Interview with Alex B. Hill

Belt talks to Alex B. Hill, author of Great Lakes in 50 Maps

In this book's introduction, you say, "The Great Lakes have gained many monikers...Third Coast, Fresh Coast, Unsalted Coast, and Middle Coast." To you, personally, what are the Great Lakes?

The Great Lakes are home. Until I wrote this book I had never considered how much my life was oriented around the Great Lakes. I had only ever thought of myself as living in the Midwest, but that really didn’t resonate. Driving through Nebraska or Iowa is nothing like driving to Chicago or even northern Michigan. Heading towards Chicago there is a familiarity with the Rust Belt city experience. Going “up north” in Michigan or Wisconsin provides a strong relationship with the natural wonder that the Great Lakes produce.

My family was spread across the region, mostly in Michigan, but it always involved Great Lakes access. I like the “unsalted coast” moniker best because it puts the Great Lakes in the list of prominent coastlines in North America, but with a clear difference. 

You cover history, ecology, industry, and culture in this book. Tell me about your research. How did you approach it?

This book was much different than a “City in 50 Maps” book because the region really is vast. I had to decide if I was going to focus on the lakes themselves only or include more of the contextual data that exists around the lakes. I opted for the latter because to me mapping the Great Lakes is most about how we interact as a region of people with the Great Lakes. 

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the many research entities that have been collecting and sharing data about the Great Lakes, especially the International Association for Great Lakes Research and the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Without these and many other entities this book would not have been possible. I fear for the future of the Great Lakes when many of these groups have seen their funding disappear to keep out invasive species, monitor toxic algae, or even simply to just track the health and economy of the Great Lakes. 

As I wrote this book, I couldn’t help but keep my children in mind and attempt to imagine what kind of future they will inherit. Threats to climate, environmental sustainability, housing and infrastructure are all pressing issues that highlight the opportunity and precarity of the Great Lakes. I hope this book will give people an appreciation for the Great Lakes and highlight opportunities so that we can all preserve them for the future. 

What will surprise readers? What surprised you?

There are some topics that you know about related to the Great Lakes, but looking at a map of the full data really can be surprising. 

The basic ones that always give me pause are the snapshots of infrastructure. The Great Lakes region is well connected by roads, but passenger rail is quite minimal and Chicago centric. The most widespread is electrical infrastructure, which in some cases even connects to Canadian power sources. 

The widespread growing of pumpkins in Michigan is puzzling, but Illinois is growing pumpkins at great scale for food production. The wildest activity happening on the Great Lakes is surfing. When I first heard about Great Lakes surfing I learned about the guy surfing with icicles in his beard on Lake Superior, but surfing is happening on every Great Lake!

Drownings were another surprise, although morbid, but this was an important reminder of how dangerous the Great Lakes can be, even with their vast beauty and life giving freshwater. 

Two interesting niche topics (and maps!) in this book are those of 'blue spaces' and lighthouses. Tell us about them and their relationship to mental health and wellbeing. 

My personal research and area of work has been health and public health for many years. The Great Lakes region has a major opportunity to foster greater connection to the lakes themselves or what is called “bluespace” in health research. Simply looking out at a lake can reduce stress and anxiety; it’s similar to a concept called “forest-washing” where you take a walk in the woods. Both blue and green space is abundant in the Great Lakes, but not always as accessible as we think. We’ve industrialized much of our coasts and the Rust Belt legacy has reduced the potential positive impacts of blue and green space. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has been an incredible effort to improve and restore the Great Lakes. 

You're a data and design expert. What do you hope to convey in this book's images that is harder to convey in words? Why use maps, specifically?

Maps are an incredible way to show large amounts of information quickly. The Great Lakes region is so recognizable with the lakes that it makes for a perfect way to display a lot of information about the region without writing a dissertation. A good example is the map of shipwrecks, which I must note only includes known shipwrecks - there may be many more in the lakebeds that we just haven’t explored yet. Many people know the story of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the lake freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm. However, the shipwrecks map shows the widespread difficulty of navigating the inland seas and their storms. Similarly, the map of lake freighters shows how essential the Great Lakes are to regional, national, and international trade.