On May 4, 1919, Charlie Cook set off for a year of adventure in the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters. Soon abandoned by his comfort-loving companion, the restless World War I veteran spent an enlightening year learning—often the hard way—how to paddle and sail on windy lakes, hunt and fish for food, bake "rough delicacies" in a reflector oven, and build winter-proof shelters. His how-to descriptions of trapping beaver, mink, and other game are unsurpassed in their detail. Cook also found his way into the border community of Ojibwe and mixed-blood families and a motley assortment of mysterious travelers, game wardens, and loners, including trapper Bill Berglund (who "adopted" Cook until the tenderfoot's eagerness to harvest pelts came between them). Cook's adventure climaxed in a 700-mile expedition by dogsled north into Canada, where he reached the limits of his endurance—and just barely lived to tell the tale. For anyone who loves the Boundary Waters or wonders what this rugged region was like not so long ago, Cook's story reveals a world still ruled by nature but on the brink of change. Cook had been in the Army Air Service in World War I and was a restless young man after the war. In the foreword to this book, the author's son, Harry B. Cook, describes how his 27-year-old father and a friend set out in 1919 for a year's journey into the woods of the Minnesota-Ontario border country. They fished, hunted, and trapped and traveled by canoe and dog sled. In the 1950s, after a varied career as a logger, owner of a grocery-store chain and a dairy bar, and worker in the Office of Price Administration in World War II, Cook took a course in writing and typed up an account of his adventure in the wilderness but failed to find a publisher. Decades later, his son has finally taken the edited manuscript to publication. An interesting yarn that tells of Cook's adventures and the people he met, this will be of interest to local history collections in public and academic libraries.DGeorge M. Jenks, Bucknell Univ., Lewisburg PA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Used Book in Good Condition