Gunflint Burning
Fire in the Boundary Waters

"Gunflint Burning" is about the Ham Lake fire, which occurred in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in 2007. It's likely to be of interest mostly to people who live in or near the Boundary Waters, people who have spent time there, and people with a particular interest in wildfires --......more

I enjoyed the story about the fire because I knew one of the people mentioned in the book and I love the BWCA. Some of the information regarding the life of a fire was interesting. However, I found some areas of the book to be slow moving, the story jumped around in time as the author tried to incor......more

In the epilogue, author Cary Griffith admits that he was unfamiliar with wildfire science and wildland firefighting prior to researching and writing Gunflint Burning: Fire in the Boundary Waters. I found it interesting that he seemed so interested in the management of firefighting, especially how in......more

This was an interesting read for me since I'm from the state of Minnesota. It leads the reader through the big fire from many perspectives - that of the person who started it, the firefighters, law enforcement, residents of the area, etc. It also does a nice job of describing the northern part of Mi......more

The book was incredibly interesting. Despite having followed the news about the fire as it occurred, I felt I really knew very little. This book was filled with details about the path of the fire, structures that were threatened, and the complexities of managing the fighting of large scale fires. I......more