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Tales of the Great Lakes: Stories from Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin
They can be as still as a millpond, as angry as any storm swept ocean. The Great Lakes and the major states bordering them—Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota—are the heartland of America. The land supplies the goods: grain, meat, timber, and steel. The Lakes provide passage for those goods around the world. The two—land and water—are inseparable, their destiny interlocked.
Tales of the Great Lakes encompasses the stories of the men who built the Midwest—the giants of industry, builders of cities, intrepid seafarers, writers who chronicled the rise of the great metropolises of Chicago and Minneapolis, and the immigrants who made America.
Yet beside this ambition and fervor, there co-exits the spectacular beauty of the shore; the woods and lanes of the Northern Peninsula teeming with game and fish; the rolling farmland of the plains, raising up its bounty to industrious farmers, its pastures dotted with thousands of cows whose milk is destined for the famous cheeses of the region. Here you can leave the city and quickly find yourself in a country paradise.
A hundred years ago, with Chicago rising from the ashes, the country was still virgin—the source of wonderful stories of daring and courage, of exploration and discovery. Here was a land for men and women of drive and courage.
Tales of the Great Lakes encompasses the stories of the men who built the Midwest—the giants of industry, builders of cities, intrepid seafarers, writers who chronicled the rise of the great metropolises of Chicago and Minneapolis, and the immigrants who made America.
Yet beside this ambition and fervor, there co-exits the spectacular beauty of the shore; the woods and lanes of the Northern Peninsula teeming with game and fish; the rolling farmland of the plains, raising up its bounty to industrious farmers, its pastures dotted with thousands of cows whose milk is destined for the famous cheeses of the region. Here you can leave the city and quickly find yourself in a country paradise.
A hundred years ago, with Chicago rising from the ashes, the country was still virgin—the source of wonderful stories of daring and courage, of exploration and discovery. Here was a land for men and women of drive and courage.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 10, 2019
I stumbled upon this book while I was wandering the library and picked it up on a whim. As described, this is series of 34 fairly short articles written between 1875 and 1909. The titles include: "The Wisconsin Lakes"; "The Last Wolverine"; "The Story of a Copper Mine"; "Chicago's Great River Harbor"; and so on.
As the stories are not organized in any particular fashion, you really don't need to read them sequentially. And like many short stories, some are better than others. Select the ones that appeal to you and read those first. Having said that, I must point out that these stories frequently suffer from the narration style of the time. Flowery prose with lots of adjectives is the norm, not the exception. You also come across some fairly painful observations. Here's one from "The Light Fantastic in the Central West: Country Dances of Many Nationalities in Wisconsin":
"It was an Irish dance, even though given by Adolf Baumgartner. I have since eschewed the dances of the Irish, and even those of the Welsh and the Cornishmen, who are scarcely less pugnacious than their kindred across St. George's Channel. I eschewed them not merely because of this experience, but because of the fights which always go on at them; for while the Celts merrily fall upon a stranger, with an inarticulate prayer of thanksgiving to the infernal gods who have provided him, in the dearth of other quarry they will crack one another's skulls."
Hmmm.
Anyway, if you're willing to overlook some of the quirks given the age of these tales, some of them are really pretty good. A few illustrations and period photos are also included.
As the stories are not organized in any particular fashion, you really don't need to read them sequentially. And like many short stories, some are better than others. Select the ones that appeal to you and read those first. Having said that, I must point out that these stories frequently suffer from the narration style of the time. Flowery prose with lots of adjectives is the norm, not the exception. You also come across some fairly painful observations. Here's one from "The Light Fantastic in the Central West: Country Dances of Many Nationalities in Wisconsin":
"It was an Irish dance, even though given by Adolf Baumgartner. I have since eschewed the dances of the Irish, and even those of the Welsh and the Cornishmen, who are scarcely less pugnacious than their kindred across St. George's Channel. I eschewed them not merely because of this experience, but because of the fights which always go on at them; for while the Celts merrily fall upon a stranger, with an inarticulate prayer of thanksgiving to the infernal gods who have provided him, in the dearth of other quarry they will crack one another's skulls."
Hmmm.
Anyway, if you're willing to overlook some of the quirks given the age of these tales, some of them are really pretty good. A few illustrations and period photos are also included.
April 6, 2015
The statistics are staggering, but unimpressive: so many millions of gallons of fresh water, so much tonnage of freight comparable only to Liverpool or New York by some measures, so much treasure (well, natural resources of fur, lumber, ore, that we have appropriated and converted into commodity). But the stories that grab your attention the most are those that place the beauty and unspoiled expanse of the Lakes and surrounding lands and peoples on full display. The wolverine, the wolf, the salmon, the trout, the native peoples, the harmony of the land, the weather, the lore. It will remind you that this basin of water is more than hard statistics. Full of names that you already know, but don't know why you know them, this book will remind you the reason why they are important. The book is a collection of period newspaper and magazine stories from the turn of the century spanning the Great Lakes and surrounding land masses. Very recommended for those that want to know more about this land I call home.
June 28, 2021
Tales of the Great Lakes is a collection of stories from around the Great Lakes. I thought it would have some bits of mythology or something along those lines, but I was misled by the title. It is a series of old newspaper articles focusing on the Great Lakes area.
It is alright for what it is, but not what I expected.
It is alright for what it is, but not what I expected.
April 18, 2023
Just chose a few of the Scribner’s articles I was interested in reading.
September 26, 2024
If your interest is Hemingway-style realism, then this book is for you.
March 20, 2017
This is a wonderful selection of articles you'd have a hard time tracking down on your own. I checked it out of my library as research for my Fitz book, and besides several useful articles on Great Lakes shipping, discovered a wonderful article on the construction of the World's Fairgrounds, to boot (plus several backwoods hunting/fishing articles, which I'll probably enjoy reading--after I finish with Fitz).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews