• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

  • Home
  • Books Read
    • Books Read
    • Books by Author
  • Cooking
  • Quilting

Travel

Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America’s Forgotten Border

August 4, 2018 Filed Under: Books Read

Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America’s Forgotten Border

Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border by Porter Fox
on July 3, 2018
Pages: 272
Format: hardback
Genres: Environment, Natural History, Nature, Nonfiction, Travel
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A quest to rediscover America’s other border―the fascinating but little-known northern one.

America’s northern border is the world’s longest international boundary, yet it remains obscure even to Americans. The northern border was America’s primary border for centuries—much of the early history of the United States took place there—and to the tens of millions who live and work near the line, the region even has its own name: the northland.

Travel writer Porter Fox spent three years exploring 4,000 miles of the border between Maine and Washington, traveling by canoe, freighter, car, and foot. In Northland, he blends a deeply reported and beautifully written story of the region’s history with a riveting account of his travels. Setting out from the easternmost point in the mainland United States, Fox follows explorer Samuel de Champlain’s adventures across the Northeast; recounts the rise and fall of the timber, iron, and rail industries; crosses the Great Lakes on a freighter; tracks America’s fur traders through the Boundary Waters; and traces the forty-ninth parallel from Minnesota to the Pacific Ocean.

Fox, who grew up the son of a boat-builder in Maine’s northland, packs his narrative with colorful characters (Captain Meriwether Lewis, railroad tycoon James J. Hill, Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota Sioux) and extraordinary landscapes (Glacier National Park, the Northwest Angle, Washington’s North Cascades). He weaves in his encounters with residents, border guards, Indian activists, and militia leaders to give a dynamic portrait of the northland today, wracked by climate change, water wars, oil booms, and border security.

Primary Sidebar

May 2025
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jan    
Deer Park
Current weather
-º
Sunrise-
Sunset-
Humidity-
Wind direction-
Pressure-
Cloudiness-
Deer Park weather

2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane) has read 12 books toward her goal of 35 books.
hide
12 of 35 (34%)
view books

Pocket

  • Speaker Johnson Works to Unite Fractious Republicans Behind Him

  • Brandon Sanderson Is Your God

  • How Christian Is Christian Nationalism?

Other Books Read

Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism

Long Shadows

Footer

Currently Reading

Publishing Soon

The Missing Half The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers
The Quiet Librarian The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens
Goodreads

Copyright © 2025 · WordPress · Log in