Presentation and Book Signing with Arnold Alanen.

Arnold Alanen introduces his study of the North Shore, one of the Midwest’s most popular roads and a strong Norwegian and Finnish immigration settlement area.

The Scenic Route: Presentation and Book signing by the author Arnold Alanen. Building Minnesota’s North Shore, including the central role Norwegian and Finnish immigrants played in the built environment of one of the Midwest’s most popular roads. Arnold Alanen will talk about his new book, University of MN Press.

Minnesota’s North Shore is one of the Midwest’s most famous byways. The highway corridor and lakeshore offer evidence of human activities that began after the retreat of glacial ice, when the Anishinaabe people plied the waters of Lake Superior. Euro-American explorers and traders followed. in 1917, the rugged trails became the early motor road that would eventually be Minnesota Highway 61. Alanen follows the settlers and visitors, exploring the material world they built along the way: cabins and resorts, docks and fish houses, farms and logging operations, as well as churches, cemeteries, streetscapes, bridges, schools, lighthouses, parks, waysides, and roadside attractions. Interwoven with his tour of the built environment are stories of the people who shaped the cultural heritage, including many Norwegian and Finnish immigrants and their descendants. After his presentation, Alanen will autograph copies of his new book.

PRESENTER
Arnold Alanen, a frequent and popular FinnFest speaker was born, raised, and educated in Minnesota. He is professor emeritus of planning and landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is author of Morgan Park: Duluth, U.S. Steel, and the Forging of a Company Town (Minnesota, 2007) and Finns in Minnesota; coauthor of Main Street Ready-Made: The New Deal Community of Greendale, Wisconsin; and co editor of Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America.