Author Phyllis Root teamed up with local illustrator and renowned Grand Marais artist Betsy Bowen to create a children’s book called The Lost Forest, a true story.
This charming somewhat whimsical book was named Honorable Mention in Children’s Literature at the recent 2020 Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards.
How can a forest be lost? Good question, but this really happened.
In 1882 during a public land survey, the surveyors marked 144 acres in Itasca County as a lake. As time went by and logging companies bid on trees to cut for lumber, none of them bid on this section of land because it was supposed to be Codington Lake. The mistake wasn’t corrected until 1960 when Codington Lake was found to be one-half mile from the site marked on the survey map.
By then this was the only uncut red and white pine forest in the area, and since 1960 it has been preserved as a scientific and natural area.
Root and Bowen created a charming children’s story about this forest, noting that the forest never knew it was lost, and flourished while it had gone missing.
With the help of Bowen’s beautiful illustrations, Phyllis Root shows us that there is a lot of life that can be found in the Lost Forest.
Locally, this book can be purchased through Drury Lane Book Store, Lake Superior Trading Post, Betsy Bowen’s Studio, or Birchbark Books and Gifts.
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