Winter's Children

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The story of Nordic skiing in the Midwest-its origins and history, its star athletes and races, and its place in the region’s social fabric and the nation’s winter recreation In the winter of 1841, a Norwegian immigrant in Wisconsin strapped on a pair of wooden boards and set off across the snow to buy flour-leaving tracks that perplexed his neighbors and marked the arrival of Nordic skiing in America. To this day, the Midwest is the nation’s epicenter of cross-country skiing, sporting a history as replete with athleticism and competitive spirit as it is steeped in old-world lore and cold-world practicality. This history unfolds in full for the first time in Winter’s Children . Nordic skiing first took hold as a sport in the Upper Midwest at the end of the nineteenth century, giving rise to an early ski league and a host of star athletes. With the arrival of a pair of brothers from Telemark, Norway, the world’s best skiers at the time, the sport-and the ski manufacturing industry-reached new heights in Minnesota, only to see its fortunes fall after World War II, when downhill skiing surged in popularity. In Winter’s Children Ryan Rodgers traces the rise and fall of Nordic skiing in

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