Madeline Island Summer Houses

Book excerpt: Madeline Island. Just the words conjure up images of a magical place. For thousands of years the largest of the Apostle Islands has drawn people to its Lake Superior shores. For more than a hundred years summer residents have been shaping places for a relaxed pace of life shared with friends and family and immersed in nature. Over the course of two summers, architecture writer Linda Mack and her daughter, photographer Kendra Mack, plied the island's roads to capture the stories of twenty-seven wildly different retreats. They include century-old cottages, contemporary houses designed by Minnesota architects, a rustic fishing cabin, a reassembled 1812 Vermont barn, and the author's own beach house. "Readers of this delightful book will be so enchanted with Linda Mack's stories of the island cottages that they will want to catch the next ferry from Bayfield, Wisconsin." Bette Hammel, author of "Legendary Homes of the Minneapolis Lakes" and "Legendary Homes of Lake Minnetonka"