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A View From the Wolf's Eye by Carolyn C. Peterson5 of 10
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Island Folk: The People of Isle Royale by Peter Oikarinen6 of 10
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A Diver's Guide: Shipwrecks along Lake Superior's North Shore by Stephen B. Daniel7 of 10
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Edge of Forever: Images of Lake Superior by Peter Scott Eide8 of 10
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The Gunflint Cabin: A Northwoods Memoir by John Henricksson9 of 10
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Island Life: An Isle Royale Nature Guide By Ted Gostomski and Janet Marr10 of 10
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Invincible: History of the Duluth Boat Club By Michael J. CochranA View From the Wolf’s Eye
First, a confession. Candy Peterson once saved my life while I was visiting Isle Royale by lending me wool blankets to supplement my nearly useless sleeping bag that, no doubt in my mind, would have left me a lifeless popsicle by the end of my weeklong stay. So even if she wrote a mediocre book, it would be getting my endorsement.
Luckily for my integrity and for any readers who pick up this memoir, Candy did not write a mediocre book. She delivers in this book what any memoir worth reading should have: a sense of time and place and people that transcends into lessons for living today or any day.
This is mainly the family story of Candy and her husband, Rolf Peterson, who was the lead researcher of the wolf-moose study on Isle Royale for most of its 50-year duration. It’s also a love story between a couple, a family (they have two sons) and an island on Lake Superior. But this is Love with a capital “L,” the kind that includes a passion for life and for understanding as well as affection between two people.
Woven into the direct story of how her life unfolded after meeting and marrying Rolf, Candy gently but with certainty - the manner she uses for most everything - expresses her philosophy developed by experience and by proximity to nature. Her ambitions to see and transform the world are molded by the realization of how intimate interaction with one location - in this case Isle Royale - grows understandings as universal as could be found in global travels.
Here is a story worth reading by anyone, but those who care about Lake Superior and those especially who care about Isle Royale will enjoy meeting this latest generation of human inhabitants on an island that has long included people as part of its “ecosystem.”
- Konnie LeMay
Island Folk: The People of Isle Royale
The second book brought out this year about Isle Royale and its people is actually an update of a book first published in 1979. This edition has some revisions and expansion.
Peter met, and here introduces to the reader, nearly 20 people who populated the fishing community that was the heart of Isle Royale before it became a national park. These good folk, some now passed on, consider it their island - not necessarily the nation’s island - by virtue of their dependence upon it for a livelihood and for a way of life.
The family names are familiar to anyone who knows the history of the island: Sivertson, Edisen, Merritt, Johnson, to recite a few.
For many of these interviews, Peter sits down for a cup of coffee and conversation. The book includes you there at the table. Reading these stories old and new gives a sense of a lifestyle now gone, but attests to how strong are the ties to place when the place is a magical island on a mystical inland sea.
– Konnie LeMay
A Diver’s Guide: Shipwrecks along Lake Superior’s North Shore
Steve Daniel, current president of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, is one of a handful of divers who offers true been-there-dived-that information about shipwrecks along the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior. He also has led the push for how to approach diving from an ethical standpoint that preserves these underwater historic sites.
There is no doubt that Steve’s book is a valuable resource for divers; his descriptions, photography (including some side-scan sonar images) and special site diagrams deftly deliver that information.
This book, however, can also be appreciated by those who never dive but have an appreciation or fascination for wrecks or maritime history.
Shipwrecks divers can find are not the only thing that readers can find in Steve’s thorough work. There are descriptions of wrecks raised and removed after their initial demise and there are portions dealing with underwater or partially submerged landmarks, both natural and manmade.
This is a valuable reference choice for anyone interested in the details of wrecks and points of underwater intrigue along the Minnesota shore of the Big Lake.
– Konnie LeMay
Edge of Forever: Images of Lake Superior
The world looks entirely different in black and white. In Peter Scott Eide’s [Edge of Forever: Images of Lake Superior,] mysterious shades of gray and stunning textures have replaced the deep blues and rich seasonal colors of the Big Lake.
Many of the images evoke a dreamlike quality. “Through the Trees” could almost be a painting. A personal favorite is of a rocky shoreline in Ontario that appears to be sprinkled with powdered sugar.
The emotion in these stark photographs sometimes seems dark, at times foreboding. The fuzzy image of ice titled “Winter’s Composition” is eerie; in “Mystic Moon,” it’s easy to imagine something popping up out of the water. Other times, the elimination of color helps to focus on textures and light perhaps overlooked with the colors in place.
Peter is also adept at writing about the lake: “When I am on the shores of Lake Superior I’m at peace, and there is a clarity that surrounds me. I am able to distance my thoughts from the distractions of daily life and enter a world where calm and creativity awaken my spirit and lift my imagination.”
– Bob Berg
The Gunflint Cabin: A Northwoods Memoir
The problem with John Henricksson’s The Gunflint Cabin: A Northwoods Memoir is that when you’re reading it, you want to buy a cabin if you don’t have one, you want to visit your cabin if you do or you’re just going to be missing your cabin if you, sadly, used to have one and do not anymore.
John’s homespun style matches the topic of Gunflint cabin life as he describes it. He walks you through the basics of owning a north woods cabin and the practical realities of such ownership on the Gunflint Trail. Liberally and flavorfully sprinkled among the details are anecdotes of people from the Gunflint both past and present. He serves up an old-fashioned recipe for cabin living that weaves good neighbors, quirky events and interaction with the animal residents.
This is the final entry of John’s Gunflint trilogy that was preceded by [A Wild Neighborhood and Gunflint.] It’s a great way to spend a cold winter’s afternoon stuck inside the “everyday” house but with your head happily enjoying a trip Up North.
– Konnie LeMay
Island Life: An Isle Royale Nature Guide
For those learning how to nature watch, a place like Isle Royale is a magical starting point. Diverse, in a manageable scope, you can actually identify and recognize flora and fauna … given the right guidance.
This book is the right guide and nicely covers the full range of natural residents (and visitors), identifying both critters and plants in one volume slender enough to carry but substantial enough to be worth the investment.
Besides mixing flora and fauna, the book also mixes photographic and drawn images. While the drawings probably are the best way to identify trees, ferns and fishes, my one complaint would be that I’d like to see photos even if drawings were included.
The handy tabular guide on the back of the book makes it easy to find the mammal, bird, reptile/amphibian, aquatic animal, insect, tree/shrub, wildflower, fern and mushroom/lichen/liverwort/moss sections. If you’ve got this guide with you on the trail, and I’d recommend that you do, the tabs make a great quick page-turning tool.
Although this is a guide to Isle Royale, it certainly covers much of what you will see on the mainland around the lake, too. The short opening descriptions of the three main “natural communities” on the island also helps to understand the eco-systems.
– Konnie LeMay
Invincible: History of the Duluth Boat Club
Plenty of photos and a solid presentation makes Invincible an informative look at Duluth’s and the country’s history in an era perhaps more gentile and definitely more community-oriented. Entertainment during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, after all, meant gathering to watch events live and in person … about the only way available.
The intrigue part of this history of the Duluth Boat Club is not so much the club itself, but that “invincible” period when our own little Lake Superior city was making a splash nationally thanks to the strong skill of its rowing crews. Just how well known were they? The Duluth Boat Club Eight Oared Crew made it on a national Shredded Wheat ad … that’s how well known.
Four young men in particular - Phil Moore, Max Rheinberger, Doug Moore and Dave Horak - earned the title of “Invincible Four,” winning 22 races during four years of national and international competition to retire undefeated. The success did not come without a cost, mainly linked to extreme discipline of the crew and the stern tutelage of Coach James Ten Eyck, who came to Duluth after coaching sculling crews from the University of Syracuse.
The Boat Club was a major source of city pride as well as a spectacular gathering spot for residents.
In telling the story of the Boat Club, Michael Cochran does a bit of straight-forward history writing and intermingles excerpts (often humorous) from newspaper accounts of the day or other written materials of the time. Short pieces also focus on individuals, adding people to the tale of the club.
The book ends with the more modern incarnation of the club and the latest activities drawing people once again to gather in groups at the lake. Future plans to rebuild the Boat Club in the manner of the spectacular original building and the blossoming interest in sailing, rowing and other waterfront activites makes one hopeful that this will not be the complete volume on the history of the Duluth Boat Club but that more remains in the future.
– Konnie LeMay
