Minnesota State Of Wonders

Brian Peterson and Kerri Westenberg, both native Minnesotans, share a deep affection for their homeland. That sensibility underlies every aspect of the State of Wonders project, which began as a series in the Travel section of the Star Tribune. Through their combined vision, springtime awakes in the northwest with prairie chicken dances and unfurling, delicate plants. Tallgrass prairies and historic American Indian lands trumpet the full glory of summer. Autumn colors dazzle the Mississippi River Valley, and winter in the Arrowhead region holds both harsh cold and exquisite beauty. Collectively, their work illuminates Minnesota's natural glories.

Field biologist Jim Gilbert takes a month-by-month approach to the changing Minnesota seasons, emphasizing the beauties that surround us at every phase. Many seasonal highlights are together here to thrill and inspire children and adults alike.

In 1891 Minnesota established its first state park at Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi River. In the century that followed, Minnesotans and tourists from other states have enjoyed hiking, picnicking, fishing, camping, canoeing, and skiing at Itasca and Minnesota's 64 other state parks. This helpful guide to the past in the parks will be welcomed by people who regularly visit a favorite Minnesota park, people who have set out to visit every park, and people who are newly discovering the parks' wonders.

For the traveler seeking to find the spirit--however he or she chooses to define that term--Minnesota is blessed with a large number of sacred sites, many of which are unique. This book profiles approximately 350 sites, including retreat centers, churches, temples, cemeteries, and effigy mounds. Learn about each site's history, uniqueness, aesthetic beauty, and awe. Specific location and contact information is also included.

Minnesota comes alive in the pages of Wild Minnesota. Wild Minnesota contains more than 150 full-color photographs of Minnesota's natural wonders. Author Shawn Perich and photographer Gary Alan Nelson traveled thousands of miles to give us this photographic portrait of the diverse and unique natural areas of our state. Minnesota is often thought of as the state of 10,000 lakes, but it is much more. It is the peaks of the Sawtooth mountain range along the North Shore and the winding mighty Mississippi in the east. It is the rainbow palette of wildflowers and native grasses of the prairies and the spectacular limestone bluffs of the southeast. It is the acres of pine forests of Itasca State Park and the Red River valley's exceptionally rich soil. Wild Minnesota is the natural beauty of our state; it is what we see, hear, and feel as we paddle one of the many unspoiled lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, hike the Superior Hiking Trail, view the tremendous diversity of wildlife in the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. It is the call of the loon on Mille Lacs, the pounding of a powerful wave on the Lake Superior shore, the experience of history through the rock outcroppings of the Jeffers Petroglyphs. It is that still, golden late summer afternoon when you know the Gopher state is where you're meant to be.

Guide to 70 waterfalls with directions and color photographs

Winner of a Spur Award, presented by the Western Writers of America (WWA), for the Best Western Nonfiction Historical Book. Renowned historian Annette Atkins presents a fresh understanding of how a complex and modern Minnesota came into being in Creating Minnesota. Each chapter of this innovative state history focuses on a telling detail, a revealing incident, or a meaningful issue that illuminates a larger event, social trends, or politics during a period in our past. A three-act play about Minnesota's statehood vividly depicts the competing interests of Natives, traders, and politicians who lived in the same territory but moved in different worlds. Oranges are the focal point of a chapter about railroads and transportation: how did a St. Paul family manage to celebrate their 1898 Christmas with fruit that grew no closer than 1,500 miles from their home? A photo essay brings to life three communities of the 1920s, seen through the lenses of local and itinerant photographers. The much-sought state fish helps to explain the new Minnesota, where pan-fried walleye and walleye quesadillas coexist on the same north woods menu. In Creating Minnesota Atkins invites readers to experience the texture of people's lives through the decades, offering a fascinating and unparalleled approach to the history of our state.