Beyond Mainland

Beyond Mainland: Exploring History and Identity in Cottage Country
Out of Print

Publisher: St*one Soup Publications, 2009
Category: Biography, autobiography, and reminiscences
ISBN: 978-0-9734438-2-0
Price: $29.95 CDN/USA paperback
Format: 152 pages 6 x 9 in
Features: Includes maps, pictures, illustrations and extensive bibliography.

"An extraordinary story that reveals not only the identity of a 'long lost land,' but also that of the story-teller, a gifted writer who reminds us that the journey is truly the destination"

- Kathy Eldon, Creative Visions Foundation

As soon as Nathan Tidridge’s canoe slipped into the waters of his beloved Buck Lake, the region would never be the same. Escaping from events at home, Tidridge created an empire in the pages of his journals from the lakes and islands surrounding his family’s cottage.

Beginning as an effort to preserve a world created in youth (and escape his own family’s story), the history of Mainland quickly encountered the other tales of the lakes and communities displaced by the zeal to explore and conquer. In the end, Tidridge realized that he was following in the steps of people before him, creating a world in the pursuit of his own identity in the wilderness of Canada - a process that often ignored the past.

In exploring the history surrounding a small lake in Muskoka, Beyond Mainland charts a course through waters that include the Anishinabe People, Jesuits, British settlers, cottagers, as well as the story of a little kingdom along its shores.

Over 300 copies of this book were printed and sold from 2009-2011.