It’s spring, and that means many of us are thinking about Up North. Today we’ve got a guide to wildflowers in the north and other parts of Minnesota, as well as informative and lively books about Great Lakes lighthouses and the Lake Superior North Shore Drive.
(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)
“Chasing Wildflowers”: by Phyllis Root, photographs by Kelly Provo (University of Minnesota Press, $27.95)
Can you remember making little paper baskets in May, filling them with wildflowers and hanging them on neighbors’ doors? Many spaces where these shy little beauties bloomed are gone, but Phyllis Root and Kelly Provo tell us there are still places to look for nearly 200 species in their hardcover book subtitled “Adventurous Guide to Finding Minnesota’s Native Flowers in Their Unique Habitats.” They discuss 11 areas, ranging from the North Shore to sand dunes, dry hill prairie, river ravine in the Driftless and ditches/roadsides. They introduce readers to Sticky False Asphodel, Ghost Pipe, Ball Cactus and others. And it’s all based on these two wildflower enthusiasts’ adventures and travels.
Phyllis Root is the author of more than 50 books; Provo is a professional photographer whose work has been exhibited around the state. They will discuss their book at 6 p.m. Thursday at Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.
(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)
“The Scenic Route: Building Minnesota’s North Shore”: by Arnold R. Alanen (University of Minnesota Press, $49.95).
With uncertainty about the economy this summer, families might be looking at vacations closer to home. That could mean a trip to Lake Superior. For pre-trip reading, Alanen offers a 433-page oversized paperback packed with information about the big lake’s 154-mile coastline between Duluth and the Canadian border via the North Shore Scenic Drive. This is the stretch of Minnesota Highway 61 that winds through tunnels and vistas, logging sites, tourist enclaves, Grand Portage National Monument, Superior National Forest and state parks. The publisher describes the book as “a field guide to the cultural landscape that comprises one of the Midwest’s most famous byways and a journey deep into its evolution from ancient wilderness to All-American Road.”
In the first section we learn of the horses, dogs and mail that moved through the area, the years when it became a road and bridge to Canada (1900-1929), how the highway was affected by the Depression and war (1930-1945) and what happened between 1946 and 2024. The second section is a guide to Highway 61 as it passes through St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties.
Filled with maps and photos old and new, this book is for anyone headed to the great inland sea this summer. And it’s fun to read even if you are going in the opposite direction.
“Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: An Architect’s Sketchbook”: by Jim Lammers (Oro Editions, $24.95)
This seems to be lighthouse summer, thanks to Peter Geye’s “A Lesser Light,” set in a lighthouse on Lake Superior. Lammers’ book could be a nonfiction companion to Geye’s novel because he takes us on a journey of discovery as he travels around the Great Lakes. Besides giving the history of the big lights, he discusses their design and construction as well as shipping and ships, shipwrecks, keepers of the lights, and saving the old structures. It’s illustrated with more than 500 of Lammers’ drawings, maps and diagrams, many in color. They are so beautiful that you wish you could frame them.
Lammers, who taught in the architecture program at the University of Minnesota for 18 years, has had his drawings exhibited around Minnesota. His interest in sketching lighthouses began in 2021 when he took a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway as an escape from the pandemic. When he purchased Jeremy D’Entremont’s “Lighthouse Handbook: West Coast,” he was inspired to explore closer to home.
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