Devils Lake

What does it mean to claim your space in a world that’s ending? Sarah M. Sala’s Devil’s Lake breaks open the American moment of unchecked gun violence, climate changes, and the growing rift between "us" and "them" with formal daring. Like a prism, this startling debut fractures into shades of possibility and memory, queering science, nature, and form to lay bare the colors of joy despite a world that seems intent on its destruction.

The new edition of Climber’s Guide to Devil’s Lake is your guide to the fractures, cracks, ledges, slabs, chimneys, and other rock formations of Devil’s Lake State Park, the most popular climbing spot in the Midwest. This bible for climbers locates and describes more than 1600 climbs. With more than 10,000 copies of the first edition in print, this handy volume remains the only comprehensive guide to climbing in the panoramic park located near Baraboo, Wisconsin. It describes many more climbs on recently acquired park land as well as in relatively unknown areas, encouraging exploration of new routes to decrease the overuse of, and damage to, the most popular areas. Major changes in the new edition include revisions of the hiking trail descriptions, the climbing safety and ethics sections, and the rating system, which has been changed from the National Climbing Classification System to the Yosemite Decimal System. A new chart compares these two systems to others. This edition is useful to climbers of all abilities and preferences, and the book’s excellent organization, along with fifty-nine new and revised diagrams, eleven maps, and twenty-two photographs, enable both novices and experts to locate challenging routes easily. Author “Olle” Swartling draws on his own forty years of climbing experience at Devil’s Lake and elsewhere, comments from other climbers, and information from out-of-print guidebooks to improve this edition, retaining the informative geologic and natural history of the Baraboo hills contributed by Patricia K. Armstrong.

Thousands of young men embarked on the adventure of a lifetime when they joined the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. Service at Wisconsin's popular state park offered notoriety absent at most camp assignments. While most of the CCC work around the country was in remote forests and farmlands, at Devil's Lake tourists could view CCC project activity each day, forging that labor into an essential part of the park experience. Historian Robert J. Moore interviews veterans and mines the archives to preserve this legacy so that the gasps of wonder at nature's marvels remain mixed with respect for the men who helped bring them forth.

A collection of true ghost tales from the dark and dangerous waters of Devils Lake, North Dakota, where the spirits of Indian and pioneer settlers alike are forever bound to the land they loved. It includes legendary stories of bravery and courage in the face of certain disaster; lost souls, doomed to relive their tragic deaths; vicious outlaws, condemned to repeat their crimes for all eternity; paranormal places, including a mysterious "Stairway to Hell"; and supernatural creatures, like the ethereal Canyo Tina on the south shore.