Superior: Under the Shadow of the Gods
Barbara Chisholm (editor), Andrea Gutsche, Russell Floren
Like Michener the authors begin their discussion of Superior with a creation story involving lava flows and tectonic plates. Some of the jargon used is lost on a lay person.
It goes on to document conflicts with First Nations which continue to this very day.
The boom and bust economy repeats itself here, big shots exploit a resource until it is exhausted then pull out leaving their workers unemployed. The cycle is repeated with fish, forests, ore.
As the survey of the coastline begins in the Sault Jesuit Missionaries lay the groundwork for the European Capitalists that followed them. Those Capitalists may have had little interest in the Pagan's Souls but they recognized the value of the contacts the Jesuits provided them.
Much of the book describes shipwrecks, the Edmund Fitzgerald a prime example. And dramatic rescues and the men who performed them.
The building of Highway 17 is quite another tale. As was Van Horne and the CPR.
Agawa Canyon on the Algoma Central Railway
My trip didn't hit peak foliage. Since the mine closed the track is no longer properly maintained and the train crawled near walking speed. The allowance was not cut back so there was very little to see along the way bit bush.
Canada still retains 51 staffed lighthouses. A thousand including famed Peggys Cove were termed redundant. In flagrant disregard for the welfare of its lighthouse keepers bean counters ceased the practice of providing ships to deliver lighthouse keepers to and from remote islands. With Island lights up to 65 miles from shore this became a death sentence for many.
Not to be forgotten are the characters who inhabited this wild rocky shore. I particularly like the codger who sat his rocking chair reading and finished his chapter before looking up to say "Hello".
In prison solitary confinement is considered a cruel form of punishment but lightkeepers in bad weather were often abandoned for months at a time and fishermen, trappers, and miners often embraced a solitary existence. Making pets of beaver, groundhogs, squirrels, and even snakes provided companionship and rodent control.
The first people who came to Superior's North Shore came for its natural resources: Furs and Fish, Forests and Mines. When the asset was depleted they departed. Others came or were brought to build highways and railbeds. Today those same highways bring tourists intent on admiring the area's natural beauty.
