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My Life To My Children by Jack Vilas is a reprinted memoir from 1929. It was originally written only for his children and close friends, and was not available to the general public until now.
Enjoy devilish boyhood pranks and delightful descriptions of “shackers” from northern Wisconsin nearly one hundred years ago. As a graduate pilot from the Glenn Hammond Curtiss Flight School, Vilas earned Hydroplane Pilot License #6 from the American Aero Society. Six weeks later, he was the first person to attempt and complete a 53-mile flight across Lake Michigan. With no compass or flight instruments, he successfully flew a 75-horsepowered Curtiss Flying Boat from St. Joseph, Michigan to Grant Park, Illinois, in 1913.
 After railing his flying boat to northern Wisconsin in 1915, he took Chief Forester Edward Griffith for a ride to demonstrate how easy it was to spot forest fires by air. This led to an official appointment by the Wisconsin Conservation Commission for Vilas to become the first flying fire warden in the entire world. The “Wisconsin Plan” soon became a vital part of fighting wildfires in forested countries around the globe. Vilas flew his surveillance missions from the forestry headquarters at Trout Lake in Boulder Junction for the salary of “many thanks.”
Purposefully edited for a youthful audience and beyond, this book contains footnote descriptions of unfamiliar 20th-century terms and background information on historic pioneer aviators who Vilas knew. The Afterward contains a Vilas timetable, a listing of historic markers dedicated to him and his accomplishments after the memoir was written. My Life To My Children is an entertaining MUST READ for lovers of pioneer aviation and local northern Wisconsin history. (Soft cover, perfect bound, 235 pages, 21 original newspaper clippings, 35 photographs. Published: August 1, 2007; ISBN: 978-09771137-2-9; $21.95.) Order at: www.rusticbooks.net or bring this ad to your local book store. Order Book
 The Water Flier: A Tribute To Jack Vilas, Pioneer Aviator
Your school, museum, local theater, historical society or organization can make arrangements for a performance or the script for a one-person, one-act play entitled The Water Flier: A Tribute to Jack Vilas, Pioneer Aviator.
The play highlights important events in the personal life of Jack Vilas in addition to: his lessons at the Glenn Curtiss Flight School, his hydroplane pilots' license test, his trip over Lake Michigan in 1913, and his forest fire surveillance trips over northern Wisconsin in his Curtiss Flying Boat in 1915.
The performance is 45 minutes long and comes with suggested music and a playbill. Please contact the playwright for royalty fees at: 262-628-9331 or mary@rusticbooks.net.
To order The Water Flier: A Tribute To Jack Vilas, Pioneer Avaitor please click here.
The Soldiers of Poverty
This creative nonfiction story begins in Virden, IL and follows the factual events of the author's father, Mike Kerkes, before joining the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The narrative continues with Mike‘s everyday camp experiences, his friendships and his work in the hewing yard for Company 696 at Giant City Park in rural southern Illinois. After a reorganization of CCC manpower, Mike is transferred to Company D-692 as a lead carpenter to help develop Copper Falls State Park in northern Wisconsin, where the men endured one of the coldest winters on record. A desperate cry for help from the U.S. Forest Service on  Isle Royale, MI during the drought of 1936 sent Company D-692 to help contain the inferno that threatened the entire island from destruction. Conditions on the island soon forced ordinary men into circumstances in which heroes find themselves.
The underlying theme of the books is the triumph of the human spirit through courage and perseverance, and the honor that comes with performing one’s duties above and beyond the ordinary. It is a tribute to the men of the Civilian Conservation Corps --- filled with humor and extraordinary friendships in helping one another through the painful losses of the Depression.
The Soldiers of Poverty is a very easy, wholesome read for general audiences from youth to adult. It contains 335 pages and 217 graphics, many of which came from personal photo collections that have never been seen or documented. The glossary contains words common to the Great Depression, conservation and construction. Enjoy this historic journey that is the first book to reveal what these remarkable men accomplished in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, concluding with a tribute by some of their grandchildren.
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Mary has a PowerPoint presentation on the content of The Soldiers of Poverty and is available for speaking engagements for your organization or school. Please contact her at: mary@rusticbooks.net for availability.
Who Is Going With Me To Camp Copper Falls? one-act, 45-minute play requiring one main role and two minor rolls, intended for high school, college or community theater. The story line consists of Capt. George Markel , the CO, of Company 692 telling his men they are being transferred from Makanda, IL. to Camp Copper Falls in Mellen, WI. in 1935. A CD of images will be sent with the script to be projected by an LCD projector and a laptop. To order Who Is Going With Me To Camp Cooper Falls? please click here.
Rustic Reflections of Copper Falls State Park contains the National Register
nomination
of the park site in Mellen, Wisconsin, in the areas of Rustic
architecture, conservation, and entertainment/recreation-tourism. In addition to a
description of each contributing Rustic-style building, the nomination documents
the land and conservation history and how the park's development contributed
to the culture of the state of Wisconsin.
The book is written for a general audience and contains a glossary of unfamiliar conservation and construction terms. It will appeal to history enthusiasts who want to know more about the land history, and how development of park coincided with the growth of tourism in northern Wisconsin. This is the first park site to be listed on the National Register in the Wisconsin park system and contains five rustic log and granite structures from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). The book can easily be used as a school resource for outdoor field trips or for vacationers who want to learn more about the park and its features. 
The book contains 110 pages of text which includes 48 graphics of blueprints,
Master Park Plans, historic WPA Federal Art Project posters, and original CCC
photographs obtained from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and from
the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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