Nov 11 2008
Tales of the Road
I own a lot of travel books, but most of them I use as references when we’re looking for a new place to visit. It’s rare that I buy a book and then read it from cover to cover. A few weeks ago, however, I head WCCO Radio’s Eric Eskola promote a new book by his wife, Cathy Wurzer, and it sounded like something I would really enjoy. I treated myself and ordered it that very day.
What a delightful book! Tales of the Road: Highway 61 is part history lesson, part travel guide. In short, 1-2 page segments accompanied by photos old and new, it describes landmarks, businesses, and ghost towns along Highway 61, which runs along Minnesota’s entire eastern border. Some of these sites remain, and others are long gone.
I was saddened that I had missed seeing Two Harbors High School overlooking the town by only a few months. I was disappointed that I hadn’t had the book before my recent drive up the North Shore, because there were things along the way that I missed. I learned more about places I’ve visited, like Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse. And I added a lot of new entries to my “places to see” list.
Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, this book is a delight from start to finish, providing a glimpse into Minnesota’s past along one of its earliest and most important roads.
I’m a weird one, normally when i travel somewhere, i do read the travel guide cover to cover. i find any travel books non fiction or fiction are more interesting when you are visiting the place. you know what i mean.
MuchaCostaRica
Thanks for the review. I love books like that, which give you a real insight into places. I’m never sure whether to read them before hand or to keep them till after and see if the author’s views match my own.
Sharon’s last blog post..Layover In Orlando International Airport (MCO)
This sounds like a book I’d like to read as well.
We were planning a trip to northern Minnesota for next summer, but that’s in doubt now as Tim lost his job last month. We haven’t been up there since the big “incident” in ’99 when winds and storms blew millions of trees down (we were driving through that in Ely!). Tim just got a new canoe this year, and we were looking forward to taking it up there…we’ll just have to see what next year brings.
Thanks for the review of the book though, I’ll have to look for it.
Oh…yeah…I found it listed on Amazon, and you can see a sample of a few pages from the book there!!
would this be good for my 7th graders bookoply reports?
Rob, I’m not sure what bookopoly reports are, but the reading would be find for 7th graders. The blurbs on each site are 1-2 pages long and are illustrated nicely.