Around the Shores of Lake Superior: A Guide to Historic Sites.

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

This is a carefully researched, well-written, and superbly illustrated guide to sites commemorating the history and material culture of the Lake Superior basin. It soundly dispels the common assumption that the area is merely a scenic region with no significant history of human endeavour.

In Part 1, Bogue describes and interprets the natural and human history of the lake and its watershed: its geological origins as they are explained according to the western scientific canon and Native American legend; the characteristics of the Lake Superior wilderness as they were interpreted in the mid-19th century by the members of the famous Agassiz expedition; and  the Ojibwa occupation and French exploration. This is followed by sketches of the several successive and overlapping economic regimes which exploited the basin’s resources: its furs and fish, copper and iron, and the water craft designed to transport these commodities to market. Finally, the author focuses on the contemporary campaign to restore and preserve the natural environment.

In Part 2, she takes the traveller from Duluth around the lake clockwise, exploring and explaining the Canadian side of the lake as thoroughly as the American. Every point of interest—city, town, geological, cultural, and industrial site—is placed into its historical context, each artifact (a brownstone public building, ship, lighthouse, historical replica) explained, and interpreted for the visitor. Photographs and historical documents are expertly composed and superbly reproduced.

Margaret Bogue, a seasoned and well-published scholar, is a professor emerita of history and liberal studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As this guide demonstrates, she is also a gifted public historian.