Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-299) and index.

Dreams of wealth and glory -- Failing the fish -- Protecting a new home -- Degradation -- Indignation -- Manipulating the lakes -- The comeback -- Losing the lakes? -- A future in peril -- Hope for home. "Dave Dempsey weaves the natural character and phenomena of the Great Lakes and stories of the schemes, calamities, and unusual human residents of the Basin with the history of their environmental exploitation and recovery. Contrasting the incomparable beauty and complexity of the Lakes and the poetry, folklore, and citizen action they have inspired with the disasters that short-sighted human folly has inflicted on the ecosystem, Dempsey makes this history both engaging and relevant to today's debates and decisions."--Page 4 of cover.