Minnesota Byways Books

Minnesota's barns are remarkable testaments to a Midwestern way of life, one centered on the land, work, family, ingenuity, and perseverance. Many think of barns as breathtaking landmarks along the byways. Others have their favorite barns—the well-kept, red dairy barn near St. Cloud, the faded horse barn on the way to Faribault. Still others know these structures more intimately: barns are as integral to their lives as family and home. In Barns of Minnesota, photographer Doug Ohman showcases the vast array of these exceptional landmarks, built by hand in wood, stone, brick, or metal and dating as far back as 1880. Where Ohman's photographs capture the beauty of the barn from the outside in, Will Weaver's evocative story illuminates the life of the barn from the inside out. Readers witness the making and breaking of one barn as it plays into the life and sustenance of several generations of one family who settled the land in 1922 and who farmed into the age of agri-business.

They stand at once as silent reminders of time past as well as the hub of our daily lives. They are the focus of activity in every county—the site of political speeches, holiday parades, and community picnics. They are the courthouses of Minnesota's eighty-seven counties. Writes author Mary Logue, "With a clock tower, the courthouse becomes metaphor, literally the ticking heart at the center of a county." In this beautiful book are photographs celebrating the variety of Minnesota's county courthouses. From the classic Beaux Arts dome atop the Stearns County Courthouse to the unadorned simplicity of the Sibley County Courthouse, this book offers a parade of some of the finest public buildings in the North Star State. Paired with Doug Ohman's photos is an essay by poet and mystery writer Mary Logue that reveals the secrets of these buildings we thought we knew. Together they tell the story of these distinctly American structures, symbols of the ways Minnesotans live under the law—with justice, equality, and fairness. As the inscription above the Wilkin County Courthouse declares: To none will we delay, To none will we deny, right or justice.

On the flat windy prairie, The only thing not moving Was a small red schoolhouse. So opens Schoolhouses of Minnesota, a magical foray into the nearly forgotten world of one-acre school grounds, kerosene lanterns, coal-burning stoves, and old desks that eventually had sixty years' worth of initials scraped into them. In the fourth book in his popular Minnesota Byways series, photographer Doug Ohman once again treats readers to the fruits of his state travels —including a trip to Minnesota's last remaining one-room schoolhouse in Angle Inlet—with 120 color photographs that illuminate the simple, often abandoned, sometimes refurbished, and nearly vanishing Minnesota pioneer and early schoolhouses. Bridging the past with the present, critically acclaimed writer Jim Heynen complements Ohman's images with twenty-five beautifully crafted tales on the evolution of lunch pails, the consolidation of rural schools, profiles of bullies and teachers' pets, and the timeless wish of schoolchildren of all generations—school closing on "snow days"! Heynen, who learned to read and write in a one-room schoolhouse, uses his trademark wit and down-to-earth style to bring back memories of the early days of Minnesota education, taught by hundreds of rural teachers across the state to thousands of farm and town kids alike.

From cozy structures near small-town parks to impressive buildings in metropolitan downtowns, public libraries stand at the center of community and learning in Minnesota's landscape. Libraries of Minnesota celebrates these architectural icons and the joy of reading they have inspired in Minnesotans, present and past. Doug Ohman, well known as the photographer for the Minnesota Byways series, now turns his camera to this most beloved institution. Over 120 exquisite interior and exterior shots exhibit a colorful survey of architecture, from a renovated liquor store to Carnegie libraries to the newest and most wired of information centers. In powerful, funny, and heartfelt essays, seven of Minnesota's best-known writers for children and young adults testify to the special significance of libraries in their lives. Will Weaver sneaked five miles into town on his bicycle to visit the library when he should have been trapping gophers. Pete Hautman's mom hauled her seven kids to multiple libraries, "like a shepherd rotating sheep from one pasture to the next." David LaRochelle, facing the frightening prospect of junior high, found escape in the Pirate's Treasure Hunt summer reading club. John Coy, Nancy Carlson, Marsha Wilson Chall, and Kao Kalia Yang tell similar timeless stories of young people as they discover, on the shelves of local libraries, the world and all its wonders.