The Lure of the North Woods: Cultivating Tourism in the Upper Midwest by Aaron Shapiro (review)

Book Reviews 125 “The Mustache Saga” is perhaps the most fascinating illustration of this argument. In 1966-67, several black students at South High School were ordered to shave by white school administrators. Arguing that a ban on mustaches signaled a racist slight against African American men, who typically wore mustaches when they came of age, several of the students protested and were suspended from school. They were then joined by their classmates, parents, and other community members, who staged marches and school walkouts. Ultimately, school officials removed the ban—which, of course, had come to stand for much more than a prohibition against mustaches. As Robinson maintains, the unprecedented victory scored by these students against an inane rule signaled a new tactical shift in the city’s black freedom struggle. Occasionally Robinson’s detailed dissection of the institutional histories and conflicts between and within the various municipal organizations in Grand Rapids, both black and white, can become difficult to follow. The author’s conclusion also missed an opportunity to explore the impact of the recent “revitalization” of downtown Grand Rapids upon the predominantly African American neighborhoods in the inner city and its first ring suburbs. Overall, however, Robinson successfully demonstrates that the battle waged for civil rights in the secondary cities of the North was no less contested or important than the protests carried out in the primary northern (and southern) cities, and that the black freedom struggle should not be portrayed as a homogenous process, but rather one that reflected the individual geographies, economies, and politics of the cities and towns where it took root. Andrea A. Burns Appalachian State University Aaron Shapiro. The Lure of the North Woods: Cultivating Tourism in the Upper Midwest. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013. Pp. 320. Notes. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Paper, $24.95. In Lure of the North Woods, historian Aaron Shapiro documents how a landscape once linked heavily with extractive industries became a major tourist destination. Such a change derived from a very public debate that spanned much of the twentieth century. This effective study explores how an industrial view of the Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin North Woods became a consumer-oriented view, focusing on tourism. By using environmental history and cultural studies 126 The Michigan Historical Review methodologies, the book explores how this lumber and mining region became a recreational landscape. Studying each state from the 1890s to the 1960s, Shapiro shows how declining economic bases fostered the expansion of tourism. Once adopted, tourism’s growth involved lively debates over issues including conservation and preservation. For all three states, Shapiro provides detailed historical analyses, outlining their unique circumstances. Local, state, and federal arguments existed for the maintenance of these recreational forests, as Shapiro notes, but even by the 1920s these were not necessarily the same arguments. Vacationers, local business and civic leaders, tourism organizations, regional and national conservations groups, as well as state and federal agencies all contributed to an expansive discussion over how best to utilize these lands. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the study is the significant level of input provided by local individuals, and these contributions help to explain how tourism influenced the transformation of cutover forests in the North Woods. The book explores these points by first delving into the initial debates over tourism’s feasibility, then by examining conservation efforts, as well as the success of promotional literature, in expanding a recreational landscape. This expansion is also integrally related to changing public attitudes to health and recreation. These attitudes helped to steer legislation in place by the modern environmental era. Shapiro’s use of sources is thorough and diverse: tourist literature, government papers, camp and lodge owner files, oral histories, and Indian Agency records. By a thorough examination of these sources, the author has crafted a well-rounded assessment of the growth of tourism in the region. Environmental history and cultural studies inform Shapiro’s approach by intersecting landscape and resource history with an appreciation of recreational literature. The work cites environmental historians on issues ranging from industrial resource use to changing concepts of conservation in the twentieth century. By utilizing the works of cultural studies scholars, the book addresses such pertinent topics...