 If you watch Common Ground online, consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org. Lakeland Public Television presents Common Ground made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota. Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, a partnership for generations. Member, FDIC. Welcome to Common Ground. I'm your host, Scott Knudson. In this two-segment author episode, meet Carol Bowman, who photographed a baby loon grow up on her local lake and self-published a book. Then historian John Eggers details his children's book of explorer Count Beltrami. My name is Carol Bowman and I live in Aurora, Minnesota on Embarrassed Lake, between Aurora and Boabic, actually. And I recently published a book called Tucked Under about a baby loon from when it was an egg to when it left the lake. I told it like the baby's telling the story, so there's a whole history throughout for three months of his growth. My husband, George Kobe, found the egg one day when we were kayaking and we found the nest along this island where we've seen things before. And so he goes, oh, there's a loon's nest. And so that's how we kind of found the nest right away. And there was a couple of loons swimming around there and stuff. We made sure that we weren't too close so that they weren't disturbed and stuff. But the next morning I went out right away and stuff too. So we were anticipating when the birth would be and stuff. So it took about a month after we found the nest before it was born, so on July 6th. The picture of the egg was amazing because it was like, oh my God, there's the first picture of the loon and of the baby, I would say. And the spotted colors and it was a great big egg. And I know that they only have one or two because of the loon's shape, but it was really nice to see how they build the nest in and they turn it every so often, I think. And it was enough in the sun that they could go off and feed and it would still stay warm with the light on it. The mother lays very flat when you go by the nest because it's being protective of the egg. And so it lays very flat and just trying to look like it's not there. The reason I called it tucked under is I got some great photos of the baby actually under the mother's wing. I know there's photos of him sitting on top, but I was actually watching him crawl up underneath the wing. She'd lift up her wing and he'd crawl under. Or sometimes she'd lower herself like almost like a submarine and he'd ride up and be on top there. So it was just amazing to watch that little thing underneath her wing. The mother went down quite a few times a day, I mean a lot, to feed the baby and stuff. And it would go down and then when it popped up the baby's always waiting in the water and so when it popped up, she would make little peeping sounds if it wasn't looking towards her to make sure he or she knew that I have food for you. So she went over there and sometimes the crayfish was so big that they'd drop it. And when he's trying to get the crayfish and then about three or four times before he finally got it and I couldn't believe he ate that whole thing. So as it shows in the book when he's burning his wings there, I ate the whole thing. So he had quite an awkward phase there. They grow up and it's like when they rubbed their feathers in their preening. So he had a mohawk for a little while and he had, you know, it wasn't very pretty, some of his growings up and stuff. But most of the time it was so cute. The little fluff plus out the little feathers, you know, and the red eyes didn't come out till way at the end. He'd do everything that the parents would do. Basically started diving not too long after he was born and stuff. So but growing up it was fun. And as it was a juvenile, even I noticed the parents still went down for food for the baby. And whenever she would come back up, he'd just go up and snuggle on her neck and everything was really cute to watch. While I was kayaking and I would stay a distance to make sure that they just kind of got used to me and stuff. And so I'd take pictures and they swam around me and they weren't afraid. It seemed like as long as they knew he weren't going to hurt them. And I sat for so long there that they just got used to me. And when they hung out together and the baby was comfortable enough to just, you know, and wasn't afraid to flap its wings or, you know, everything like that. So the male would make a few sounds. They seemed to be the squawker of the group and so the others, but they were real protective of the baby. And so they always stayed with me for great pictures because the baby was right there and the parents were right together. So it made great pictures. I just get excited myself about nature. I love being out there. Any little thing makes me happy. Like, you know, the water opening up when the ice comes off the lake or any little thing like that. So I'll take little things like bark, close up a bark or, you know, loons or whatever. And so once I was out there and we found this and it's like, oh, every day it just excited me to get out there and see how big he was or what are they going to teach him today, feeding him fish or, you know, him taking it and many times that he would drop it and she'd have to pick it up. And how big the crayfish was that he ate and having him spread his little wings with no feathers basically on it, but fluff. I would come back every day and put these out on Facebook and everybody loved the journey of the little loon on Facebook. And so that's when I made the book. So when I brought it into the camera shop in Virginia, we would put together photos and she said, you're not going to go through all these thousands of pictures for 50 in a book. And I said, yes, I am. And so I went home one weekend and picked out 50 photos and I came back and we made a prototype of a book and I sold actually 100 of those. And she said, okay, that's enough. And I said, what? She said, we need to make a real book. And so that's when we actually put one together on the computer and did everything you're supposed to and we sent it out to a printer and have gone from there. The book ranges for all ages. I have facts in the back. It's also written like a baby loon's telling the story. So children love it. It's not long. There's so many pictures in there. There's 50 photos in there and everybody enjoys looking at the book and then they see the different phases of the loon. Like, oh, look, there's this little tail or when the mother taught the baby loon how to lay flat so that there's danger and stay still so no fish will get you while I'm off. Because the parents would leave and go to the other end of the lake for a certain amount of time. That must have been their coffee morning or something. And then they come back and then all of a sudden there's the baby loon because she just knows when to come back or they must make little sounds or something like that. But like I said, I've had anywhere from an eight-year-old could read every word but one to a 92-year-old friend of mine that from Rochester who said, I just love your book. When I feel down, I read your book and it makes me feel good. And I've had many people come in saying, I said so much in so few words in the book. And they even said stroke of genius, which I laughed at. But anyway, that was fun. I worked with Barb Tucker from Andu's Camera and she helped me put it all together on the computer. We picked out colors of the pages and I actually wrote what to say with each picture which my little child brain says, oh look, my name is Baby Loon. I love being on the water and I love to swim. There's my mom on the nest just waiting for me to be born. So we put that together and we found a printing company and they printed the books up and we ordered 100 to start with and then we ordered another 200, then we ordered 400 and so I've sold probably about 1300 books in the last six months. I go all over to resorts and stores and just sell my book. I guess for self-hublishing, don't be afraid of it. I never knew anything about it. I didn't even know I was going to make a book but I came through with documenting the first three months of a Baby Loon's life and so we got together on the computer and don't be afraid to try it. Get your camera out, keep it out all the time. Take pictures of whatever you like and there's somebody out there that loves everything too. If you'd like to purchase my book called Tucked Under, you may find them at any resorts or stores along the North Shore, along in Northern Minnesota or on my website. We live on the lake and so we just bought some kayaks and got out and it's so peaceful. I'll go out at 5.30 in the morning and there's somebody else in the lake, there's mist, and you hear the loons just calling and it's just, I think, people in the cities have no idea, you know, get out of nature and love life. It was so amazing to follow this family. I just couldn't believe I was seeing everything I did but because along the line, not just following the family, you saw eagles, you saw beaver swimming, you saw deer swimming, so it's the whole life of the lake, actually. And I would show some neighbors and they said, there were so many animals on this lake. I'm like, well, get out there, you know, that's the thing, you need to get out and experience everything about the water and stuff. But just watching those babies, I just felt so lucky to have found the nest and be like where nobody else is on that lake so it's just quiet. When and if you find a loon nest, make sure you stay far enough away. You don't want to disturb the living area of the loons themselves so that they can teach the baby and without any fear of danger. And you'll know it, the father will squawk or the mother will squawk too so you just keep a safe distance and so the baby isn't afraid either. Which I did and you make sure you're respecting nature so they can move on and grow up with their life and everything like that. But I think don't be afraid to take your camera out with you wherever you go and if you see wildlife, keep a distance but you can get good pictures no matter where you are. But keep a distance so they're not afraid and you're not disturbing them at all so they can keep living in harmony like we wish we could. I think when you get out in the kayak and you're on the lake by yourself like I do in the morning, it's usually I get up at 5.30 in the morning and it's just such an inner peace. The rewards of nature, I just make my heart just swell. I love it so much. I'm not a lot of people think like that but I think putting my pictures out there has made people think a little bit like if they see my book they go it's not about a deer or I have an eagle picture of them eating this fish or hauling it off. People don't realize and they don't think when they throw something in the lake or garbage in the lake or whatever you don't think and that's so wrong because I mean loonks could pick up anything, everything. Just keep it natural and love the beauty of the woods and the lake. The last day I saw the loon and when he took off for that last time I was just like got a little teary eyed because I thought what am I going to take pictures of now? But I looked across the lake and I thought is that a beaver? No and here was a deer swimming so there is always something out there to take photos of. So take your camera everywhere. My name is John Eggers I live on the shores of Lake Julie with my wife Kathy. We moved here about seven years ago. I am a writer and I am an educator and I enjoy public speaking. I came to Bemidji to be principal of Red Lake High School and when we moved to Lake Julia I was intrigued that how did Lake Julia get its name and so I wrote the book in search of Beltrami's heart named after of course Jackmobile Tramie which this county is named after. When we moved to Lake Julia seven years ago I was intrigued by the story behind it. Of course I lived in Beltrami County for about 30 years but no one ever really told me the story about how it got its name and so when we moved to Lake Julia I was a member of the Beltrami County Historical Society and the members there kept talking about well do you know the story about Jackmobile Tramie and I didn't so that really inspired me to look more into it and of course since I live on Lake Julia I got its name. When I first began writing the book I had intended to write it as an adult book but then in doing the research about the story I found that there were two or three other books that already had been written about Jackmobile Tramie and also of course he had his own two very lengthy diaries about his travels in Europe, in the United States and Mexico and they tell a story about his adventures as well so it really is a story of adventure intrigue, a little bit of romance so why not make it into a children's book. What I knew about the history already was really not much and I think that's probably true of most people in Beltrami County that they know the county is named Beltrami but they don't know how it got its name and very few know about the story about Jackmobile Tramie. Jackmobile was a man who came from a learned family and had 16 brothers and sisters that came out of Pergamot, Italy and his father was in the judicial system so he had some money but he was intrigued about adventure, he was intrigued with languages, he had a penchant for learning about other cultures and he traveled through Europe initially and then he went to Liverpool, England came from Liverpool then to the United States and when he came to the United States he had a visit with President Monroe which was interesting because in those days you could actually knock on a door and President Monroe would answer the door and you could go and visit President Monroe but anyway President Monroe I think well if you really want adventure you should go out west as Jackmobile made his way out west he encountered many Native Americans and so he really tried to draw the Native Americans out and learn about their culture learn some of their language and along the way began to collect all kinds of Native American artifacts which are now in a museum in Pergamot, Italy but I think that was probably the most interesting thing that Jackmobile learned in the United States other than the fact that it was a wilderness a lot of things yet to be discovered when he left Washington DC he traveled up to St. Louis and from St. Louis on a boat called the Virginian which was the first steamship to go up to Mississippi along the way there were many Native Americans living and the boat would stop and he would get out and he would begin trading with them and he did this all the way up through Minnesota then through Minnesota Territory and even on the way back he just kept trading with Native Americans to get certain artifacts that he enjoyed and put them in his canoe well when Jackmobile came to Minnesota it was not a state at the time it was still a territory and he came to Fort Snelling which at the time was not called Fort Snelling it was called Fort St. Anthony but when he arrived at Fort Snelling the Colonel Snelling told him about a map making group that was going to leave shortly he persuaded the major long at the time who was not a very friendly person to take Jocomo with him and so he didn't want to do it because he thought Jocomo really didn't know his way around the wilderness very well but Colonel Snelling liked Jocomo and he persuaded Major Long to take him and when they arrived at the town of Pembina which is northwest of here right near the Canadian border then that's when they parted companies Jocomo and his way and Major Long went his way to continue his map making journey Jocomo who didn't really learn how to paddle a canoe very well and of course these were birch bar canoes and they were probably very tipping not like our canoes today and he just could not navigate that canoe very well and it shows him pulling the canoe which he did up the river full of the things that he had collected and we see here that he used his umbrella to protect his artifacts from the sun this part of Beltrami County is really rich in Jocomo Beltrami history if you can envision him coming from a city Pembina in northwestern Minnesota and Dakota and then traveling down to Red Lake back in the 1820's and then from Red Lake through his Native American friends he was talking to them about well do you know where the source of this great river is and of course they knew because they had been here so sure we can take you there and so he left Red Lake, went up a river called the Mud River which is still there today and then into Lake Pupaski which was Mud Lake at one time and that of course is still there today and then from Lake Pupaski into Lake Julia and when he came to Lake Julia he climbed what we think was probably Buena Vista behind us that big hill, the big ski hill there and notice that the waters from Lake Julia flowed north and they flowed south and he proclaimed this to be the farthest point north for the Mississippi but when I talked to students about Jocomo Beltrami I mentioned that this is a book about adventure and about having dreams and when Jocomo left Italy in 1820 he was in his 40's he was more or less exiled from Italy because he had served in an army initially and Napoleon did not have a good name in Italy and so he was really kind of forced out of Italy but had this idea that he wanted to do something special for somebody when he was in Italy he became very close friends with a woman by the name of Julia Medici and she was from the Medici family she cared for Jocomo and by the time he left for the United States but because they were such good friends I'm not sure exactly the nature of their friendship but he wanted to do something special for her and so he had this dream about doing something he wasn't sure what it was but nevertheless that's what he wanted to do and when he came to the United States traveled up to Mississippi to Lake Julia he thought because this was the farthest point north of Mississippi he says I'm going to name this after my friend in Italy Julia I don't think at the time that he knew that this was the continental divide but he was intrigued by the fact that the waters flowed in both directions at the time south of Lake Julia is a little lake called Summit Lake and then south of Summit Lake is Little Turtle Lake and at one time the waters from Lake Julia there was a stream or creek or river that flowed into those two lakes which is no longer there now it was blocked by roads and so on but the river going north into eventually Red Lake and then also into the Hudson Bay believe it or not is still there and Giacomo knew there was a western source of the Mississippi as well and this is one of the mistakes that he made along the way was that he knew there was a western source of the Mississippi because the Native Americans had told him that but he didn't take time to go there had he take time to go to the Mississippi he knew there was a western source well he would have been given credit the school craft is giving credit today and that was in 1932 when school craft discovered the western more source but he was just interested and I think and leaving the mosquitoes and the forest behind and just wanted to get back to civilization that forced snarling and so he did not go well Bill Trammie never really got the recognition that he should have been Minnesota's forgotten hero he really is a forgotten hero in Minnesota even though that this county was named after him Bill Trammie County people don't really recognize the hardship that he endured during those weeks in the 1820's when he traveled through Minnesota on his own he again had a lot of encounters with Native Americans and with other people having to navigate this canoe up the rivers and through Red Lake to Lake Julia and I mean it was really a struggle for him to do that and the fact that he at the time in 1823 when he declared that this was the farthest point north of Mississippi it could have been you know and when the people living around Lake Julie today believe that it still is we believe that there's seepage going under Lake Julia Drive which is south of Lake Julia that flows into this little summit lake and eventually into Little Turtle Lake and then on down eventually into Cass Lake and down to the Mississippi so he was a forgotten hero that I think should be recognized more and I've always hoped that maybe sometime in the future that maybe there could be even a statue of Bill Trammie someplace in Bemidji so here we are on top of Buena Vista Buena Vista was a good name for this location because in Spanish it means good view so in 1823 when Jacques Mobile Trammie came up on top of this hill he looked over and saw Lake Julia and he thought boy this is a pretty good view and he was right it's a magnificent view well Bill Trammie had just spent three or four weeks in the wilderness and this was his mission to find the source the northernmost source of the Mississippi and again he named it after his friend in Italy Julia he named us Lake Julia where the waters flow north to the Hudson Bay and the waters flow south to the Gulf of Mexico and he looked at this lake and he said you know this is such a beautiful lake and he thought it was and it is kind of a heart shaped lake and if you read in his diaries he identifies it as a heart shaped lake where the waters flow to the north and to the south and as Buena Vista says it's just it can't be better probably the best overall view in Bell Trammie County is right here for Buena Vista 020 Production funding of Common Ground was made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji continuing their second century of service to the community a partnership for generations member FDIC Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th 2008 If you watch Common Ground online consider becoming a member of FPDV.org