The 57th ILSG was held in Ashland, Wisconsin on May 18-21, 2011. Hosted by Northland College and chaired by Tom Fitz, the meeting was attended by a total of 247 people, with most people also attending field trips. Seventy-one students attended, 30 of who received financial support through the Eisenbrey scholarship fund.

The two-day technical session began on Thursday morning with oral presentations on regional geology and then proceeded in chronological order from Archean topics through Friday afternoon’s presentations on Quaternary geology. A total of 30 talks were given, 16 of which were presented by students. The poster sessions were also arranged chronologically from Archean through recent, with a total of 24 posters, 18 of which were presented by student authors. The 2011 Goldich Medal was awarded to Dean Rossell of Kennecott Exploration Company. Doug Duskin presented the award during the annual banquet and supplied numerous examples of how Dean’s research has expanded our understanding of ore deposits in the region. Huifang Xu of the University of Wisconsin – Madison gave the keynote address, talking about the origin of banded iron formations by interaction between komatiite and seawater.

The meeting offered nine field trips that highlighted the geology of the southwestern Lake Superior region. Three pre-meeting trips were run on Wednesday, including Jim Miller’s trip “Igneous Stratigraphy of the Layered Series at Duluth – Type Intrusion of the Duluth Complex”; Marcia Bjørnerud and Bill Cannon’s “Midcontinent Microcosm: Geology of the Atkins Lake – Marengo Falls Area”; Dick Ojakangas, Drew Cramer, and Tom Fitz’s trip “Geology of the Bayfield Peninsula: Keweenawan Bayfield Group and Pleistocene Deposits”. Friday’s technical sessions and the presentation of student awards were followed by three late-afternoon field trips: “Geology and Remediation at the Ashland/Northern States Power Site” led by Jamie Dunn; “Bad River Watershed Culvert Restoration Program” led by Michele Wheeler and Cassandra Bodette; and “Geology of Copper Falls State Park” led by Allison Mills, Drew Cramer, and Tom Fitz. Three field trips were run on Saturday: “Geology of the Montreal River Monocline” led by Bill Cannon; “The Archean/Paleoproterozoic Unconformity near Denham, Minnesota” led by Terry Boerboom; and “Granitic, Gabbroic, and Ultramafic rocks of the Keweenawan Mellen Intrusive Complex” led by Tom Fitz. On Friday evening Northland College hosted a beer and barbeque social event for ILSG participants outside the college’s student center. A variety of door prizes were given away and a good time was had by all. Please enjoy some photos of the meeting in our photo gallery.

The Institute’s Board of Directors met on May 19, 2011 to discuss business and preliminary plans for future Institutes. The meeting was attended by Ted Bornhorst, Peter Hinz, George Hudak, Mark Jirsa (Treasurer), Pete Hollings (Secretary), and Tom Fitz (2011 Chair).
Secretary Hollings took the minutes of the meeting, that are as follows:
1. Accepted report of the Chairs for the 56th ILSG, International Falls, Minnesota; as printed in the Proceedings Volume (Hinz), and minutes of last Board meeting, May 20, 2010 (Hollings).
2. Received, discussed, and accepted 2010-2011 ILSG Financial Summary (Jirsa).
3. Received, discussed, and accepted 2010-2011 report of the Secretary (Hollings).
4. Approved Jirsa to continue as Institute Treasurer until 2014 (this was later presented to the membership and approved).
5. Approved Tom Fitz as on-going ILSG Board member.
6. Approved Thunder Bay, Ontario at the site for the 58th annual ILSG meeting. The meeting will be hosted by Pete Hollings with help from Mark Smyk and Peter Hinz. Ted Bornhorst offered to host the 59th Annual Meeting in Houghton.
7. Discussed and approved replacing Al MacTavish as the “member from industry” on Goldich Committee (end of term 2011) with Graham Wilson.
8. There was some discussion as to whether or not presentations from the meeting should be posted on the ILSG web site or included on a CD given to participants.
9. It was agreed that a copy of the DVD with all proceedings to date would be included with the volumes mailed out to our standing orders.

The Chair would like to thank the student committee made up Northland College students Kristi Wilson, Allison Mills, Cassie Bodette and Drew Cramer for their hard work in organizing and running the meeting. Appreciation also goes to the field trip leaders and session chairs, to the sponsors of the meeting, to the ILSG Board and the many people who worked to make the 2011 Institute a successful, educational, and enjoyable meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Tom Fitz
Chair, 57th Institute on Lake Superior Geology