Lake Effect

Along Superior’s Shores

2003
Author:

Erika Alin

Personal reflections on the natural splendors and human history of the Lake Superior shoreline

In Lake Effect, writer Erika Alin explores both the natural and the human landscapes of Lake Superior, meditating on the rich geological, historical, and cultural events that have shaped the region. Alin’s engaging essays reveal a profound sensitivity to the natural world and a penetrating historical imagination.

Fresh and energetic. Alin shows a clear and unique understanding of the geology of the shoreline and rivermouth. Reading this book set me to wondering why there aren’t more books like this.

Cook County News Herald

The 2,900-mile shoreline of Lake Superior offers some of the most beautiful scenery in the world: stunning juxtapositions of shape, color, and texture, from the birch and evergreen forests of Minnesota’s north shore and the maple-clad slopes of Wisconsin to Ontario’s granite outcrops and Michigan's sandstone shelves. Inhabited by hundreds of species of mammals, birds, and insects, the diverse ecosystems around Superior have also experienced human habitation for millennia.

In Lake Effect, writer Erika Alin explores both the natural and the human landscapes of Lake Superior, meditating on the rich geological, historical, and cultural events that have shaped the region. She begins her journey around Superior at the St. Louis River near Duluth and continues along the shores of the lake to Temperance River State Park, Grand Marais’s Artist’s Point, and Lake Superior Provincial Park. Following the Michigan and Wisconsin coasts, Alin visits the Keweenaw Peninsula, the Porcupine Mountains, and Chequamegon Bay before concluding at the south shore’s Brule River.

Inspired by these and other places on the lake, Alin’s engaging essays delve into such diverse topics as the origins of river names, early Native American settlement, the exploits of seventeenth-century French-Canadian voyageurs, the breeding habits of ring-billed gulls, the contributions of women botanists, Canada’s Group of Seven painters, and aboriginal rock art. A holistic and deeply personal reflection on Superior’s shoreline, Lake Effect reveals a profound sensitivity to the natural world and a penetrating historical imagination.


Erika Alin is a teacher, writer, and photographer who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her writings have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, and her photographs of Lake Superior have been included in many exhibits.

Fresh and energetic. Alin shows a clear and unique understanding of the geology of the shoreline and rivermouth. Reading this book set me to wondering why there aren’t more books like this.

Cook County News Herald

Contents

Preface

Map of Lake Superior
Wild River
The Gulls of Kitchi Gammi
Crosby’s Paradox
Bicknell’s Geranium
No Bar River
The Heritage of Landscapes
Harebells
The Group of Seven at Coldwell
Louis Agassiz on the Eastern Shore
In the Shade of Pines
Orion
On the Porcupine Coast
The Mission of Saint Esprit
Gathering Instincts
The Brule River

References