Waterfalls of the Mississippi, Richard Arey, Minnesota Outdoors Press, 1998. $350
Should you be interested in a copy of this book, please contact Richard Arey
of the Minnesota Outdoor Press:
534 Laurel Avenue #6, St. Paul MN, 55102, USA. 
phone: 1.651.290.0309

It was North America’s greatest waterfall. River Warren Falls formed in what is now downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, at the end of the last Ice Age. The power of the cascading waters continually eroded the base of River Warren Falls and over the next several thousand years the waterfall moved 15 miles up the Mississippi River creating a deep gorge. It ended up in downtown Minneapolis as Saint Anthony Falls—the “Waterfall that Built a City.” In its wake, a rock-walled gorge was carved. Streams became waterfalls as they leapt into the chasm, and none more famous than the Minnehaha Falls celebrated in the epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

This is the story of eight waterfalls found in the Twin Cities—the only waterfalls along the entire 2,300-mile length of the Mississippi River. It is a thoroughly researched book that chronicles the early explorations of the Upper Mississippi River, leads you to tropical marine corals captured in stone, reminisces on the visits of Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, and Dvorak, and tells the tale of a 200-pound rodent dropped dead in the prime of its life.

Waterfalls of the Mississippi provides the most complete written description yet published of the magnificent River Warren Falls. The extensive bibliography contained in the book’s Sources of the Mississippi attests to the depth of writing and research found here. An elaborate fold-out map details over 30 miles of scenic trails that hug the banks and bluffs of the Mississippi as they lead you to this remarkable collection of waterfalls.

Waterfalls of the Mississippi was designed, engraved and printed by Gaylord Schanilec at his studio on the Mississippi River Valley above Stockholm, Wisconsin. His moonlit, double-page engraving provides the first known rendition of monumental River Warren Falls. Gaylord interprets perennial favorites Minnehaha Falls and Saint Anthony Falls (again with a two-page spread), plus five more falls. Each image is printed in three to five colors from engraved end-grain maple blocks.

The 96-page book by Richard Fred Arey is issued in an edition of 200 numbered and 26 lettered copies. It is composed in Garamond type and hand-printed on Zerkall paper on a Vandercook press. Numbered copies are hand-bound in cloth and housed in a slipcase featuring Minnehaha Falls, at Campbell-Logan Bindery in Minneapolis. The lettered copies are leather-bound and set in a clamshell box designed and hand-made by Jill Jevne. Both editions include a fold-out map locating the falls, the connecting trails, and rich geological details.

The map was hand-colored for the lettered edition, which also features a set of Progressive Proofs of Minnehaha Falls (fully illustrating Gaylord’s renowned multicolored and layered printing technique) and a professionally filmed video of the book’s production.


6 x 10 inches. 84 pages. Cloth, leather spine label, paper and cloth covered slipcase with large paper cover label.