Can There Be a Biography of a Lake? If So, How Would You Write One?

The presentation on An Accidental Jewel will establish some criteria for a good biography and then assess how well suited the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage is for a full-dress biographical treatment.  Topics to be discussed include what questions to ask when doing research, what kinds of sources are available to document a lake’s history; how to deal with legend and lore (we all know how anglers’ memories work!); and what enables the historian to discern and develop a narrative thread.

The ultimate goal of the presentation is to use the process by which An Accidental Jewel came into being to demonstrate the ways in which the historian’s craft can draw meaning beyond our original expectations from the jumble of past events.