Back Channel Radio is a storytelling project committed to preserving and sharing oral histories from beyond the mainstream. This first season, “A Wolf Spider Island Story,” chronicles the legal battles a group of river rats had to wage to keep their small boathouse community on the Mississippi River afloat.
There are 101 allotted spots for boathouses around Latsch Island in Winona, Minnesota, a place where some people live year round off the grid. Over time it’s become an iconic symbol of the town, but it wasn’t always seen in such a celebratory light.
In this additional snippet of boathouse life, host Gina Favano shares a song she wrote about an unfortunate drowning on the river.
John Rupkey is a philosopher, rabble rouser, and the unofficial history keeper of Wolf Spider Island’s past. After years spent as a Christian Brother, he came out as gay, found community on the island, and became a central figure in the fight to save the Latsch Island boathouses.
John Rupkey shares a poem written by Walt Whitman that helped inspire his pseudonym.
Latsch Island Phone and Power Service, a.k.a. LIPPS, was a floating shack that served as the only phone line for island residents in the 70s and 80s. While this community was carving out a new type of life, mostly off the grid, government agencies started pushing down and wanting them out.
More ideas on justice and philosophy from the late Judge Dennis Challeen that couldn’t fit into the episodes.
During the Latsch Island heyday, there were all kinds of river rats living in boathouses off the island; artists, hippies, UFO enthusiasts, a judge, ex-clergy. And not everybody agreed on the best way to keep their community afloat.
It was a Wolf Spider Island mini miracle when Gina Favano happened upon some unmarked cassette tapes that had some of the only remaining recordings of Leslie Eaton’s music and the Weird Winonans. This extra is a mixtape mashup some of the best parts of those found recordings.
A lot of the river rats from the original era arrived here searching for a different type of community, to live a life on their own terms close to nature. As they get older, what happens when life on the water becomes just too hard?
When Moses Simon was a baby he found himself caught in what's known as a "circle of death" on the river. Hear his take on this tale which has become island lore. Plus, a song written by host Gina Favano to honor the late Tyra Faulk.
A new era of threats are facing the next generation of islanders, but they look different from the ones their elders faced. What does it mean to ‘Stay Afloat?’ It depends on who you ask.