Grace V. James and northern Wisconsin loons

her son, David James

There lived a great woman who spent many summers at Stone Lake in Springstead Township, Iron County, Wisconsin. Her special interest was the preservation of The Great Northern Diver, or Common Loon. The loons summered with Grace on her little lake. She finally authored an exquisite book telling her loon account, in 1980. Now it is out of print. There is a copy here at the sewer raccoon headquarters, presented to me by Grace James' son, David James, a good friend dating back to our meeting at the University of Wisconsin in the 50's.

Grace James was well-acquainted and a hostess of famed WI and MN Boundry Waters naturalist, Sigurd Olson and his wife, Elizabeth. Grace was heralded by various environmental protection agencies, and by Lakeland college which named a natural studies facility on campus after her. Her booklet, only 20 pages long, is one my greatest treasures. David made this comment in a recent Email, about his mother's enterprise as an author:

"I remember her sitting and signing about 50 books at a time. Then taking many over to The Book Worm in Boulder Junction. After the Revised and Updated Edition was done and all the books had been sold , except for those the family had, she got calls from the sellers asking for more books. She told them she was sorry but there would be no more printings. She got tired of all the bookwork, accounting and other procedures that had to be done."

Mrs. James, her husband, and son David once invited me to their "cabin", an indelible experience. I saw the little island on their lake where the loons annually nested, and I saw them, the loons! So Wonderful!

Toward the end of her booklet she wrote:

"Nature has it all to offer, but it needs our help to survive. There is a great need for beauty in the world today. I feel very strongly about this. My husband and I have noticed that we don't hear as many loons calling as we used to. The sky is quieter in other words. And now in the fall we are lucky if we see five or six visiting birds on Stone Lake when they get together for their social displays. However, we have a nesting pair that come every year and nest on our small island. People have been camping on this island when they go ice-fishing on the lake, so we have been told, and they burn old tires and leave the debris. This in time will destroy this nesting site for our loons, and of course that will mean they won't come back to our lake in the spring to nest. If this happens, I don't think I will want to go back there either."

David and his extended family sold the place after Mr. and Mrs. James died. It just wasn't the same. But everything lives in memory.

a poem by Grace J. in her book:

Summer

With darkness comes a mystery and the night.

The woodland sleeps and vanishes from sight.

A wild loon gives a mournful call

that breaks the stillness over all.

The feathered furried families rest

with newborn safely in the nest.

Nocturnal ones, whose work has just begun,

will toil till rising of the sun.

The sun will sky and woods adorn

with brilliance and awakening of the morn.

A wee bird starts the chores of the day,

and may his day be free from harm, we pray.

All things of beauty and of joy

in time our greed and powers can destroy.

If some so will, then let them take

the things their own two hands did make.

O'er all the world let Nature thrive

and keep the things God made alive.

http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/commons.htm