The Whole Forest for a Backyard: A Gunflint Trail Wilderness Memoir

by Timothy McDonnell

Crafted with an honest sensitivity, this charming book reflects the perspective of a small, free-range boy with a large imagination reared in one of our nations most cherished wilderness areas. It is mostly about the author’s growing up years in the 1950s and 1960s at the resort his parents owned thirty-two miles into the boreal forest from the town of Grand Marais, Minnesota. Far more than a sentimental journey into the past, here is a story of triumphs, tragedies, and transitions, which reveal in full the cathartic powers of nature. The lessons presented are all the more relevant today. Our need to reconnect with the wild has never been greater.

104 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2013

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who is an outdoors person.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about Tim McDonnell growing up at Gateway Lodge on Hungry Jack Lake in northeastern Minnesota. It was fun for me to read as my family has a cabin not far from the lodge. I knew so many of the places he talked about and had experienced many of the same adventures. Since I am older than Tim, the area was even more primitive when I was a child. I am in the process of writing a memoir of growing up at the cabin and wanted to see how Tim approached his memoir.