Customer Reviews:
 A Fine Book on the Natural History of Superior September 20, 2000
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Of necessity, Tom Waters has had to tell the tale of Lake Superior as a whole to prepare for the main work of considering its wondrous north shore. Waters's direct, clear, and servicable writing is just about perfect for the job of covering both the natural and human history of the Lake and its diverse peoples. This, in my opinion, is the best book I've ever read about the Lake, and I've read a slew of them. I am one of the captains of a ferry boat that crosses the heart of the world's greatest lake every day during the summer, and, naturally, I've had many occasions to read about this wild inland sea. I learned a great deal in Waters's fine overview of the Lake and its past, especially about a topic I thought I would have little interest in -- the Lake Superior fishery, which crashed in the middle of last century. That Waters could make this subject (among the dozens of others he covers) entralling for a non-fisherman is a real testament to his skill as a writer. Tom is a fisheries specialist, so you'd think he's blow it when he came to his discipline, as often happens to writers of this sort, but the writing is at nearly perfect pitch throughout. Believe it or not for a book of natural history, I found Waters's book hard to put down, and not only because I'm a Lake Superior boy (having been working on the Greatest Lake since I was 15 years old). It's just flat-out well done, and the story has many an intersting twist and turn, from the slow pushing out of the Indians living around the Lake at the time of European settlement to the development of lumbering on the north shore. If you want to learn more about this incomparable international resource and its fascinating, if somewhat obscure, history, then start with this excellent book by Tom Waters. There are lovely pencil sketches by his wife in the book, too. And come visit us on Superior some day. It's just as spectacular as it was 100 years ago. (See my amazon site for information on what the rating stars mean for me and about lots of other books.)
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