From Voyageurs National Park on FB: Called “Catamaran” by locals, Bert Upton is among the strangest of historical characters on area waters. He lived in a hut built over a dug-out at Squirrel Narrows. Found frozen to death in the 1930s by Kettle Falls pioneer Oliver Knox; Upton was perched lifeless in the snow just a half-mile from his home. Shunning civilization, Upton defined the word hermit. First spotted rowing his crude log raft on Namakan, no one knows how he got there. Upton’s accent implied an English heritage but any personal inquiries brought a stony silence. Some suspected him a man fleeing the law; others saw a bizarre outcast; everyone knew he was peculiar. Just five feet tall and wildly unkempt, Catamaran wore hacked-off pants and walked barefoot with a stick. Winter demanded shoes but no socks, a cast-off Mackinaw, and a trailing cap made from the leg of old underwear. He was oddly religious, and suspicious of being poisoned. Surviving on snared rabbits and fish, he ofte...
It's a great store. We only get there a couple times a year, but they call us by name every time.
ReplyDeleteWhere on the site does it say they are selling?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't. It was in their newsletter email. The owners are getting older and one is fighting cancer so they decided to sell.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had the money to buy an independent bookstore or the wherewithal to convince a bank that wasn't an absolutely terrible business idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid a lot of the value in this place is the owners. The new owners will have their work cut out for them.
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