The North Point Milwaukee Lighthouse, neatly nestled in beautifully landscaped Lake Park on Milwaukee's east side, is a local maritime jewel. Incorporated as part of legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted's grand design for this scenic urban park, North Point rests far atop a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, making it one of the highest light stations on the Great Lakes. Three distinctly different lighthouses have been located here, each with its own unique story. Notable keepers include Georgia Stebbins, who came to North Point as a sickly young woman and was transformed by fresh air and hard work into a feisty, dedicated lightkeeper and served with distinction for over 30 years. Abandoned and boarded up for many years, North Point has been resurrected from near ruin. Today, the North Point Lighthouse Friends see to it that this historic sentinel is preserved for future generations.

From City Hall to the Pabst Theater, reminders of the past are part of the fabric of Milwaukee. Yet many historic treasures have been lost to time. An overgrown stretch of the Milwaukee River was once a famous beer garden. Blocks of homes and apartments replaced the Wonderland Amusement Park. A quiet bike path now stretches where some of fastest trains in the world previously thundered. Today's Estabrook Park was a vast mining operation, and Marquette University covers the old fairgrounds where Abraham Lincoln spoke. Author Carl Swanson recounts these stories and other tales of bygone days.

Several lighthouses have called Racine home, but none is more synonymous with the nautical heritage of the “Belle City” than Wind Point. Always a beehive of activity, the Wind Point Lighthouse is one of the larger lighthouse complexes on the Great Lakes, and a hardworking keeper, two assistants, and their families made their livelihood here. For over 125 years, the tall stately tower has faithfully stood guard, shining its bright beam out over Lake Michigan nightly. Countless mariners relied on the Wind Point Lighthouse, along with a booming trademark foghorn for safe passage. Today the Wind Point Lighthouse is the most well-known symbol of Racine and is a success story among Great Lakes lights. A devoted friends group, in partnership with the Village of Wind Point, sees that the legacy and history of the Wind Point Lighthouse is preserved for future generations.

From the inception of the Milwaukee County Zoo at West Park in 1892, the citizens of Milwaukee have worked diligently to make it one of the finest zoos in the country. Their tireless effort and faith were rewarded. The zoo experienced many firsts, including the first polar bear born in captivity in North America, and was home to Samson, one of the largest gorillas in captivity. Throughout its history, the zoo also gained fame for innovative exhibit design. The zoo has flourished through the cooperation of Milwaukee County and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee. This public-private relationship has existed successfully since 1910.

The Great Lakes, with the rivers, canals, and channels that connect them, form one of the busiest waterways in the world. Lighthouses were needed to secure the safety of ships over these freshwater seas. But over the hundreds of years since the first lighthouse was established on the Great Lakes in 1781, these structures have come to represent something beyond their initial navigational function. Often situated on remote and beautiful shorelines, lighthouses hold a special fascination for people, serving as symbols of courage, perseverance, safety, and comfort. B is for Beacon: A Great Lakes Lighthouse Alphabet uses poetry and expository text in this alphabetical exploration of the history of lighthouses on the Great Lakes, detailing famous structures, local lore, as well as notable moments in Great Lakes history.

Milwaukee is an Algonquin word meaning "the gathering place." Wisconsin's 11 American Indian tribes have long gathered in the city, contributing to its name and origins. American Indians continue to assist in Milwaukee's growth through nationally recognized innovations in education, gaming, and cultural representation. The city's "founding mother," a Menominee Indian, continued trading partnerships with the area's native residents until Indian removal in the 1830s. Over the next century, Indians returned to Milwaukee as visitors, creating villages at the state fair and lakefront grounds. By the 1930s, Indians again called the city home and expressed their common heritage through Pan-Indian organizations. Later the new ideals of the national Red Power movement helped transform those organizations into successful city institutions such as the Indian Community School, Potawatomi Bingo and Casino, and Indian Summer Festival.

The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.