The Big Belching Bog

The 23rd annual Minnesota writers event at the Cambridge campus of ARCC, featured Phyllis Root, the author of over 30 children's books, and author and artist Betsy Bowman. They shared their experience and inspiration for the writing and illustrations in their collaboration of The Big Belching Bog.

Phyllis Root had originally planned on writing a children’s numbers book with the Big Bog State Park as a theme but was struggling to make that work. She took her first trip to the big bog and, "fell in love with the bog. There is no other place like this."

As Root ventured into the bog, on its one-mile long elevated platform, she "was smitten with its beauty." It was the most amazing site and she described the sun coming through the trees and hitting the bog as if it was stained glass Tiffany.  Nearing the end of the walkway she saw the bog was, "green, blue and pink where the peat had grown into islands with Tamarac and spruce trees growing upon them giving the appearance of ships sailing away in the distance."

Part of Root’s experience included meeting with a naturalist who pointed out some of the various plant species, frogs and birds that inhabited the bog while explaining their individual and unique niche. From the naturalist Root learned about the phenomenon of the belching bog.  Methane gas builds up slowly underneath the moss and pushes the surface up 6 to 8 inches. As the gas escapes they say that it belches. No one has ever heard it, but it is known to happen. That was the revelation for the storyline and the artist uniquely qualified to illustrate The Big Belching Bog was Betsy Bowmen.

At that point during the event Betsy Bowmen began speaking and described her plan for illustrating the book. She visited the bog and, “decided to do one wood carving for each of the unique backgrounds and then press them with ink onto the page.” She finished the individual pages by brushing them with oil paint. The illustrator needed to make the decision on what or who was going to be the narrator as the story of the belching bog unfolded. Bowmen believed that there was something about a picture of a landscape with animals and their friendly faces that drew one into the story. That was when she realized that it was already described in the book and an energetic, lively little finch with a fantail would narrate the journey.

Phyllis Root then began to read with illustrations in hand. She offered up secrets of the bog one at a time with the little finch leading the way from one stunning illustration to the next. The bog is apparently a cold, wet and seemingly hostile environment with plants that eat insects and frogs that freeze in the winter and come back to life the spring. All through the book something rose page by page, slowly getting closer, until it finally reached the surface, and maybe you will be the one to hear the big bog belch.

At the end of the reading everyone was invited up to the stage to have a closer look at the wood carvings used to press the pages and various stages of the artwork as it was completed. Both women signed books and answered questions for as long as people were willing to stay.