Book Design: Margaret M. Wagner

Book Jacket Artist: Betty Beeby 

A note from the jacket artist: The large fire near the trees in this cover art was for dramatic effect only. The early settlers did see the Native American Indians with their birch bark torches all along the shore. That attracted the fish; thus, “Torch Lake” was well named.

ISBN 978-0-615-31693-2

Torch Lake: The History of Was-Wah-Go-Ning, is a timely, important and unique book offering a history that includes 673 maps, drawings, photographs and text to tell the story of the evolution of Torch Lake from the retreat of the last glacier to the end of World War ll.

Follow the changes from the earliest Native Americans, through the lumbering era, farming, the first railroad, development of tourist trade and rapid growth around the lake shore. Meet the early settlers who transformed the wilderness and opened the Torch Lake area. Learn how the Torch Lake area has changed from a land scrubbed clean by glaciers 10,000 years ago to Torch Lake in 1945.

Torch Lake is the most all inclusive history available. No other book on the market will tell the economic, social, and political history of Torch Lake so thoroughly. Nor will you find a history that is written in a way that helps you visualize how it looked, smelled, sounded, and changed from wilderness to resort land. This is a history written in an entertaining and easy to read style that will leave you feeling like you were there. This book, covering both the physical and cultural aspects of Torch Lake history, will show you in words, pictures, text and maps how the lake developed from a frozen tundra to dense wilderness, from cut over forests, to farms and after farms, finally lake front resort property.

Mary Kay and Ed McDuffie have the answers to your questions about history, geology, and stories of survival in the great north woods that surrounded Torch Lake.