Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell

Tracing Newton Horace Winchell’s path to becoming a leading light of an emerging scientific field, Minnesota’s Geologist recreates the early days of scientific inquiry in Minnesota, when one man’s passion for learning could unlock secrets of the state’s distant past and present landscape. This first telling of Winchell’s life story is set against a backdrop of Minnesota’s geological complexity and splendor.

Author Sue Leaf will be giving a short talk, followed by an audience Q&A moderated by Harvey Thorleifson of the Minnesota Geological Survey. She will relate how she came to be interested in Winchell, describe the resources available to tell his story, and give short scenes from his life: capsizing on Lake Michigan while doing field work as a young geologist near Door County; his initial canoe trip into the Arrowhead with two Ojibwe guides; and the debacle of the Kensington Runestone. Winchell was also the very first director of the Bell Museum!

The conversation will be held via Zoom. Please register for the event here; you will receive a link two days prior to the event

Sue Leaf is the author of The Bullhead Queen: A Year on Pioneer Lake; A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts; and Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life, all published by Minnesota. She also wrote Potato City: Nature, History, and Community in the Age of Sprawl. Trained as a zoologist, she writes on environmental topics and is editor of the newsletter of the Wild River Audubon Society of east-central Minnesota.

Harvey Thorleifson is Director of the Minnesota Geological Survey, State Geologist of Minnesota, and Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He has been President of the Association of American State Geologists, the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences, and the Geological Association of Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.

This event is being held in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Press. Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell is available for purchase through https://bookstores.umn.edu/books.