In this Book
- Woman Of The Boundary Waters: Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving
- Book
- 1994
- Published by: University of Minnesota Press
summary
The Boundary Waters region of Minnesota and Ontario is a vast wilderness of quiet beauty, visited and loved by many, but home to only a rugged few. In 1928, Justine Kerfoot arrived, a Northwestern University graduate student headed for medical school until her family lost both their Illinois homes in the stock market crash. Thrust into year-round life at her mother's fledgling summer resort, Justine was confronted with learning survival in the frigid north woods, a challenge she met with extraordinary verve and recounts with great candor and humor in this remarkable book. As she relates her lessons from the Canadian Indians across the lake-how to paddle a canoe, hunt moose, drive a dog team, and stay warm at minus 40 degrees-Kerfoot gives us a rich sense of the world of the Indians and fur trappers. Telling the story of settlement in this rough resort area fifty miles from a town, she describes the effects of depression and forest fires and the struggles for modernization in the wild. Kerfoot has paddled all the lakes and streams in this border country, and she knows them well. Her lyrical descriptions of wildlife and seasonal environments express the deep reverence for nature that has become her way of life. In a final chapter, she reflects on the impact of restricted wilderness status on the region-called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness since 1978-and on her own convictions about people living in the wild.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xiii-xiv
- 1 Up the Gunflint Trail
- pp. 1-12
- 2 Early Days
- pp. 13-53
- 3 The Economy Goes Bust
- pp. 54-63
- 4 Marriage and Daily Life
- pp. 64-100
- 6 The Lives Around Us
- pp. 121-139
- 7 Living Together in the Forest
- pp. 140-144
- 8 Changing Times
- pp. 145-149
- 9 Reflections
- pp. 150-154
Additional Information
ISBN
9780816685912
Related ISBN(s)
9780816624430
MARC Record
OCLC
232159880
Pages
200
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No