Cabins of Minnesota

by Bill Holm (Contributor), Doug Ohman (Photographer)

The lake cabin. Early mornings on the sleeping porch, lunches on the dock, late-night cleanings in the fish house. But Minnesota's seasonal getaways aren't limited to its bountiful vacationers trek to hideaways in the woods, to ice shacks along the Mississippi River; even out to cottages beside the highways, relics from the days when farmers rented vacation places along cornfields and cow pastures.

Popular photographer Doug Ohman and renowned writer and poet Bill Holm highlight the state's unique and treasured cabins—a vintage Fredenberg Lake compound near Duluth; the celebrated mom-and-pop Fairyland Cabins of Detroit Lakes; a cabin situated on top of a pontoon in Rose Lake. Holm's eclectic prose combines stories of the ancient and new and illuminates the rewards of the cabin "the pleasures of fishing, daydreaming, sunset watching and star counting, the leisure to take stock of one's life without the surround-sound noise of the new wired century. In a cabin retreat," he writes, "pleasure overcomes duty for a little while."

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2007

About the author

Bill Holm was an American poet, essayist, memoirist, and musician.

Holm was born on a farm north of Minneota, Minnesota, the grandson of Icelandic immigrants. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota where he graduated in 1965. Later, he attended the University of Kansas.

Holm won a Fulbright and went to Iceland for a year, which stretched into longer. He continued to visit Iceland so regularly that his friends there helped him find a house in Hofsós. His last book, The Windows of Brimnes, is about his time in Iceland.

He was Professor Emeritus of English at Southwest Minnesota State University, where he taught classes on poetry and literature until his retirement in 2007. Though Minneota was his home, Holm had traveled the world, teaching English in China, spending summers in Iceland and late winters in Arizona, and visiting Europe and Madagascar.

Holm was a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio show and some of his poems were included in Keillor's Writer's Almanac.

Holm was a McKnight Distinguished Artist in 2008, an award that honors Minnesota artists for their life work.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A summer goal...to read 4 books on Minnesota. Here's the first!

This book wasn't quite what I expected and I still can't figure out if I really liked it. There were chapters on the author (his teaching, his cabin in Iceland), other authors (specifically Thoreau's perspective on cabin life), Ernest Oberholtzer's 1200 ft long island with 9 cabins (pretty interesting!) and hospitality. An eclectic and unpredictable collection of writing to be sure!

Overall, I didn't feel that the book's approach worked for me. The narrative kept leaping all over time and the world, yet the book was supposedly about Minnesota Cabins. I wanted to be steeped in Minnesota and what Minnesotan's think and feel about these commitments they make to cabin life...about these centerpieces that are often deeply linked to family and heritage. Instead, I felt like I got some strange literary/poetic picture of cabins through a few esoteric perspectives.

However, there were some beautiful pictures. I've decided I need a slightly modernized log cabin on a lakefront or river. (A combination of several striking pictures contained in this volume.) So, the book was helpful in articulating my dream, in my mind's eye.

I also enjoyed several phrases from the book that gave me pause. My favorite quotes tended to appear in the chapter introductions:
-"In a cabin retreat, pleasure overcomes duty for a little while." Ah, to put duty aside.
-"Contradict all authorities...for your own good." I know someone that would love this quote.
-"There's always the possibility of magic." Agreed.
-"What is your joy?" A good question. Ruminate on it awhile. It will make you smile.
-"We get to live-for awhile-the life we imagine, because it is necessary for our sanity, our balance in the world." May we all find a home in this spot.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fifth in photographer Doug Ohman's Minnesota Byways series capturing historic buildings of Minnesota is a collection of photos of cabins in Minnesota accompanied by prose by Minnesota writer Bill Holm.

This is a nice collection of photos that capture Minnesota. There is a good mix of big and small and old and new from counties all over the state. The accompanying prose by Bill Holm is nice, but doesn't seem to have much to do with cabins in Minnesota. It lacks focus. He discusses his work and teaching freshman English, the works of W.B. Yeats, Thoreau and the poet Po Chü-i, and his cabin in Iceland. This is all interesting, but, again, not really anything to do with Minnesota cabins. The one part that really seemed to be about Minnesota cabins was a chapter on Ernest Oberholtzer, an environmentalist who had nine cabins full of books in the Boundary Waters. I found that most interesting. I guess I was hoping the book would feature the history of Minnesota cabins or memories and thoughts about time spent at them. Overall, I thought the photographs did a good job capturing Minnesota cabins, but the prose did not.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this on a table at the library and grabbed it on a whim. Bill Holm contributed words and explanation to the desire of wanting a cabin and Doug Ohman contributed photos of cabins around Minnesota. It was a great read with beautiful photography and made me want a lake cabin, something I haven't really desired greatly before. My favorite quote was from a Chinese poet of the T'ang Dynasty, Po Chu-i. He said this about his own grass thatched hall:

One night here and my body is at rest, two nights and my mind is content, and after three nights, I'm in a state of utter calm and forgetfulnes.

Now, doesn't that make you want to have your own cabin to retreat to?

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely Father's day gift from the kids. I appreciated Bill Holm's skilled wordcrafting, pondering what makes a cabin, and what makes us want to send time in them (it's our Scandanavian roots). But this is mostly about the author and his own perspectives on cabins. Don't get me wrong, Bill Holm was certainly a fascinating guy and a great writer. But I wanted a book about cabins, not Bill Holm. I would have enjoyed less introspection and more focus on the cabins, the people who built them, those who used them. I wanted more Minnesota-specific stories like Ernest Oberholtzer, who truly dedicated himself to cabin life in Minnesota (he was the godfather of the boundary waters canoe area).

Great photos. They should have all been full page.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coffee table book of photographs by Doug Ohman of cabins tucked away in Minnesota, most near one of the state's many gorgeous lakes. The highlight for me is the text by the poet Bill Holm who ruminates on the importance of having a place to get away from it all and how this idea is deeply ingrained in American (think Thoreau) as well as Scandinavian culture. A lovely little book.

[Leaflet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not quite what I expected, Bill Holm is a delight to read. Fascinating to read about Ernest Carl Oberholtzer's nine - count 'em - nine cabins stuffed with books. I'm filled with cabin lust.

Holm ends by describing his Iclandic cabin, 'Brimnes'. The Window of Brimnes is next on my reading stack.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photography by Doug Ohman is what makes this book outstanding. His photographs record the whole spectrum of Minnesota's cabins--from fish house to charming cabin getaways. He truly captured up north cabin life in all its glory.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like cabins....

[Traci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Bill Holm.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing I love more than a cabin in the woods. Lots of great photos, wish there were more. An interesting read.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 2.5 of 5

As a Minnesotan and someone who has been known to retreat to a cabin in the summers for a little R&R, this book holds a lot of appeal to me.

Bill Holm's text offers up some interesting perspectives and reminiscences, from the poetry of W. B. Yeats, to the poetry of Po Chü-i (Chinese T'ang Dynasty) and his own reflections. It's the sort of text one might expect from a coffee-table book with pictures of cabins.

Ah...the pictures of cabins.... Photographer Doug Ohman really captures the rustic feel of Minnesota's cabins. The outdoor shots are beautiful and will make you long to spend some time at each place, but it's actually the interior pictures that hold special appeal to me. A shelf of mismatched plates all dating from the 1950's and another shelf full of board games for those raining nights, typifies what I think of when I think about time I've spent in cabins.

And as nice as all this is, it somehow doesn't quite succeed. Oh, sure, it's the sort of book that you might pick up at a bookstore or a library and thumb through it and maybe even give it as a gift, but as a book you might want to spend a little time with? Not quite.

Holm writes nicely, but there is no focus. (I know, that sounds strange when describing a book about something so particular - Minnesota Cabins.) The first chapter isn't so much about Minnesota or cabins, but about Holm and his work teaching freshman English and the works of Thoreau and the discussion of cabin life. The last chapter is again about Holm and his life - in Iceland and the Icelandic cabins. The other four chapters tend to be a little more specific, but still - one-third of the text is about Holm.

Ohman's pictures are nice, but they're not all cabins.

This is the land of 10,000 lakes. There must be at least that many cabins, and yet a book about The Cabins of Minnesota features photographs of deer stands, trailers, ice fishing huts, and even out-houses. There are probably enough unique huts, stands, and trailers in Minnesota to get their own book. We don't really need to take up space in a cabins book, do we?

Looking for a good book? The Cabins of Minnesota by Bill Holm and Doug Ohman is nice, but doesn't really spend enough time actually on the cabins of Minnesota.