Iron Range writer and marketing professional
Home: Grand Marais
Occupation: Marketing Manager at the Cook County Visitor’s Bureau and Outdoor Writer
Radio Feature: “Out There” on WTIP, North Shore Community Radio
In a Nutshell:
Shelby Gonzalez grew up in South Minneapolis, a self-described “indoorsy type”. Her mom bribed her to play outside: two hours outdoors and she could have her book back. Everything changed in high school, when Shelby heard about YMCA Camp Menogyn from a classmate. Learning that teenagers could canoe in the Canadian Arctic resonated so strongly with Shelby that—much to her mothers’ surprise—she signed up for a 16-day canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that summer. It changed the course of her life, and eventually led to Shelby’s career as an outdoor writer promoting the North Shore.
Her Story:
Shelby is the first to admit that the Menogyn trip was the hardest thing she’d ever done—it was physically demanding but also well outside of her comfort zone. She’d never lived outside and slept in a tent like that. But she also loved it, and the next summer she went on a month-long canoe trip in the Wabikimi Wilderness of Northwestern Ontario.
“My experience at Menogyn helped me redefine my sense of what I could do as a person,” Shelby says. “I had never before defined myself as the kind of person who can portage a 70-pound canoe or who can go out and camp for two weeks. But [after those trips], there was a sense of possibility that had never been there before.”
That sense of possibility changed everything. During Shelby’s junior and senior years of high school, she had studied math and science full time at the University of Minnesota through a program that allowed high school students to take college courses. She assumed she’d follow a similar track in college, but when she graduated from high school in 2003, she no longer felt sure of that.
Instead of going straight to college, Shelby took a year to travel New Zealand, Asia, and Europe, and when she returned she’d decided to study outdoor writing. She attended the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD), became a rock climbing instructor and wrote for regional publications. Those writing assignments took off so quickly that she eventually withdrew from UMD and pursued writing full time.
Now, she is the marketing manager at the Cook County Visitor’s Bureau, produces an outdoor segment for the local radio station, and continues to write on the side. The young girl who once stayed inside and read books is now a self-proclaimed evangelist for the North Shore—even after brief stints living in California and
Wisconsin, she believes that Northeastern Minnesota is an underrated gem of outdoor recreation.
Why Read Shelby Gonzalez:
Shelby’s writing runs the gamut from understanding the environment to recounting her own outdoor experiences. She recently wrote a piece about caribou in Minnesota. The animal was once native to the region, and she researched efforts during the 1990s to begin a reintroduction program (those efforts were never realized due to what was likely politics). But it’s often her outdoor adventure stories that get the most response from readers, even years after their published.
Shelby thinks that’s because she comes at her storytelling from the perspective of a newby. She didn’t grow up hunting, camping or climbing, so she started from ground zero with most outdoor activities, including trail running, snowboarding, and stand up paddleboarding.
She’s honest about her beginner perspective, and humorously shares the details of her nerves and doubts. When she learned to snowboard, she wrote about wearing kneepads, wrist guards and padding the seat of her pants in case she fell on her tailbone. She hopes that kind of candor makes the outdoors more accessible to others.
“If I’m writing with one person in mind it’s the person who’s interested in getting more into this outdoor thing or who is interested in taking their outdoor experience to another level but is held back by those kinds of fears,” Shelby says. “I have a strong sense of calling around that… There’s nothing more rewarding for me than having someone say I love your stories because they make me feel like maybe I could do that too.”
On Working for the Visitor’s Bureau:
In many ways, Shelby’s writing made her an ambassador for the north shore, spreading the word about its beauty and accessibility. Joining the Cook County Visitor’s Bureau as a marketing manager has only expanded her reach, spreading the word in a new medium. It’s a natural fit for someone who believes that the north shore is under-recognized as a destination.
“It’s really just a gem, and not just compared to other places in the Midwest, but nationwide,” she says. “I never thought that my particular oddball combination of experience and knowledge areas would all combine.”
Yet the job is a perfect fit. Shelby draws on her writing, her experience in California where she worked in nonprofit communications, and her experience as a managing editor of Northern Wilds, a publication out of Grand Marais that covers outdoor recreation on the North Shore. Most importantly, it seems, the job fits with what you might call Shelby’s mission.
“My goal and guiding focus has always been to inspire people to get outside and show them different ways that they can do that,” says Shelby, “and so part of my writing naturally entails sharing my very genuine love of and appreciation for this part of the world.”
Where to Find Shelby Gonzales:
http://www.shelbygonzalez.com
http://wtip.org/
This article appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of Wilderness News