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Northland

A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 10 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 10 weeks
America's northern border is the world's longest international boundary, yet it remains obscure even to Americans. Travel writer Porter Fox spent two years exploring its length by canoe, freighter, and car-and in Northland, he delivers the little-known history of the region and a riveting account of his travels. Fox follows explorer Samuel de Champlain's adventures; recounts the rise and fall of the iron, wheat, and timber industries; crosses the Great Lakes on a freighter; and tracks America's fur traders through the Boundary Waters. Northland is full of colorful characters (railroad tycoon James J. Hill, Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota Sioux, Captain Meriwether Lewis) and extraordinary landscapes (Glacier National Park, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Montana's Medicine Line country). Throughout, Fox weaves in his encounters with residents, border guards, Indian activists, and militia leaders to give a dynamic portrait of the northland wracked by climate change, water wars, and heightened border security.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 28, 2018
      In this contemplative narrative, Fox (Deep) travels the United States’ border with Canada, following the footsteps of pre-Columbus Native Americans, European explorers, mountain men, and 18th-century government surveyors. The narrative is more ruminative than eventful—aside from a red fox defecating on a lawn or some sidelong glances from patrol agents, there’s not a whole lot that actually happens during Fox’s three-year exploration; in ways, the inactivity itself reflects the stasis of this borderland area. Fox has a keen eye for flora, fauna, geology, and meteorology (North Dakota is equidistant between the North Pole and the equator, making it “the most extreme weather zone in the world”); he’s also adept at conveying his knowledge and capturing the natural beauty and ancient landscapes of the borderlands (“Minnesota’s Boundary Waters is still primitive, carved by nature and untouched by humans”). Fox’s travels uncover a secret: this largely ignored border is key to the U.S. economy as it is home to an abundance of water, oil, and natural gas, and it will loom large if and when America’s more easily accessible natural resources become depleted. This is a worthy travelogue that explores the beauty of America’s untouched land.

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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