The story of a forest "lost" by a surveying error-and all the flora and fauna to be found there

A forest, of course, doesn't need a map to know where to grow. But people need a map to find it. And in 1882 when surveyors set out to map a part of Minnesota, they got confused, or tired and cold (it was November), and somehow mapped a great swath of ancient trees as a lake. For more than seventy-five years, the mistake stayed on the map, and the forest remained safe from logging-no lumber baron expects to find timber in a lake, after all.

The Lost Forest tells the story of this lucky error and of the 144 acres of old-growth red and white pine it preserved. With gentle humor, Phyllis Root introduces readers to the men at their daunting task, trekking across Minnesota, measuring and marking the vast land into townships and sections and quarters. She takes us deep into a stand of virgin pine, one of the last and largest in the state, where U.S. history and natural history meet. With the help of Betsy Bowen's finely observed and beautiful illustrations, she shows us all the life that can be found in the Lost Forest.

Accompanying the story is a wealth of information about the Cadastral Survey and about the plants and animals that inhabit forests-making the book a valuable guide for readers who might want to look even deeper into the history of Minnesota, the flora and fauna of old-growth forests, and the apportioning of land in America.

There are 40 pages in this book. This book was published 2019 by University of Minnesota Press .

Phyllis Root has been writing for children for thirty years and has published more than forty books for young children. She currently teaches in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Hamline University. Betsy Bowen has written and illustrated many children's books, including Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet Year; Helen Hoover's Great Wolf and the Good Woodsman (Minnesota, 2005); and Phyllis Root's Big Belching Bog (Minnesota, 2010) and Plant a Pocket of Prairie . She lives in Grand Marais, Minnesota.