About the book

Discovering the Penokees will be mostly pictures but will also feature a fair amount of text on potential impacts of a mine: economic, environmental, and human health effects (which will be especially hard on the Bad River Indian Reservation). We are planning a 10x8 (horizontal) softcover book of 160 pages, and possibly also an e-book. The book will also include a map of the region and other references. Projected availability is December 2013.

Along with Joel and others contributing to this book, Sweetwater Visions is committed to this project. While the funds raised by Indiegogo will go directly towards producing and marketing this book, the profits from sale of the book will be used to work with others to fight this mine—to leave open other future possibilities for developing a sustainable economy, to preserve this landscape for future generations so they are able to stay, work and play here.

Our budget will change depending on funds raised with Indiegogo and we will allow for our project to evolve and change as it nears completion, depending on our available budget. Our goal of $3,000 is the very minimum that we need to get this project off the ground, but if we can raise $6,000 or more, we can do an offset press print run, which lowers the cost per book and thus increases the amount that can go to the cause.

Positive Message

Joel wants the book to be positive: “We will cover some negative impacts of mining, but what I want to focus on is what an incredibly beautiful area this is — an area that, although I was born in Wisconsin, and have lived 33 of my 34 years in the state, I hadn't even heard of until a few years ago. My guess is that not many people do know about the beauty of the Penokees. And that's a big reason why I want to do this: to let people know what an incredible resource we have in the Penokees, and maybe to even question the wisdom of mining it — steer them towards thinking that maybe the value of the Penokees isn't what we can get at by blasting them and hauling part of them away.”  Instead of just thinking in terms of fighting against something the book will give reasons why we should fight for things like sustainability, beauty, and health.

Reasons your contribution will make this happen:

• The pictures are already taken. We're not starting from scratch. Austin is an award winning photographer and has been previously published in places like Lake Superior Magazine.
  
• The book design and layout is nearly finished. 
• Sweetwater Visions is an experienced small publisher, having published an award-winning photographic book on Lake Superior and several Great Lakes videos. 
• Sweetwater Visions’ experienced editor is already working on the book.
• All of the people working on this book are willing to work on the tight budget that a project like this requires because they believe in the cause.

But we now need your financial help to make this book a reality.

Please help spread the word by sharing this campaign. 
(Feel free to use Indiegogo share tools.)

For more information about Sweetwater Visions and Discovering the Penokees— www.sweetwatervisions.com

To view the video of Jenny Mahan's song —"Where Will You Stand?"

(In response to requests for the words to this song, we have posted them in our Updates section.)

Penokee Hills 2014 Calendar—