Author Danielle Sosin signs books at the teacher’s desk on display at the Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder June 3. She is touring Lake Superior upon publication of her novel, Long-Shining Waters, which depicts characters living on Lake Superior in three different eras.
If you want to see Skip Lamb’s report cards from sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, stop by the Cross River Heritage Center in Schroeder. He almost could have gotten away with anonymity in the new display of historic memorabilia since his real name is Horace, but his teacher started putting “Skip” on his report card somewhere along the line.
Actually, Skip’s grades will remain a mystery because only the envelopes containing the report cards are visible in the display case, part of the opening exhibit on the history of West End schools at the Heritage Center, home base of the Schroeder Area Historical Society. Skip stood by the display case wondering how his report cards even got in there. His wife Linda admitted she did it.
The annual opening of the Heritage Center Friday, June 3 was celebrated with wine, cheese and crackers, and some absolutely scrumptious chocolate bars made by Barbara Livdahl, who also designed charming posters about the history of West End schools. They look like blackboard lessons carefully hand-printed in chalk.
A schoolroom scene greets visitors, complete with wooden children’s desks facing a teacher’s desk, lesson books, a flag, and a map on the wall.
Another feature of the evening was a reading by Danielle Sosin, author of The Long-Shining Waters. This, her first novel, was eight years in the making and won the 2011 Milkweed National Fiction Prize. Sosin is on a tour of Lake Superior, the common element that pulls together the lives of three women featured in her novel. One is an Anishinabe woman in 1622 struggling to feed her family at the end of a hard winter. Another is a Norwegian immigrant in 1902 with a strained relationship with her fisherman husband (“Too many things had grown in place of children,” she read). The third is a former bar manager traveling around the lake in 2000, learning to identify agates on the shore. Sosin writes poetically of the lake and its place in the lives of those who live beside it. “We are all connected in time and place,” she said.
Sosin, a Twin Cities native now living in Duluth, credited historical societies around Lake Superior with helping her in her research. She spoke warmly of time spent writing at cabin owned by Joan Drury, a writer, former publisher, and owner of Drury Lane Books who for years hosted quiet retreats on Lake Superior for women writers.
Sosin’s book, published by Milkweed Editions of Minneapolis, is available at Cross River Heritage Center. She is glad it’s being sold in Cook County. “I think it will have a very happy life here,” she said.
Also at the opening celebration were numerous artists whose works will be on display throughout the season. Painter Bruce Palmer, a former Bernie Quick student, lives in a log cabin in Schroeder and paints in a studio on his property. Before his retirement, he ran a foundation for Northern States Power, but he always painted. “I had to,” he said. His paintings depict vibrant images of North Shore scenes.
The paintings of Sandi Pillsbury Gredzens range from stunning nighttime scenes to pastel watercolor images of Lake Superior. Like Palmer, her work will be on display through the month of June. She grew up enjoying a family cabin in Encampment Forest and now lives in Castle Danger just outside Two Harbors. A retired schoolteacher, she has been painting for 40 years but took her first class at the Grand Marais Art Colony in 1986 at the recommendation of noted Grand Portage artist Hazel Belvo. Her work will also be appearing at Chez Jude this season.
Local fiber artists Nancy Hansen and Mary Brislance will also have their work on display through June.
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