Great Lakes Journey is a follow-up to William Ashworth's earlier book The Late, Great Lakes, published in 1986. Fifteen years after his first trip, Ashworth journeys to many of the same places and talks to many of the same people to examine the changes that have taken place along the Great Lakes since the 1980s. Through personal observation, research, and numerous interviews with scientists, activists, and government agencies, Ashworth creates a detailed picture of the status of the Great Lakes at the end of the twentieth century. Among the most prominent changes he finds are the arrival of the zebra mussel and other exotic species, the rise and fall of the RAP process for pollution cleanup, a growing public mistrust of government action, a substantial loss of habitat and biodiversity, and an explosion of urban sprawl along the shores of the Lakes. Great Lakes Journey is a welcome update on the latest issues affecting the Great Lakes region.

The McGuffins share with readers the magnificent beauty of the Great Lakes Heritage Coast The Great Lakes Heritage Coast is an area that includes 1.1 million hectares of coastline along the north shore of Lake Superior and into Georgian Bay that has been recognized by the Ontario Government as a natural resource to be preserved and protected. As champions of Canada's wilderness, the McGuffins vowed to support this project and bring attention to the Heritage Coast by paddling the route and reporting on their adventure. For three months in the summer of 2002, Gary, Joanie, their three-year-old daughter, Sila, and their Alaskan Malamute, Kalija, paddled the route. The 3,000-km trip from Thunder Bay to Port Severn took them into some of the most breathtaking wilderness Canada has to offer. Through their written narrative and more than a hundred vibrant full-colour photographs, the McGuffins share with readers the things that make this trip unforgettable: the awe-inspiring star-filled skies, the rich variety of flora and fauna, the warmth of campfires on cool nights, the morning sun reflecting off pristine lakes, and the majestic ancient trees that abound in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest. This book is a tribute to that beauty.

Documents the stories of a number of sunken vessels on the United States territory in Lake Ontario, among them the steamer Ellsworth, the St. Peter, the Homer Warren, the schooner Etta Belle, the Coast Guard cable boat CG-56022, the schooner William Elgin, the Orcadian, the steamer Samuel F. Hodge, the W.Y. Emery, the British warship Ontario, the schooner C. Reeve, the Queen of the Lakes, the schooner Atlas, the Ocean Wave, the steamer Roberval, the U.S. Air Force C-45, the schooner Three Brothers, the steamship Nisbet Grammer, the steamship Bay State, the schooner Royal Albert, the sloop Washington, and the schooner Hartford. Appendices look at three particular locations: Ford Shoals, Mexico Bay, and the lake near Oswego.

COVER -- Half-title page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Epigraph -- CONTENTS -- Introduction: An Unexpected Idea -- Lake Huron -- Lake Erie -- Lake Michigan -- Lake Superior -- Lake Ontario -- Conclusion: Future Prospects -- Notes -- Author bio

The author provides an account of his experiences as a crew member on a tall-masted schooner during a six-week voyage through the Great Lakes, and discusses his other explorations of the lakes, looking at their history, geology, and environmental disaster and rescue.

The Great Lakes are a remarkable repository of millions of years of complex geological transformations and of a considerably shorter, crowded span of human history. Over the course of four summers, Thomas Shevory rode a bicycle along their shores, taking in the stories the lakes tell—of nature’s grandeur and decay, of economic might and squandered promise, of exploration, colonization, migration, and military adventure. This book is Shevory’s account of his travels, shored up by his exploration of the geological, environmental, historical, and cultural riches harbored by North America’s great inland seas. For Shevory, and his readers, his ride is an enlightening, unfailingly engaging course in the Great Lakes’ place in geological time and the nation’s history. Along the northern shore of Lake Huron, one encounters the scrubbed surfaces of the Canadian Shield, the oldest exposed rock in North America. Growing out of the crags of the Niagara Escarpment, which stretches from the western reaches of Lake Michigan to the spectacular waterfalls between Erie and Ontario, are the white cedars that are among the oldest trees east of the Mississippi. The lakes offer reminders of the fur trade that drew voyageurs to the interior, the disruption of Native American cultures, major battles of the War of 1812, the shipping and logging industries that built the Midwest, the natural splendors preserved and exploited, and the urban communities buoyed or buried by economic changes over time. Throughout The Great Lakes at Ten Miles an Hour, Shevory describes the engaging characters he encounters along the way and the surprising range of country and city landscapes, bustling and serene locales that he experiences, making us true companions on his ride.