Download - Wayne State University Press

Upper Peninsula HistoryLake Superior ProfilesPeople on the Big LakeJohn Gagnon“When I was a lad, there used to be a sign in the Keweenaw Peninsula:‘You are now breathing the purest, most vitalizing air on earth.’ It’s said thecollege fellows used to nail skunks to the sign. I don’t know if that’s true,but it’s a good yarn. The lake makes for many. As Longfellow wrote in Songof Hiawatha, ‘You shall hear a tale of wonder.’”—John Gagnon, from the prologueLike Lake Superior itself, the communities of people surrounding the “BigLake” are vast and full of variety, spanning state and international boundaries.In Lake Superior Profiles: People on the Big Lake, author John Gagnon givesreaders a sense of the memorable characters who inhabit the area without attempting to take an exhaustiveinventory. Instead, Gagnon met people casually and interviewed them—from a tugboat captain to aniron ore boat captain, Native Americans, and fishery biologists. Different though their stories are, all sharea steadfast character, an attachment to the moody lake, and a devotion to their work.Lake Superior Profiles combines biography, history, folklore, religion, and humor in fifteen diverse chapters.In Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Gagnon visits the rivers, bays, small towns, larger cities,and nature preserves that surround Lake Superior to meet the people who make their homes there.Among those he meets are several fisherman, a botanist studying arctic wildflowers on Isle Royale, aformer lighthouse keeper on a remote reef on the lake, a voyageur reenactor from Duluth, a woman whoharvests wild rice each August in the Bad River Sloughs, and a monk living on the Keweenaw Peninsula.He also writes about three of the lake’s major fish species, a rock formation steeped in lore called theSleeping Giant, and the current fragile ecology of the Big Lake.Engaging in style and varied in content, these profiles display Gagnon’s natural curiosity and storytellingacumen in illustrating the many ways the lake shapes the lives of those near it. Residents of the LakeSuperior region and readers interested in the area will enjoy Lake Superior Profiles.2012 / 5.5 x 8.5 / 224 pp / 36 illus / ISBN 978-0-8143-3628-1, $24.95s paperISBN 978-0-8143-3629-8 eGreat Lakes Books SeriesIron WillCleveland-Cliffs and the Miningof Iron Ore, 1847–2006Terry S. Reynolds andVirginia P. Dawson“In Iron Will, Terry S. Reynolds andVirginia P. Dawson have written an outstandingexample of corporate businesshistory. The authors immersedthemselves in the breadth and depthof an extraordinary volume of primarysources; interviews with corporateexecutives are particularly valuable.”—David A. Walker, professor of historyat the University of Northern IowaHeadquartered in Cleveland, Ohio,Cleveland-Cliffs (now known as CliffsNatural Resources) played a major rolein the opening and development ofthe Lake Superior mining district andMichigan’s Upper Peninsula. ThroughCleveland-Cliffs’ history, Reynolds andDawson examine major transitions inthe history of the American iron andsteel industry from the perspective ofan important raw materials supplier.2011 / 7 x 10 / 360 pp / 115 illusISBN 978-0-8143-3511-6$44.95s clothISBN 978-0-8143-3643-4 eGreat Lakes Books Series2010 State History Award From theHistorical society of Michigan!Hollowed GroundCopper Mining andCommunity Building onLake Superior, 1840s–1990sLarry Lankton“The best study of an industrial regionsince Harry Caudill’s 1960s classic,Night Comes to the Cumberlands. Noone has a better understanding ofMichigan’s legendary Copper Country,its scarred but still beautiful landscapes,and its hard-working people.”—Patrick Malone, professor of Americancivilization and urban studies atBrown UniversityIn addition to documenting companiesand their mines, mills, and smelters,Hollowed Ground is also a communitystudy. It examines the region’s populationand ethnic mix, a direct resultof the mining industry’s paternalisticinvolvement in community building.2010 / 7 x 10 / 392 pp / 100 illusISBN 978-0-8143-3490-4$34.95t paperISBN 978-08143-3458-4$79.95s clothISBN 978-0-8143-3696-0 eGreat Lakes Books Series14Wayne State University Press regional Books