This is the story of the people, places and events that have shaped the shoreline of Lake Mendota, Madison's greatest lake, as we know it today. It is the story of iceboaters, sailors, fishers, hunters, explorers, politicians, entertainers, lifeguards, boat captains, inventors, scientists and Olympians, much of it in their own words. Don Sanford spent over a decade preparing this social history of Lake Mendota. His work assembles the personal experiences of people who lived, worked, and played on the lake with the events that shaped Madison, the Badger State, and the nation.The first book of its type, On Fourth Lake is illustrated with more than 500 maps, newspaper articles, and photographs. Many of the images were sourced from private collections and are exhibited to the public for the very first time. This book is a must-have for anyone who spends time on Lake Mendota or has an interest in local history.

Until the late 1950s, the major body of water for residents of northeast Alabama was the Coosa River, which wove prominently through the rural landscape of the region. When Alabama Power Company decided to dam the river in order to build a thirty-thousand-acre reservoir, locals were divided about whether to welcome the hydroelectricity and potential prosperity or resist losing their land and proud agrarian heritage. Three years and millions of cubic yards of earth later, Weiss Lake emerged to alter Cherokee County history permanently. Post editor and county native Scott Wright presents a captivating collection of personal recollections and historical vignettes to illustrate the magnitude of the lake's influence in shaping the future of the area--and damming its past.

When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, its densely forested north awaited railroad construction before settlement. Taylor County, the "Garden spot of Northern Wisconsin", was founded on March 4, 1875. The area was primarily forested with eastern hemlock. The county's early years were dominated by lumbering and leather tanning, the latter made possible by tannic acid leached from hemlock bark. Today, Taylor County's municipalities are home to diverse industries.

Written by two long-time lake residents after 6 years of research, this 416 page book includes over 500 photos. Topics about this popular lake in northeast Indiana include: Introduction and early history, 25 individual beach histories with anecdotes, boating, youth camps, cottage life, Lake James Golf Club, Lake James Ski/ Sports Club, Lake James Yacht Club, Fishing, Bledsoes Beach, Hoosier Basketball Camp, Pokagon State Park, lake mail delivery, maps, and marinas.

History comes home in a deeply moving, exquisitely illustrated tale of a small house, taken by the Nazis, that harbors a succession of families—and becomes a quiet witness to a tumultuous century. The days went around like a wheel. The sun rose, warming the walls of the house. On the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, a wooden cottage stands on the shore of a lake. Over the course of a hundred years, this little house played host to a kind Jewish doctor and his family, a successful Nazi composer, wartime refugees, and a secret-police informant. During that time, as a world war came and went and the Berlin Wall arose just a stone’s throw from the back door, the house filled up with myriad everyday moments. And when that time was over, and the dwelling was empty and derelict, the great-grandson of the man who built the house felt compelled to bring it back to life and listen to the story it had to tell. Illuminated by Britta Teckentrup’s magnificent illustrations, Thomas Harding’s narration reads like a haunting fairy tale—a lyrical picture-book rendering of the story he first shared in an acclaimed personal history for adult readers.

"In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding traveled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been a holiday home for her and her family, but in the 1930s, she had been forced to flee to England as the Nazis swept to power. Nearly twenty years later, the house was government property and soon to be demolished. It was Harding's legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over -- a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it? As Harding began to make inquiries, he unearthed secrets that had lain hidden for decades about the lives of the five families who had lived there: a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widow and her children, and a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all -- bar one -- had been forced out. The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment; witnessed murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation. As the story of the house began to take shape, Harding realized that there was a chance to save it, but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland -- and a hatred handed down through the generations. -- For readers of Edmund de Waal, Daniel Mendelson, and David Laski" -- Provided by publisher.

An engaging introduction to Lake Champlain s varied physical and biological resources in short essays that offer enough detail to satisfy ecologists, but a prose style that anyone can enjoy. Six sections: The Setting; Forces; Phenomena; Living Lake: Plants; Living Lake: Animals; The Future of Lake Champlain. Copublished with The Lake Champlain Committee, a non-profit environmental organization that has been working since 1963 to protect the lake's environmental integrity and recreational resources. Author Mike Winslow, Staff Scientist for the LCC since 2001, has a BA in Biology and Environmental Studies from St. Lawrence University and an MA in Botany from the University of Vermont.