Northland

Starred review from May 15, 2018
The life and times of America's other border.The southern border of the United States gets all the attention, but it's barely half as long as the northern border; its story is "a tale of early mistakes, and more than two centuries of fixes." Fox (Deep: The Story of Skiing and the Future of Snow, 2013), a Maine native (he now lives in New York) and editor of the travel journal Nowhere, took a coast-to-coast, two-year journey weaving in and out of a boundary that, "on paper, looks like a discarded thread--twisted and kinked in parts, tight as a bowstring in others," to see it firsthand and to recount its rich history. He didn't make an itinerary: "I packed a canoe, tent, maps, and books and headed for the line." He began one chilly October morning in Lubec, America's easternmost border town near Passamaquoddy Bay. In June 1604, writes the author, Frenchman Samuel de Champlain entered the bay with two large boats and a crew of 150 to begin his own exploring. Throughout, Fox chronicles in detail Champlain's adventures, good and bad, as well as those of many other explorers and adventurers from the border's past. This gives the book an added richness, providing helpful historical context to the places the author visits. Early on, Fox's trip almost ended when he nearly capsized a small outboard boat in high waves in below-freezing Sandy Bay. He recounts that in 1775, the Continental army attempted a doomed invasion of Canada, and in the 1920s and '30s, a U.S. planning committee even "drew up plans to seize Canada." In Montreal, Fox hitched a ride on a "moving skyscraper," the freighter Equinox, as he traversed the Great Lakes. In eastern North Dakota, he got caught up in Indian protests over the oil pipeline.Richly populated with fascinating northlanders, Native Americans, and many border patrol agents, this is highly entertaining and informative travel literature.

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May 28, 2018
In this contemplative narrative, Fox (Deep) travels the United States’ border with Canada, following the footsteps of pre-Columbus Native Americans, European explorers, mountain men, and 18th-century government surveyors. The narrative is more ruminative than eventful—aside from a red fox defecating on a lawn or some sidelong glances from patrol agents, there’s not a whole lot that actually happens during Fox’s three-year exploration; in ways, the inactivity itself reflects the stasis of this borderland area. Fox has a keen eye for flora, fauna, geology, and meteorology (North Dakota is equidistant between the North Pole and the equator, making it “the most extreme weather zone in the world”); he’s also adept at conveying his knowledge and capturing the natural beauty and ancient landscapes of the borderlands (“Minnesota’s Boundary Waters is still primitive, carved by nature and untouched by humans”). Fox’s travels uncover a secret: this largely ignored border is key to the U.S. economy as it is home to an abundance of water, oil, and natural gas, and it will loom large if and when America’s more easily accessible natural resources become depleted. This is a worthy travelogue that explores the beauty of America’s untouched land.

June 1, 2018
Mention border security, and chances are Americans think of Mexico. But the only known terrorists to have sneaked across the border came through Canada. In this sweeping account of the northern boundary of the U.S., Fox travels from Maine to Washington State to trace the unique character of the land and its history. He moves seamlessly between geologic and human time scales, explaining the formation of the Great Lakes basin with the same ease with which he recounts the adventures of early European explorers like Champlain and La Salle. He narrates his own travels with keen observation, attuned to the special details that set each place apart, and speaks to fascinating people along the way who have shaped their lives, in one way or another, around the border. The border itself proved to be difficult to pin down, both geographically and historically (U.S. schemes to bring Canada into the Union lasted into the twentieth century). Although this boundary line is, for the most part, invisible, Fox finds that it still leaves an indelible mark on the places and people it touches.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)