Rainy River Productions

I founded Rainy River Productions to inspire involvement in the natural world by telling the tales of wild America and connecting audiences to the heart and soul of its environmental heroes. Rainy River Productions first project will be the Border Lakes Trilogy.

The first play in the trilogy has been completed. Tall Shadows, is a play in four movements beginning in 1925 and ending in 1934. This is the story of the battle between two extraordinary men, explorer conservationist Ernest Oberholtzer and lumber magnate E. W. Backus. This the story of two completely different ways of seeing the natural world meeting at the cusp of changing times. Mr. Backus had a plan to build seven dams and possibly four power plants in northern Minnesota that would have flooded much of Minnesota’s north lakes country. Oberholtzer lead the fight to stop this.  

The struggle between these two men and their opposing ways of seeing the natural world began to change the nation’s consciousness about preserving wild places for the future.  This is a story that we are still living with today and the questions we are still working on to this day. Who knows what is best for our wild places? 

The fight, the struggle in this play, between Ober and Backus, most of it, is done with and through language. Like all good fights the momentum flows back and forth. I remember a couple of years ago I watched a tape of all three Mohammed Ali vs. Joe Frazier boxing matches. As I watched round after round of Ali vs. Frazier I could see that this was the hardest thing they had ever done in their lives and it pushed them beyond their physical, mental and spiritual boundaries. I could also see very clearly there was no place on earth they would rather be.

For E. W. Backus and Ernest Oberholtzer what they loved most in the world was at stake. They fought with the hearts of champions.