Local author Joan Crosby is to appear in an author presentation at Grand Marais Public Library on Wednesday, June 12, from 2 to 3 p.m. Crosby plans to talk about her new book “Tucker Lake Chronicle,” about her experience homesteading on the Gunflint, about the personal journey the book details, and about her experience as an author.
Fifty years ago, Joan Crosby and her husband, Dick, moved from the Minneapolis suburbs to spend a winter on the outskirts of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in a primitive one-room cabin without road access or modern conveniences. They heard the wolves howl and the loons call, watched the seasons change, entertained occasional visitors—invited or not—and made periodic trips across two lakes and a connecting portage to their vehicle, then on into Grand Marias to do laundry and replenish supplies.
They also blazed a trail through the woods to the road in anticipation of those difficult weeks when the lakes would be half-frozen. Dick added a room to the structure, doubling its size, but they dropped the idea of erecting walls around the privy. Why bother? Visits to newfound friends at nearby lodges and wildlife adventures stirred up by their malamute, NookyBlurb, punctuated days that were more often filled with household chores, woodcutting, and pine-scented lakeside reveries.
News-Herald columnist Joan Crosby will talk about her new book “Tucker Lake Chronicle” at the Grand Marais Public Library on June 12. Joan and her husband spent one year living off the grid in a small cabin on Tucker Lake when they were first married.
Joan Crosby lives near Grand Marais with her husband, Dick, and her beloved pug, Mr. Magoo. She has been a columnist for the Cook County News-Herald for the past two decades.
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