The Fountain of the Great Lakes
Lorado Taft, Sculptor
The Great Lakes
The Vessels That Plough Them: Their Owners,
Their Sailors, and Their Cargoes
Together with
A Brief History of Our Inland Seas
By
James Oliver Curwood
With 72 Illustrations and a Map
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1909
Copyright, 1909
BY
JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO HIS
FATHER AND MOTHER
WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND FAITH IN HIM HAVE BEEN UNFAILING,
THE AUTHOR
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS BOOK
In this volume, it has been my object to tell of thepeople and of the picturesque life of the GreatLakes, and to set before my readers actual factsabout the cities, the commerce, and the futureof the greatest fresh-water seas in the world. Forsome unaccountable reason, the Great Lakes, notwithstandingthe fact that more than thirty millionpeople live in the States bordering their shores, andin spite of the still more remarkable fact that theyare doing more than anything else on the Americancontinent for the commercial progress of the nation,have been almost entirely neglected by writers. To-daythere are but few people who know that one ofthe three greatest ports and the largest fleet of freightersin the world are on these unsalted waters; and Imention the fact in this particular place simply tobring home to the casual reader how little is knownby the public at large about our Inland Seas. Forthis reason, I have not dealt with any single side ofLake life, but have attempted to present as manyphases of it as I could; and, for the same reason, Ihave added a brief historical account of the Lakes atvithe end of the book. It has been my desire, too, thatthese pages, from the beginning, should prove ofespecial value to those many thousands all over theworld who are, or may in the future be, directly interestedin the Lakes in a business way; and a greatdeal of attention has, therefore, been given to thecommercial side of my subject—statistics and factsregarding Lake commerce, the opportunities of thepresent day, and a forecast of what the coming yearshold in store for the men who have investments, orwho plan to invest in business enterprises, on orabout the Great Lakes.
While dwelling upon the importance of the commerciallife of the Inland Seas, I wish also to emphasisethe fact that I have kept always in mind anotherlarge class of people who are keenly