John Beargrease: Legend of Minnesota’s North Shore
The best telling of history is through the stories of people
and Daniel Lancaster masterfully weaves the life of John Beargrease
through the history of other people arriving to or already living on
the Minnesota shores of Lake Superior in the late 1800s.
|
John Beargrease and daughter, Mary Ann, in a photo from around 1897. Courtesy Cook County Historical Society
|
This book convincingly depicts the tough but colorful lives of our
community groundbreakers and the challenges faced in a Lake Superior
wilderness. It also is one of the few books I’ve read that explains the
close neighborly interactions of early European settlers and the
Ojibway population living here. Daniel’s research - including
conversations with Beargrease family descendants - gives bones to this
story while his writing fleshes out the history with vivid images of
the times. Actual images of the times, some never published before, can
be found here.
Besides the adventures of John Beargrease (both father and son),
the book describes the exploits of other early northern mail carriers
and while those pony express riders get all the press, their story has
nothing on our local heroes.
This is not just a book for those interested in our region’s
history; it’s simply a good story of an intriguing man, his family and
era on the shore.
- Konnie LeMay
A Hard-Water World: Ice Fishing and Why We Do It
If you’re not a Northlander, ice fishing is easy to ridicule,
difficult to fathom. It’s crazy, right? Sitting around a hole in the
ice inside a shack, or sitting outside in bitter cold, waiting for a
nibble.
Turns out, there’s more to this ritual. Greg Breining’s charming
essays and Layne Kennedy’s captivating images easily make the lure of
ice fishing a lot less mysterious.
It’s a social activity. When not tending their lines, anglers
may be tossing a football, playing hockey or gathering around a
football game on TV (an indication of the creature comforts in ice
houses). For others, it’s a retreat from the stress of family, jobs and
the problems of the world.
Layne’s portraits allow you to meet some of the folks - from
Minnesota and Wisconsin to Greenland and Russia - who share in the joy
of ice fishing. A frozen lake is like another world, and his stunning
work reveals great beauty and often softens the harshness of the
landscape.
I love Greg’s skillful mix of facts, lighthearted perspective
and description: “On our own little lake, after a couple weeks of cold
thickens the ice, fish houses erupt like pimples on the pure skin of a
young face.” Combine his delightful writing with Layne’s masterful
visual record and you have an essential volume about ice fishing. It
may even get you out on the ice. Really.
– Bob Berg
|
Free Membership
