Cabins of Minnesota

Cabins of Minnesota

The lake cabin. Early mornings on the sleeping porch, lunches on the dock, late-night cleanings in the fish house. But Minnesota's seasonal getawayas aren't limited to its bountiful lakes: vacationers trek to hideaways in the woods, to ice shacks on Mille Lacs, even out to cottages beside highways, relics from the days when farmers rented vacation places along cornfields and cow pastures.

Popular photographer Doug Ohman and renowned writer Bill Holm highlight the state's unique and treasured cabins - the storied Oberholtzer cabins on Mallard Ilsand in Rainy Lake; the oldest cabin on Ten Mile Lake near Hackensack; the celebrated Nellie Bly houseboat on the Mississippi River at Red Wing. Holm's eclectic prose combines stories of the ancient and new and illuminates the rewards of the cabin life: "the pleasures of fishing, daydreaming, sunset watching and star counting, the leisure to take stock of one's life without the surround-sound noise of the new wired century. In a cabin retreat," he writes, "pleasure overcomes duty for a little while."

About the Authors

Doug Ohman is a photographer and acclaimed public speaker. His photographs are featured in the Minnesota Byways series, which includes Barns of Minnesota, Churches of Minnesota, Courthouses of Minnesota, and Schoolhouses of Minnesota (All MHS Press). He lives in New Hope, MN. Bill Holm is an essayist, poet, and musician, and his books include The Heart Can Be filled Anywhere on Earth, Eccentric Islands, and Boxelder Bug Variations. When he is not at his cabin on the north coast of Iceland, he lives in Minnesota, and teaches at Southwest State University in Marshall.

Reviews

"Cabins of Minnesota perfectly illustrates why the good life remains, for many of us, synonymous with the good place. Doug Ohman's photographs remind us that the cabins of our youth were modest places sheathed in logs or red car siding, often over a cellar that smelled of canvas life preservers and outboard engine oil. Bill Holm's splendid essay is worth a book by itself. If you can't get away to the lake for a week, here is the next best thing."
John Hildebrand - Author of A Northern Front: New & Selected Essays

"Doug Ohman's photographs lovingly document a full spectrum gallery of Minnesota cabins - most plain to exquisite - while Bill Holm's text ranges through time and arround the globe, probing with great charm and erudition the essence of cabin living. In these pages you may well go lost for a time, free of the burdens and discontents of civilization, into a place where life reveals its good side."
Joe Paddock - Author of Keeper of the Wild: The life of Ernest Oberholtzer

"Minnesotans love their cabins, cabin life and cabin lore. Doug Ohman captures the iconic beauty of these varied structures, and Bill Holm describes the poignant meaning cabins have in the Minnesota psyche. I just want to get in my car with the grandkids and head north to any one of them."
Dale Mulfinger, FAIA - Author of The Cabin and The Getaway Home

About Minnesota Waters

Minnesota Waters envisions an engaged citizenry working to protect and restore Minnesota's irreplaceable natural assets - our clean and healthy lakes and streams - for current and future generations. The mission of Minnesota Waters is to promote responsible stewardship of our water resources by engaging citizens, local and state policymakers, and other partners in the protection and restoration of Minnesota's lakes and rivers.

About Minnesota Historical Society Press

Minnesota Historical Society Press publishes books on the history, art, and culture of the Upper Midwest. Founded in 1859, it is the oldest publisher in the state and the largest historical society press in the country. We seek to publish books for a broad audience of general readers and specialists. Understanding that where we come from is crucial to who we are, the press publishes books that explore the importance of place in this rich and varied region we call home.