”A river doesn’t just carry water, it carries life.”
- Amit Kalantri
Black Slate Falls on the Slate River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
(photo by Dan Robinson)
“I love the name because it keeps people out. But where the river comes into Lake there, that is one of my sacred places. And not the only one but it's probably one of my most treasured places in the Great Lakes Basin. Again, the beauty, the power of the Lake, the scent of the air, the lightness on your skin. It's a place I love and will always love and always try to protect.”
-Ms. Jane Elder speaking about Mosquito Beach, where
the Mosquito River enters Lake Superior in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula
The Wolf River in northeastern Wisconsin (Photo by Dan Robinson)
“A river is water in its loveliest form, rivers have life and sound and movement and infinity of variation, rivers are veins of the earth through which the lifeblood returns to the heart.”
- Roderick Haig-Brown
Sunrise over the St. Joseph River in St. Joseph County, MI (Photo by Dan Robinson)
“I find the tributaries much more interesting than the Lakes themselves, because you can kind of see how land use is affecting them, and you can intervene.”
Silver River Falls on the Silver River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
(Photo by Dan Robinson)
“The river is constantly turning and bending and you never know where it's going to go and where you'll wind up. Following the bend in the river and staying on your own path means that you are on the right track. Don't let anyone deter you from that.”
- Eartha Kitt
The Black River where it enters Lake Michigan at South Haven, MI (Photo by Dan Robinson)
“Growing up, I knew very well the Milwaukee River was polluted. You didn't go into the river.
And sometimes it smelled pretty bad. As I was growing up, sometimes, Lake Michigan smelled really bad because of the die off, at that time, of the alewives. The beach would just be covered with millions of alewives. But, you know, that kind of seeped into my consciousness as well,” Weber said. “What did we do to these pristine bodies of water, that now we have these dead alewives, and we have this stinky river that I can't go in to swim?”
The Red River in northeastern Wisconsin (Video by Dan Robinson)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The St. Joseph River in South Bend, IN (Photo by Dan Robinson)
“People really develop a stronger connection and understanding of the place of importance that Detroit has, and making sure that we are helping to steward not only the water from the Detroit River, which is our drinking water source, but also the critical role that this plays in caretaking for nearly a third of the world's freshwater source.”
The Embarrass River in northeastern Wisconsin (Photo by Dan Robinson)
"The care of rivers is not a question of rivers but of the human heart."
- Shozo Tanaka
Quartzite Falls on the Silver River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
(Photo by Dan Robinson)