Sign-In
Cart
Gunflint Falling: Blowdown in the Boundary Waters
Hardcover
Environmental StudiesGeneral NatureRegional: Midwest
Publisher Price: $25.95
ISBN13: 9781517915568
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: Jan 30 2024
Pages: 312
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.40 Width: 6.30 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Stories from survivors of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness's epochal weather disaster
On July 4, 1999, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), a bizarre confluence of meteorological events resulted in the most damaging blowdown in the region's history. Originating over the Dakotas, the midsummer windstorm developed amid unusually high heat and water-saturated forests and moved steadily east, bearing down on Fargo, North Dakota, and damaging land as it crossed the Minnesota border. Gunflint Falling tells the story of this devastating storm from the perspectives of those who were on the ground before, during, and after the catastrophic event--from first-time visitors to the north woods to returning paddlers to Forest Service Rangers.
The pre-dawn forecasts from the National Weather Service in Duluth for that Sunday of the holiday weekend predicted the day would be warm and humid. Partly sunny with a thirty percent chance of thunderstorms. But as the afternoon and evening settled over the Boundary Waters, the first eyewitness accounts began to tell a dramatic and terrifying story. Five friends camping on Lake Polly watched in wonder as the sky turned green and the winds began to whip. They scrambled to pull canoes on shore and secure tarps when a tree snapped and struck one of them in the head, rendering her unconscious. Three women enjoying their last day of a camping trip near the end of the Gunflint Trail took shelter in their tent as winds increased. Water drenched the nylon walls as trees crashed around them, one flattening the tent and pinning a woman beneath its weight. A family vacationing at their cabin dodged falling trees and strained against straight-line winds as they sprinted from the cabin to the safest place they knew: a crawl space underneath it. They watched in awe as trees snapped and toppled, their twisted root balls torn out of the water-logged earth--as they prayed their cabin would hold.
By the time the storm began to subside, falling trees had injured approximately sixty people, and most needed to be medevacked to safety. Amazingly, no one died. The historic storm laid down timber that would later blaze in the Ham Lake fire of 2007, ultimately reshaping the region's forests in ways we have yet to fully understand.
2 different editions
Also available
Also from
Griffith, Cary J.
Also in
Regional: Midwest
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Larson, Erik
Paperback
Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie
Hage, Dave
Marcotty, Josephine
Hardcover
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Egan, Timothy
Paperback
Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of the American Heartland
Cain, Áine
Greenlee, Kevin
Hardcover
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Paperback
The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North
Adams, Michelle
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
The Great Black Swamp: Toxic Algae, Toxic Relationships, and the Most Interesting Place in America That Nobody's Ever Heard of
Wensink, Patrick
Paperback
Wrecked: The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy
Podair, Jerald
Nelson, Thomas M.
Paperback
The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
Johnson, Walter
Paperback
Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District
Johnson, Hannibal B.
Paperback
Operation Breadbasket: An Untold Story of Civil Rights in Chicago, 1966-1971
Deppe, Martin L.
Paperback
We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy by Paul Johnson
Johnson, Paul
Paperback
Little Heathens: Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
Kalish, Mildred Armstrong
Paperback
Spooky Michigan: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy
Nesteroff, Kliph
Paperback
Wilder Weather: What Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaches Us about the Weather, Climate, and Protecting What We Cherish
Boustead, Barbara
Paperback
The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL
Morris, Bill
Hardcover
A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
Russell, Malinda
Paperback
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Large Print Edition)
Larson, Erik
Paperback
Vintage Cavs: A Warm Look Back at the Cavaliers of the Cleveland Arena and Richfield Coliseum Years
Pluto, Terry
Paperback
What's the Deal with Dead Man's Curve?: And Other Really Good Questions about Cleveland
Sweeney, Jim
Paperback
Pushing the River: An Epic Battle, a Lost History, a Near Death, and Other True Canoeing Stories
Bures, Frank
Paperback
Spooky Great Lakes: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
Brooding Upon the Waters: A Memoir of Farming, Fishing, and Failure in America's Lost Landscape
Schaap, Howard
Paperback
Spooky Wisconsin: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore
Schlosser, S. E.
Paperback
The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits
Miles, Tiya
Paperback
Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
Lincoln's Counterfeiters: The Wisconsin Gang That Funded the Union and Started the Chicago Mob
Nolen, Andrea
Paperback
Glory Days in Tribe Town: The Cleveland Indians and Jacobs Field 1994-1997
Pluto, Terry
Hamilton, Tom
Paperback
Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures: Great Lakes: Legends And Lore, Pirates And More!
Varhola, Michael
Paperback
Heart of American Darkness: Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier
Parkinson, Robert G.
Hardcover
Cincinnati Curiosities: Healing Powers of the Wamsley Madstone, Nocturnal Exploits of Old Man Dead, Mazeppa's Naked Ride & More
Hand, Gregory L.
Paperback
Fishes of the Chicago Region: A Field Guide
Willink, Philip W.
Veraldi, Francis M.
Pescitelli, Stephen M.
Paperback
Hello Cleveland: Things You Should Know about the Most Unique City in the World
Perry, Nick
Paperback
Chicago's Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City
Smith, Carl
Paperback
Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - 70th Anniversary Edition
Crowe, William S.
Paperback
Ephemeral City: A People's History of Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair
Fullerton, Lindsay
Paperback
The Maid and the Socialite: The Brave Women Behind Green Bay's Scandalous Minahan Trials
Drews, Lynda
Paperback
When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling's History and Cultural Impact on the Motor City
George, Felicia B.
Paperback
The Mysterious North Shore of Lake Superior: A Collection of Short Stories about Ghosts, Ufos, Shipwrecks, and More
Mayo, William
Mayo, Kathryn
Paperback
Walking the Old Road: A People's History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe
Drouillard, Staci Lola
Paperback
A Killing in Amish Country: Lies, Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Murder
Olsen, Gregg
Morris, Rebecca
Paperback
Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit
Stanton, Tom
Paperback
The Lions Finally Roar: The Detroit Lions and the Road to Redemption in the NFL
Morris, Bill
Paperback
Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency
Abrams, Dan
Fisher, David
Paperback
When Santa Lived In Iowa: The True Story of Joy Roberts, Spencer's Santa Claus
Fertick, Scott
Paperback
Dark Side of the Mitten: Crimes of Power & Powerful Criminals in Michigan's Past & Present
Carr, Tom
Paperback
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
Green, James
Paperback
Damming the Reservation: Tribal Sovereignty and Activism at Fort Berthold Volume 23
Parker, Angela K.
Hardcover
Indiana's False Hauntings: Stories of Pranks, Fakes and Supernatural Mistakes
Watson, Ashley M.
Paperback
It Happened in Michigan: Stories of Events and People That Shaped Great Lakes State History
Burcar, Colleen
Paperback
Red Arrow Across the Pacific: The Thirty-Second Infantry Division During World War II
Van Ells, Mark D.
Paperback
Lead Babies and Poisoned Housing: Environmental Injustice, Systemic Racism, and Governmental Failure
Boiarsky, Carolyn R.
Hardcover