Twisting Trails

Twisting Trails is a unique young adult novel about two teenagers from different cultures who meet on the northwest frontier during the heyday of the fur trade (1831-1837), and their adventures encompass famous Minnesotans from that era. Alexander is a fictional Fort Snelling soldier who meets Seth Eastman, Henry Schoolcraft, Samuel and Gideon Pond, Henry Sibley, Joseph Nicollet, and Dred Scott. Angelique Reaume is a fictional Metis daughter to a French-Canadian voyageur and Ojibwe mother, who meets George Bonga, Pierre Bottineau, Joseph Renville, and Lawrence Taliaferro. The teenagers travel up the Mississippi, discovering how to make maple syrup, collect wild rice and hunt bison."In Twisting Trails, North Star Kids of the Fur Trade Era, author Michael Barnes has given us a compelling, well-written, historically accurate story about the Minnesota of nearly 200 years ago. His main character, Alexander Whitney, arrives at Fort Snelling in 1831 as a young Army private, eager for adventure in the new territory. Alex encounters prominent figures whose names readers will recognize. The book's other characters offer insight into relations between the Army, Native Americans, and fur traders. Descriptions of the natural world, how people traveled, and what they ate and wore make for riveting reading. This reader hopes Twisting Trails is the first in a series." -Kit Naylor (a Minneapolis writer/editor/passionate reader)