Lakes Rock And Prairie

Powerful, funny, moving and personal, Lake of the Prairies is a richly layered exploration of the ubiquitous childhood question: where do I come from? Warren Cariou’s story of origin begins in the boreal Saskatchewan landscape of rock, water and muskeg that is Meadow Lake -- ensconced in the ethos of the north, where there is magic in a story and fiction is worth much more than fact. Grounded in the fertile soil of Meadow Lake are two historical traditions -- Native and settler. Warren Cariou’s maternal grandparents were European immigrants who cleared acres of dense forest and turned it into pasture. This land also held traces of centuries of Cree settlement -- arrowheads, spear points and stone hammers, which Cariou stumbled upon as a boy. Though the tragic story of how these traditions came to share the same home would remain buried from Warren until much later, history’s painful legacy was much in view. In the schoolyard and on the street corners Warren witnessed the discrimination, anger and fear directed at the town’s Cree and Metis populations -- prejudices he absorbed as his own. As an adult, Warren Cariou has been forced to confront the politics of race in Meadow Lake. He learned that a rambunctious Native schoolmate could be involved in a torture and murder that would shock the world. And then Warren discovered family secrets kept hidden for generations, secrets that would alter forever Warren’s sense of identity and belonging in Meadow Lake. In the tradition of Wallace Stegner’s classic Wolf Willow, Lake of the Prairies is an intimate and provocative memoir.

Waterfalls and underground caverns, lady's slippers and dwarf trout lilies, cross-country skiing and fishing adventures--alluring photographs and captivating stories survey these and other delights of Minnesota's popular state parks.

The first single, comprehensive source for locating North American public prairies, grasslands, and savannas, Prairie Directory of North America is a guide unlike any other. First published in 2001, the book uniquely catalogs the continent's most well-known prairie sites by country and state for easy reference. With the addition of over three hundred newly located, preserved, or restored sites, the second edition is the prairie enthusiast's ideal guide to locating countless North American sites-from the well-documented to the remote. Readers can use the guide to plan both convenient visits to close-to-home prairies and journeys to sites well across the continent. Also included is an expanded state-by-state index, ideal for locating specific prairies in any given state. The victim of destructive plowing and construction at the hands of European settlers, North American grassland ecosystems that once spanned the entire continent have suffered degradation and fragmentation. With the Prairie Directory as a guide, however, ecologists, environmental scientists, and tourists can experience the essence of this ancient ecosystem and, in some locations, even its vastness. The book lists tiny, hidden half-acre prairies spared by the plow as well as popular sites covering millions of acres. It documents prairies hidden deep in forests or in plain sight in American Indian reservations. The only one of its kind, this book will allow readers to experience the prairie as a colorful, fragrant, wildlife-rich North American landscape.