Deborah Morse-Kahn, author of The Historic St. Croix Valley: A Guide, recently sat down with us to answer some questions we had about her experience in writing her new book.

How did this travel guide book come to be written?

I had written a similar guide for MHS Press, Lake Superior’s Historic North Shore, two years ago. I had seen great change come to that beautiful area, and much of the change was causing the disappearance of buildings and sites that represented life on the North Shore of a century and more ago. I knew that each village along Superior had its own story, but few people seemed aware of those stories. I wanted to highlight the creation of Minnesota’s state parks, which dominate the North Shore and provide a favorite destination for travelers from around the world, with their spectacular geologic formations, waterfalls and heavy foresting. Like Lake Superior, the St. Croix Riverway has very rich history evident in wonderful architecture and dramatic archaeology, a great variety of landscape, a long timeline of settlement and the same richness of public land preservation.

More Q&A with Deborah Morse-Kahn