What's the best way to get people interested in history? Pictures, of course.

Ronald Christopher Zurek pieces together almost 200 vintage photographs into a regional history in "Sauk Rapids and Benton County."

Going back as far as the 1850s, the book explores the industries, businesses and the people that have contributed to the area's growth.

James J. Hill's influence on the railroads and the tiny saloon that was to become Coborn's Superstore are just some of the highlights. Group portraits dominate the book, capturing the lifestyles of granite workers, young men leaving for World War II and operators connecting telephone conversations at the turn of the century. And we can't forget the Prohibition era federal officers reveling in their moonshine bust.

The Ojibwe American Indians who originally lived in the Benton County area serve as a brief introduction to the rest of the book. One chapter focuses on Sauk Rapids' fatal 1886 cyclone, with photos of the destruction.

In "Images of America - Sauk Rapids and Benton County", Ronald Christopher Zurek has brought a collection of vintage photos and text into a cohesive history of the early years of that region of Minnesota. I have to admit that before reading this books I had no idea that sauerkraut was made in big wooden vats, but the photos from the Foley Pickle Factory certainly enlightened me. This book is a wonderful look into the past of a Midwestern small community. From the early Ojibwe and Sioux settlements to the daily life of the European settlers it fascinates us with high quality black and white photos.

The history of the railroads, the "Sauk Rapids Cyclone of 1886", the vintage family photos and all the other elements of this book should be a compass to the current residents of the Benton County proclaiming their heritage. The next time I pass through that region I shall have to spend time looking for the landmarks that still exist, and pondering the ones that have passed.

This book is "a keeper" and will be a welcome addition to my history collection.

Black Hawk's Autobiography is reframed in this edition to convey the true voice of the author despite Jacksonian influences of the original editor and interpreter (Patterson and LeClair) who published the first autobiography in 1833. Nichols muses in his introduction,"What is certain is that Black Hawk provided some narrative which has come down to the present...To what extent... does his product offer an authentic Indian voice?...Having worked on this text for some years, it seems to me that we can indeed 'tease out' the Indian's feelings and ideas from the Autobiography...the resulting prose still gives obvious examples of Sauk cultural practices and the warrior's individual attitudes." (p. xix) The value of such an edition is clear. For the first time a mid- 19th century Native American perspective of the experience of American/other territorial expansion, takeover, and ensuing treaties and conflicts between settlers and Native Americans is articulated. What emerges despite the cosmetic grooming efforts of Patterson or LeClair is not pretty or flattering to Americans in any way. Black Hawk is a formidable and resourceful enemy both with the pen and the arrow. What is valuable to Native Americans and other scholars today is both historical and current. Lost, forgotten, buried, disregarded, unperceived, and misunderstood Sauk values and outlooks can be discovered and explored. Perhaps the bitter battle of Wisconsin Heights can engender new insight from current audiences. What is clear and amazing is the evident skill and generalship of Black Hawk, as well as the loyalty and bravery of his band. Nichols begins with a chronology of important events in Black Hawk's life and a series of maps of parts of present day Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin to clarify and illustrate the progress of the British Band with Black Hawk. It is very clear that Nichols is understating when he states "...modern readers using some care can indeed find much that was Sauk and that was Black Hawk in this account." I found many parts of Black Hawk's Autobiography to be deeply moving. At one part, Black Hawk describes his joy at doing battle with a worthy adversary, a leader who was careful with his men and cautious in the risk of death and injury as well as cunning and resourceful, by saying "I would have liked to shake his hand!" I have spent some time roaming and camping in the land where Black Hawk fought the battle of Wisconsin Heights. Reading his autobiography helps reanimate that haunted, proud and beautiful landscape with the brave members of the British Band and their leader. It makes you feel as though you want to shake his hand.

I really enjoyed reading this story with my kids.Being from the area really made the story come to life and hard to put down.The conflicts of the Callahan family and predjitices of their era can still be related to our time.It is a wonderful story about love, honor, loyalty to ones beliefs and family. I highly recomend it !

The last "Indian War" in Illinois occurred in 1832 when a small band of Sauk refused under the leadership of the warrior Black Hawk to abandon their village (located under a subdivision of the present Rock Island, Illinois). They wandered up the Rock River, fighting contingents of regular army and state militia (a young Abraham Lincoln served several stints as a volunteer but saw no fighting; a young Jefferson Davis played a role in the last phases of the conflict), slipped into Wisconsin, and were finally defeated in a brutal massacre of men, women, and children on the banks of the Mississippi. Black Hawk surrendered and was taken East to meet President Jackson. After a short term in confinement, he and his companions were taken on a tour of the East Coast, an effort by the United States government to impress him with the young nation's overwhelming superiority in numbers and technology. The plan worked, by Black Hawk's own testimony, and when he returned to the Midwest he lived out the rest of his life in obscurity in a village in Iowa. He never saw his home again.
The origins of the autobiography published under Black Hawk's name has generated controversy. It was dictated to a half Native American interpreter, Antoine Le Claire, who rendered it into English, then edited by an Illinois newspaperman named John B. Patterson, who put it into publishable form. Both men swore that the result was faithful to Black Hawk's words, but the skeptical reader may be permitted some doubt; the language is clearly that of the period (surely Patterson's work), and Black Hawk himself complains on at least one occasion that his interpreter's grasp of the Sauk language did not suffice to translate a flowery speech. So what we have here, while no doubt in general faithful to Black Hawk's intentions and life story, cannot be his ipsissima verba. (It is a pity, given these doubts, that the editor of the volume, who has otherwise done an admirable job of annotation and commentary, did not compare the language of the preface, which records Black Hawk's own Sauk, with that of the text as a whole.)
Despite these doubts, there can be no question that the Autobiography affords us an extraordinary opportunity to see the impact of midwestern expansion on the native population from their own point of view, and to obtain direct access -- even if it has been mediated somewhat for non-native consumption -- into the social world of a people soon to vanish. The war itself is somewhat of an anti-climax, and deeply sad, doomed as resistance clearly was from the beginning. It is rather the self-presentation of a proud, successful Sauk warrior, endowed with considerable facilities of self-reflection and honesty, that make this book a treasure that every American should read.

As a college student from the blackhawk area, I found this book captivating. Really written for any age or education level, I think anyone and everyone should read it. A heroic story of a real man, the book is a beautiful journey through history. The story some details of Black Hawk's life before the war and describes the events behind the wars and his interpretation of them well. I would recomend this to anyone from junior high up and definatly anyone from Rock Island or the surrounding areas.

The late Crawford B. Thayer, Fort Atkinson native and Sauk War researcher and enthusiast, diligently assembled eyewitness accounts of Black Hawk and the movements of his "British Band" and his American pursuers through the wilds of then-western Michigan Territory. His narrative, if it can be called that, follows the words of the participants in a day by day... in some cases hour by hour... story that encompasses several weeks in Summer 1832.

Thayer's style includes both compilation of eyewitness accounts and dissection of the same accounts, with re-assembly in chronological order. The effect is to have numerous quotes that frequently cover the same item or subject. Thayer defended his technique by insisting that his cut-and paste methodology offered a "richer" accounting of events. Some readers, including myself, find the technique occasionally annoying.

The overall effect, however is a generally excellent compilation of accounts that trace the history of the campaign as the "British Band" and Gen. Atkinsons' army meander through present-day Wisconsin. I find Thayer's work second only to Ellen Whitney's compilations. His use of footnotes and citation is meticulous and exhaustive.

Thayer allowed the narrative to speak for itself... so persons looking for insight or analysis will need to look elsewhere. Also, Thayer assumes you have background history of the war, as he starts his essay in June, or the middle of the war.

"Hunting a Shadow" is the first book in Thayer's three-volume opus on the Sauk War, which he completed before he died. The other volumes cover the Battle of Wisconsin Heights and the Battle of the Bad Axe. Again... these are eyewitness compilations, not analytical hisotries of these events.

Ms. Gurko consumes half her text in getting to the main point of her title: the war itself. Her bent is clearly pro-Black Hawk, which dilutes her ability to present fair alaysis. Despite this, the account is readable and occasionally balanced, but grossly oversimplified and anecdotal.

For example, Chapter 11, entitled "The Battle of Wisconsin Heights" runs from page 136 to page 142, yet Ms. Gurko covers the entire battle in a single paragraph! The observation that the rain and wet grass was a contributing factor in the Wisconsin Heights battle stands as one of the rare insights contained in the book.

Unfortunately, errors of fact are a frequent distraction. For example, Colonel Henry Dodge is often described as commanding a "company" of "Galena miners." Dodge instead commanded all the militia troops in the wetsern Michigan Territory, including the battalion-sized Michigan Mounted Volunteers, which included Captain Stephenson's company of mounted rangers from Galena. Indexed and features a limited a bibliography, but no footnotes.

Persons interested in a thoughtful, well-researched alaysis of the Sauk War of 1832 will need to look elsewhere.