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We speak to folks who live and work around our lake to hear their stories and their sentiments about this water that defines us. |
How long have you lived by Lake Superior? |
Is there anything that you’d like to add?
People who love the lake should consider joining the U.S. Coast Guard Auxillary, America’s volunteer lifesavers!
Tim Cochrane
Superintendent of Grand Portage National Monument and author, Grand Portage
How long have you lived by Lake Superior? 19 years, although I have moved away and returned a few times.
Is there a reason that you choose to live here rather than elsewhere?
The Big Lake is still wild and a dominant force. The landforms in the lake basin are stunning and diverse. The headlands of the north shore, the “mesas” of Thunder Bay, or the ochre colored sands of Siskiwit Bay, Isle Royale are wonderfully different. It is still a place where your imagination can still inhabit. It is not hard to envision the scene of the Montreal canoes - the big ones - rounding Hat Point at Grand Portage like they did 230 years ago as the scene is largely the same today.
How did your occupation depend on the Lake?
I am in the tourism-recreation-education business, that is, I work for the National Park Service. Knowing Lake Superior history and heritage is what I do and I enjoy doing. And my real joy is discovering new stories, or forgotten stories, about the people who have lived along the shores of the lake and adjusted to its limits and gifts.
Can you remember an experience that defines your interaction with the Lake and why you feel as you do about it (something particularly inspiring, breathtaking or even a wee bit scary)?
For me, it is a suite of experiences that continues to draw me to Lake Superior. I easily remember the feeling of floating - not on water, but in air - while in a kayak more than 30 years ago. I could see the bottom clearly, it was dead calm and the water was so clear it was like it wasn’t there. But it is also befriending “people of the lake” like Ingeborg Holte and Stan Sivertson whose lives were profoundly circumscribed by Lake Superior. Or maybe planking fish (sometimes Isle Royale sushi) with Buddy Sivertson has infected me with lake fever.
How would you answer this simple question: Why do you Love Lake Superior?
In part because it defies easy characterization and quick claims of knowing it. It can be threatening, it can be tranquil. It can be subtle and its winds can penetrate any clothing. It can have shorefast ice one moment and it is gone the next. It can produce mind bending mirages in the early summer and then the steely gray colors of fall. It has given me remarkable friends, role models (like Jack Linklater - an Isle Royale Ojibwe), and a brilliant wife.
Linda Zenk
Owner of Lake Superior Trading Post, Grand Marais
How long have you lived by Lake Superior?I have lived by Lake Superior for 44 years.
Is there a reason that you choose to live here rather than elsewhere?
My husband grew up here and wanted to return to Grand Marais to go into business after college.
How did your occupation depend on the Lake?
Being in business on the lake has been a totally different experience than being without the lake. Many people come here to just enjoy the lake.
Can you remember an experience that defines your interaction with the Lake and why you feel as you do about it (something particularly inspiring, breathtaking or even a wee bit scary)?
It was a major change for me to live on this huge lake since I grew up in North Dakota looking at fields of grains. The first time I went sailing on Lake Superior I realized how vast and powerful it is. I respect it.
How would you answer this simple question: Why do you Love Lake Superior?
I love Lake Superior for many reasons: it is so clean and pure, changes almost daily, one can enjoy the Lake simply by looking at it, or sailing, boating, or kayaking on it. It provides a means of shipping and fishing for commercial uses. It is beautiful and makes me feel serene.
Is there anything that you’d like to add?
Lake Superior seems to draw people who treasure the Lake, and almost everyone seems to want to preserve its beauty and want to keep it clean and pure.
Ryan Beamer
Supervisor of the Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth
How long have you lived by Lake Superior?
Grew up in Moose Lake, spent nine years in the Navy, moved to Duluth in 1998. So, with the exception of nine years, all my life.
Is there a reason that you choose to live here rather than elsewhere?
They don’t have an Aerial Bridge in Arizona. Actually because my and my wife’s parents live in the area, and we don’t want to take their grandchildren away, but that isn’t as cool as the first answer.
How did your occupation depend on the Lake?
I run the bridge! No lake and I’m obsolete! I have great job security, unless they start pumping Lake Superior to Arizona. Then I could move there!
Can you remember an experience that defines your interaction with the Lake and why you feel as you do about it (something particularly inspiring, breathtaking or even a wee bit scary)?
No. The lake has always been part of my life. Probably not unlike most people that have spent their lives around Lake Superior. As a child I was proud to live next to the largest body of fresh water in the world (by surface area, of course. I’m not Russian, after all). It’s just always how I have identified myself. “I’m from Minnesota, at the tip of Lake superior.” That is how I would tell people in the Navy where I was from.
How would you answer this simple question: Why do you Love Lake Superior?
Because she will kill you! Obviously you can drown in any lake, but VERY few will get angry to the point of indiscriminate murder! She is like a woman scorned. Calm one minute, and the next you are fighting for your life. Literally. She deserves the utmost respect, and if you don’t respect her, you’re dead. I guess that’s a strange reason to love something, but I suppose it’s the danger in her that sets her apart. Don’t let the calm waters fool you. There is a temper right below the surface …
Is there anything that you’d like to add?
I’m glad she is as cold as she is. It keeps the riff-raff away.
Fred Cummings
Retired marine superintendent for Great Lakes Fleet, Duluth
How long have you lived by Lake Superior?I lived on Lake Superior for over 40 years. I worked on the ships for over 20 years.
His “lake effect” story
You could say Lake Superior has been my “home” for the better part of my life. I have seen beauty and sorrow. The beauty are the northern lights in middle January near Isle Royale or the super sunsets when you're at Whitefish point heading for Duluth, much more beautiful than Key West, Florida. And the sorrow the night Lake Superior took the “Fitz” along with all the souls over the years. I love seeing the lake and I miss seeing the lake even though I now live on a lake north of Duluth. There is no other sight for me driving down Highway 53 to Mesabe Avenue and seeing good old Lake Superior.
Dr. Robert Powless
Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies at the
University of Minnesota Duluth who has also taught at the College of
St. Scholastica, Duluth
How long have you lived by Lake Superior?For approximately 20 years.
Is there a reason that you choose to live here rather than elsewhere?
When I retired in 2000, my wife, Linda, and I talked about whether we wanted to move to Florida. We decided to stay for several reasons - one being the beauty of the area including the Lake.
How did your occupation depend on the Lake?
I assumed that many students would be attracted to CSS and UMD because of the Lake.
Can you remember an experience that defines your interaction with the Lake and why you feel as you do about it (something particularly inspiring, breathtaking or even a wee bit scary)?
We periodically go down to Brighton Beach and feed bread to the sea gulls. Our two grandchildren (“the boys”) help us. Many times with the waves and the birds I feel in a “world alone” on the shore.
How would you answer this simple question: Why do you Love Lake Superior?
The constant changing in the “look” of the lake; the width and length of it - takes me back to a time when American Indians were the “guardians of the Lake.”
Scott Gischia
Manager of Environmental Services at Northshore Mining Company, Two Harbors
How long have you lived by Lake Superior?All my life - I grew up near Marquette, Michigan, and have lived in Two Harbors, Minnesota, for the past nine years.
Is there a reason that you choose to live here rather than elsewhere?
I moved to Minnesota for a job and ended up staying. Now I see it as a wonderful place to live and raise a family. Because of the lake, the summers are moderate, spring and fall are wonderful and the winters are not too terrible, but still harsh enough to keep the population from getting too big.
How did your occupation depend on the Lake?
Northshore Mining depends on Lake Superior water for non-contact cooling water for its Power Plant, which absorbs some heat from the plant and is returned to the lake. Taconite pellets are shipped from Northshore solely via lake carriers.
More specifically for my career, the issues that revolved around the former owners of the Silver Bay facility in relation to Lake Superior really resulted in establishment of a well-staffed, professional Environmental Services department at Northshore Mining.
Can you remember an experience that defines your interaction with the Lake and why you feel as you do about it (something particularly inspiring, breathtaking or even a wee bit scary)?
I love swimming in Lake Superior and make a point of doing it as often as I can during the summer. On the days when the wind is just right, you really can spend hours in that crystal clear water. Even on the days when the water is more toward the ‘breathtaking’ side, it’s completely invigorating to jump into the lake and be instantly and totally stripped of the August heat.
How would you answer this simple question: Why do you Love Lake Superior?
With my family still back in Michigan, I get a sense of connection back home when I look out over the water in Two Harbors or Silver Bay. It’s somewhat awe-inspiring to think of a lake as large as Superior, yet consider that the same water hitting this shore is also hitting close to home.
Is there anything that you’d like to add?
I love that this lake is so big that you can measure it’s volume in cubic MILES of water. I think the lake volume is something around 3 quadrillion gallons (3 + 15 zeros). That works out to something around 2,700 cubic miles of water. Unfathomable …
Adolph Ojard
Executive Director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, Duluth
How long have you lived by Lake Superior?Absent 12 years where I held positions in Pennsylvania and Alabama I have lived by Lake Superior my entire life.
Is there a reason that you choose to live here rather than elsewhere?
I was born here, my grandparents on both sides of my family immigrated from Norway at the turn of the century and located in Knife River where the family worked as commercial fishermen on Lake Superior. Fishing was a way of life in Knife River. My grandfather on my mother’s side ventured out in late November to lift gill nets and got caught in a November gale. His newly built gas powered 28 ft open boat swamped by the heavy seas and he along with three helpers drowned with two other fishermen in 1928. Our family also has strong roots as merchant mariners having sailed on both the Great Lakes and the oceans. The bottom line is I have strong ties to Lake Superior. Growing up in Knife River I spent my youth in an almost idealic setting and similar to a bare foot Tom Saywer, I spent my summer days; swimming, fishing, exploring and building rafts on the north shore of Lake Superior.
How did your occupation depend on the Lake?
While going to college I worked on the Duluth ore docks loading ore boats. Following graduation I reviewed my options and rather than continue my post graduate education I saw an opportunity and decided to stay with the Duluth Mesabe & Iron Range Railway, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. This resulted in a 31-year career with U.S. Steel with my last years serving as general manager of the DM&IR and USS Great Lakes Fleet. Changing careers ever so slightly, I was appointed executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority so one could say that the lake “is” my career.
Can you remember an experience that defines your interaction with the Lake and why you feel as you do about it (something particularly inspiring, breathtaking or even a wee bit scary)?
When I was 12 years old I had an opportunity to work with my grandfather during the summer and help him with his commercial fishing business that he was doing in retirement. Three days a week we would leave the Knife River harbor at 6 a.m. in a 20-foot, open boat and motor several miles to our gill nets , set in 300 to 400 feet of water. We would haul the nets aboard, pick our fish and reset the nets in water only to repeat the process two days later. This was not only an opportunity to spend time with my grandfather but an opportunity to connect with a way of life that had grown up with. The early morning summer days on Lake Superior were extremely calming. As we laid at our nets in calm seas with the morning sun burning through the morning mist you could almost call the experience spiritual.
How would you answer this simple question: Why do you Love Lake Superior?
It is my heritage.
Now you’ve read how others feel about Lake Superior, we invite you to look at the next section (just hit Next) then give us your own feelings via our Reader Survey. We’ll post the replies of those who respond.
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