Joan Crosby
Cook County News Herald columnist Joan Crosby has won one more award for her excellent book, Tucker Lake Chronicle.
Crosby was awarded first place in the 2020 Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards (NEMBA) Memoir category late last week.
The 32nd Annual Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards were presented online this year because of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Presenting the awards were the UMD Kathryn A. Martin Library and Friends of the Duluth Public Library.
This is the second honor her book has garnered.
Crosby was awarded a silver medal for her “Tucker Lake Chronicle” at the June 27, 2020, Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MIPA) awards via Facebook live-watch party.
A panel of 99 MIPA volunteer judges narrowed the field to 88 finalists across 31 categories before picking winners.
Tucker Lake Chronicle is the story of Joan and Dick Crosby’s move to live off the grid in a one-room makeshift cabin on Tucker Lake for 13 months. It was 1969, the height of the Vietnam War, and while civil unrest swept across much of the country, Dick and Joan sought the peace and quiet of the wilderness, moving from the Minneapolis suburbs to the periphery of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). They quit their jobs and left the Twin Cities behind.
With no road leading to their cabin, they had to hike and canoe in and out in the summer and snowmobile (when it worked) or snowshoe to get supplies in the winter.
Long on time and short on cash, the couple gamely figured out how to live without electricity, without running water, without a phone or a TV or indoor plumbing, while planning their future. Through it all Joan kept a diary of daily events and over the years shared these stories with Cook County News Herald readers in her Over the Hill column. Several years ago, Joan decided to combine her work into one book, the Tucker Lake Chronicle, so she could share her and Dick’s adventure with a wider audience.
This book would make a great Christmas present for someone who wants to learn about the rigors of living in the wildness with an ever helpful malamute puppy. You can pick up a copy of this award-winning book at Drury Lane Bookstore, the Lake Superior Trading Post or Birchbark Books and Gifts in Grand Marais.
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