Hiawatha's Highways (ePub)

The Great Lakes and the surrounding waters such as rivers and bays have been a viable transportation medium for thousands of years. The native people were using these waters for their dugouts, rafts and canoes for uncharted centuries before the area was developed into a modern nations by those who came here from other lands. The recorded history of shipwrecks is long and rife with drowning, sunken ships and lost cargos. From the first sailing ship that was launched and lost, to the huge freighters that have gone down in storms, the Great Lakes have shown no mercy to the souls who have gone out on their surface to get from one place to another or to move a cargo in an inexpensive and convenient way. Boats have played a major role in the development of the United States and Canada in the Great Lakes region and some of those boats have been skippered by friends of mine and the stories of those persons have given me the material to write this book. Ocean captains have said they fear the storms on the Lakes because of their furious nature and sudden appearance. The geological formation of the Lakes is a story unto itself and in no way have I the knowledge or space to make a record of this epoch of history and after 10,000 years, new facts are, and historical information is, surfacing about the part of the earth that we call home. I have been an inhabitant of the Great Lakes area for over 80 years and the lakes, rivers and streams have been my playground that has helped to shape my life and actually was a factor in my success in the Air Force during W.W. II where I used my knowledge and experience of hunting to become a marksman with several types of weapons. I do not have the time, knowledge or space to write all I would like to about the Lakes, but this story will give you a glimpse into the past and we must remember, as we look to the future, a look into the past may help us to preserve this magnificent fluke of nature that gave us twenty percent of all the fresh water in the world. We should treasure it and treat it for what it is, a true gift of nature that is the envy of the world.