Lake Erie: A Pictorial History - Softcover

Ken and Julie Sobol have lived on both the American and Canadian sides of Lake Erie and share a fondness for its unique geographical and social history. To create this unprecedented collection of photographs and essays, they spent years visiting museums and archives and interviewed all manner of Erie Lakers, from professional historians to long-time residents. The result is a remarkable portrait of daily life, industry and commerce on this historic Great Lake.

Lake Erie played a significant role in the post-Revolutionary War era and a crucial one in the War of 1812. A few years later the building of the Erie and Welland Canals opened up the entire Great Lakes basin for settlement, and shortly after that the discovery of oil, coal, iron ore and other natural resources soon unleashed the phenomenal industrial potential of the region. Rockefeller, Edison, Firestone, Goodrich, Carnegie, Westinghouse, Wells and Fargo, and many other legendary industrialists all first made their marks on or near the southern shore of Lake Erie. The other side boasted fewer magnates but many equally interesting characters -- Tecumseh, Sir Isaac Brock, Laura Secord, Abigail Becker, Hiram Walker, and Guy Lombardo, among others.

This detailed and richly illustrated book looks at the lake's prehistory, its early settlement, its role in wartime, its economic boom from 1815-1880, the High Industrial Period from 1880 to 1945, its history of dramatic storms, shipwrecks, and fire and ice catastrophes, its recreational history and its wealth of flora and fauna.

Julie Macfie Sobol and Ken Sobol have written television screenplays as well as articles for the Village Voice, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Guardian. They live in Toronto, Ontario.