” it is fun watching this group share good thoughts with one another.

Publishing attracts some very talented and fine people. We have been blessed with the skilled and the learned and, in time, have concluded that some of the best linger for a while and then move on. The really gifted join with the really serious in wanting to excel and yet learn even more, finally responding to other challenges and other opportunities. We’ve learned to enjoy and support the talented folks who have joined in our publishing effort, and to wish them well if they elect to move on.

As the Travel Guide grew in popularity, the telephone calls ranged from specific questions to “where do I get a map?” It was almost an insult to have to answer, “Grab a map at a gas station when you get into that area.”

We had long realized it took separate maps from Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario and Minnesota to find one’s way around the lake. And, if you wanted to hike, camp or boat, several additional folders of mapped information were necessary. This led to a fortunate alliance with skilled cartographer Matt Kania, a Twin Cities artist. When I say fortunate, I’m really saying that we got the map we needed (and he probably is enjoying his new automobile).

Hard to imagine today, but less than 20 years ago, few in Duluth could clearly explain how to get to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and even fewer knew the road went on to Sault Ste. Marie. And asking someone in Bayfield, Wisconsin, how to get to Wawa, Ontario, usually generated a blank stare and lack of a response.

We offered the first and only complete Lake Superior map, published in 1993, in a 24-by-36-inch frameable format. Lake depths - down to 1,300-plus feet - are clearly explained and identified. As we worked on a single flat map that would reflect all of Lake Superior country, we developed a second, folded version that was included as a “tear-out” in the 1996 Lake Superior Travel Guide. It has been a huge success since. More than 200,000 leave our offices each year.

The success statistics for magazines are very grim … at times, we wondered if people saw the potential in this region that we see. One silly statistic is our barometer of how people feel about Lake Superior. In 1985, when we named our typesetting business “Lake Superior Typesetters,” 14 businesses in the Duluth phone book were named “Lake Superior” something. In the new 1999 book, there are 65 businesses that begin with Lake Superior. We like to think we’ve been a part of the growing trend to treasure this magnificent lake.

So, here we sit at 20 years! Lake Superior Magazine is still privileged to count on Marge Smith keeping track of the beans (her 13th anniversary is August 1st), while publisher Cindy and editor Paul Hayden are supported by a whole team of exceptional people. Managing editor Konnie LeMay joins senior writer Hugh Bishop - our resident wordsmith - in quality articles matching or surpassing anything we’ve done, while art director Mathew Pawlak uses his many skills to please your discerning eye. Our staff is further enhanced by the enthusiasm of editorial assistants Carol Frink and Beth Travis-Betts; former circulation manager Laurel Davis (who is taking some time off to be with her kids) and her successor Nicole Spoors, whose talents we attracted from the Twin Cities. Christina Shevich, our advertising and marketing assistant, maintains that system and really keeps all of us honest with her skills at solving any problem. Somehow she even keeps Huckleberry Finn, our Office Dog/Greeter, in a good frame of mind.

When a British television crew visited the lake region recently to film a documentary about shipwreck disasters, Lake Superior Magazine and Jim Marshall hosted them aboard Skipper Sam II as they talked in front of Superior, Wisconsin’s Burlington Northern ore docks with Captain Dudley Paquette, the subject of a book the magazine will publish in 2000.

When you call, you’ll probably be greeted by Jane Ebersviller, our customer service manager. We aren’t sure just how she keeps track of all the details, but Jane is awfully good at what she does!

Then, there is the ultimate challenge. The relationship between a publisher and those who support our efforts by purchasing advertising has been described many times. My own career is in sales, but how do I describe Linda Gooder Nervick, our advertising sales director? The finest bridge between what we want to say and the folks who will support our efforts financially, Linda is simply the best.

Despite my obvious pride in our incredible staff and all of the alumni of this magazine, it is the loyalty of you, our readers, that truly sustains us. Your enthusiasm for Lake Superior, your ideas and suggestions, your questions on even the most obscure lake-related topics, your willingness to plunk down good money for our products, and your kind, or occasionally corrective, comments remind us each day that we have not been laboring in vain the last two decades.

We hope we are doing everything we can for you and for Lake Superior. Please tell us if we do not. Thank you. All of us thank you.

A collection of Jim Marshall’s columns has been published as Lake Superior Journal: Views from the Bridge by Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. Follow this link for more information.

Feedback: jrm@lakesuperior.com