North Woods River

The St. Croix River, the free-flowing boundary between Wisconsin and Minnesota, is a federally protected National Scenic Riverway. The area’s first recorded human inhabitants were the Dakota Indians, whose lands were transformed by fur trade empires and the loggers who called it the “river of pine.” A patchwork of farms, cultivated by immigrants from many countries, followed the cutover forests. Today, the St. Croix River Valley is a tourist haven in the land of sky-blue waters and a peaceful escape for residents of the bustling Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan region. North Woods River is a thoughtful biography of the river over the course of more than three hundred years. Eileen McMahon and Theodore Karamanski track the river’s social and environmental transformation as newcomers changed the river basin and, in turn, were changed by it. The history of the St. Croix revealed here offers larger lessons about the future management of beautiful and fragile wild waters.

Someone once asked me how much I charge to guide people into the woods. “That’s free,” I explained. “Anyone can get themselves into the woods. You pay me to get you out.” Can anyone really know the northern forest? It is something you feel more in your heart than in your head. You may be able to locate your place on a map, but can you pinpoint the places the forest has hold of your soul? For more than forty years, Maine Guide Earl Brechlin has sought the answers. Through this series of interconnected essays, Brechlin recounts the annual canoe trips to the North Maine Woods he has made with a small group of friends, closing with the death of his twin brother and the group’s last trip to spread his brother’s ashes in the place he loved best. Often humorous and thrilling at once, the heartfelt narrative is peppered with tidbits of history, woods lore, and sage advice from a seasoned outdoorsman. What shines through is the author’s profound love of the natural world and his place in it.

""Living on the Kipawa River is pretty quaint and simple, isn't it?" "That's right, Ma'am, quaint and simple is good enough for us." Scott Sorensen knew that arguing with her would be useless; for it is only to those who can see a little farther, climb a little higher, and dive a little deeper that the answer is not so simple -- only the question is quaint.Perhaps if she had paddled a canoe with the wild, red-haired Whistler of the North, or kayaked the rapids with Don Quixote de la Kipawa, or come face to face with the thirteen lifeless boys adrift in the currents of Lake Temiskaming, she might never have put her question to words. The remote and rugged shores of the Kipawa River have been home to the Sorensens for 25 years. Their lives and those of numerous others are intertwined with the flow of this world-class whitewater river. But the Kipawa River is at risk. The most powerful hydro-electric company in North America has proposed to reduce this historic waterway to a trickle of water in a rocky ditch. This book captures the unique heritage of the Kipawa River, and the struggle to preserve it for future generations."--from www.chapters.indigo.ca.

This book tells the story of how northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula became a tourist paradise, turning a scarred industrial countryside into the playground we know today. Aaron Shapiro describes how residents and visitors reshaped the region from a landscape of exploitation to a vacationland and reveals how leisure--and tourism in particular--has shaped modern America.

Whether hearing wood frogs peep, choosing the finest skipping stone, observing squirrels gathering nuts, or inhaling crisp, cold air, a hike through Grandma's woods engages all the senses.

Every season in the Northwoods is a wonder of plants and animals. This book features detailed and fascinating descriptions of the natural cycles during fall and winter. Youíll know whatís blooming, crawling, singing or migrating in any month.

Sam West thought he knew what it was like to feel alone in the world. He had spent the better part of his childhood abandoned by his mother, neglected by his alcoholic father, and ignored by every foster parent he was sent to. Sam decides to find his mother in search of a future with the woman he barely remembers. But when his bush plane crashes in Northern Ontario, a vast expanse of untamed wilderness, Sam is the sole survivor and utterly alone.Determined to live and somehow make it back to civilization, Sam uses every ounce of knowledge to fight the elements, the treacherous predators, and most of all, to keep his head in the game of survival. After a near-death encounter with a bear shakes him to his core, the appearance of a mysterious mountain man surprises him the most.Together, they embark upon a long journey to find the world again, a world that will be forever different to these survivors. But Sam also finds something he never thought possible; he finds the friendship and the love he always wanted, forged in the solitary landscape of the wilderness. This teen and young adult wilderness story is a treat for those who relish wilderness survival thriller and adventure books. The unputdownable suspense filled novel is an educational and highly entertaining read -- teaching the art of bushcraft and more importantly, the art of living.

Photographs and text explore the seasonal landscapes, vegetation, and natural inhabitants of the forest belt extending through northern Minnesota, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories.