Rural Route Bookstore

Books about Farm Life, Small Town Life, the Midwest, and Scandinavian-Americans

Featuring the Heartwarming Humor of "Those Lutheran Ladies"

Resources

Six Feet Under: A Graveyard Guide to Minnesota by Stew Thornley

In the introduction, Thornley writes, “Cemetery surfing has become an increasingly popular hobby... . People making treks include genealogists tracing their roots, artists and writers admiring the monuments and epitaphs, travelers looking to get off the beaten path... . Visitors respond in different ways to what they encounter, taking pictures, making rubbings, leaving offerings. . . ."

This guidebook — splashed with interesting, enlightening and often unknown factoids about the state's history — also contains a helpful appendix with a county-by-county listing of Minnesota's cemeteries and their specific locations and lists the 400 famous, infamous and just plain interesting Minnesotans whose graves were visited by Thornley. The author's interest in cemeteries is not new. He has also visited the grave of every member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame, a quest that took him across the United States and to Cuba.

G - 03 Paperback $14.95

The Red River Trails: Oxcart Routes between St. Paul and the Selkirk Settlement, 1820-1870 by Rhoda R. Gilman, Carolyn Gilman, and Deborah M. Stultz

If you heard stories about your grandfather taking the oxcart to St. Cloud for supplies and being gone for two weeks, this book, recently re-issued by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, is for you. It traces the paths running through Minnesota, North Dakota and Canada that were used as international trade routes for furs and merchandise between St. Paul in the south and the settlement that was to become Winnipeg in the north. Supplemented with maps, sketches, a full index and reference notes, the book is divided into chapters featuring six main trails: Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota Valley, Woods, Middle and Metropolitan.

"At the risk of sounding like a full-blown geek, this is about to become my favorite book. Maps for the Middle Trail even show my little hometown, right there, two weeks from St. Cloud...a trip that takes about an hour and a half today!" Suzann Nelson

G - 01 Paperback $14.95

They Chose Minnesota June Drenning Holmquist; ed.

Why did emigrants leave their homelands and move to Minnesota? Where in the state did they settle? What did they do, and how did they organize? How did they maintain their ethnicity? These are just a few of many deep questions addressed in this massive document making the subtitle, "A Survey of the State's Ethnic Groups", almost a misnomer. This is not "survey", as in quick scan or exit poll. This is an 8 1/2" X 11", 614-page tome with photos, illustrations, and charts covering 60 ethnic groups that settled in Minnesota. This is by far the largest and most expensive book carried by Rural Route Bookstore, and if it weren't worth the price, we wouldn't carry it. The various scholarly contributors read like a Who's Who of ethnic studies.

When published, the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press wrote, "If you are a descendant of Icelanders or Lebanese, Greeks or Japanese, you will find interesting material in this book about your forebears and how it was when they settled in Minnesota." And yes, all five Scandinavian groups are covered in detail in this "must have" book for historian or genealogist.

G - 04 Paperback $39.95

Between Rocks and Hard Places by Ann Urness Gesme

Now in its fourth printing, it has a beautiful new cover that reflects the beauty of Norway and does justice to Gesme's thorough research. Quite a few books cover the lives of Scandinavian immigrants in the United States. Between Rocks and Hard Places is one of the few books written for the non-Norwegian reader that looks at daily life in Norway before mass emigration. Gesme fully explains the "push factors:" the conditions, customs and traditions in the early 1800s that drove so many people from their homeland into the unknown. It is perhaps the most comprehensive book on this topic designed for the English reader.

G - 05 Paperback Price: $13.95

Order by using the 'Place an Order' form or you may order by phone (800 494-9124). For payment and shipping charges, see 'Place an Order.'

All Caragana Press products are available at wholesale prices to qualified retailers, organizations, churches, schools, and libraries. Call 800 494-9124 for details.

Scandinavian-American and Rural Humor Books