The area called Bears Grass near Augusta, WI, required a lot of brush clearing and tilling to become productive farm land when the first pioneers settled the area in 1855. As more settlers arrived, the St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1893.
Slightly over a hundred years later, the church was de-sanctified in 1996 because of declining church attendance and the need for extensive maintenance and repairs. It is now a private residence.
Church Faded into History
A lighthouse was approved to be built on Long Island, one of the Apostle Islands, but the work crew was directed to Michigan Island instead so after the ‘misplacement’ of the lighthouse, the small, wooden structure LaPointe light was hastily erected in 1858. Near the end of the century, it became clear that the diminutive 34-foot tall tower was no longer serving the needs of maritime traffic.
When the shipping focus shifted to Ashland, a second light was needed on Long Island and a fog signal. In 1897, the “New” LaPointe light, a 67-foot cylindrical tower, was constructed as well as the Chequamegon Point light a mile away with the lighthouse keepers walking between the two. The old LaPointe lighthouse served as the living quarters for the keepers until a triplex apartment block was built in 1940.
The new LaPointe Light, a fixed white light fourth-order, Fresnel lens, was lit on October 11, 1897, the same day Chequamegon Point Light was established.
LaPointe Light
A picture just doesn’t do justice to the 165 foot Big Manitou Falls waterfall, the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin and the fourth tallest east of the Rockies. It is only two feet shorter than Niagara Falls, but it is a lot ‘skinnier’ although it still rumbles as the water plunges to the bottom.
Both the Big Manitou Falls and Little Manitou Falls are on the Black River located in Pattison State Park. In the tumbling waters of Big Manitou Falls, the Ojibwa believed they heard the voice of the Great Spirit within the roaring of the falls and gave it the name “Gitchee Manitou”.
If it wasn’t for a lumberjack and miner from Michigan, I might have never had the chance to see this waterfall since there was plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the river which would’ve destroyed the waterfall. Martin Pattison blocked the development by secretly purchased 660 acres along the river from a number of landowners and became a state park in 1920.
Big Manitou Falls
The Echo Dells in the Houghton Falls State Natural Area is a very interesting area and would be fun to explore more when the water isn’t flowing so rapidly.
Echo Dells Rock Formation
Autumn brings an array of colors from the fall foliage on the trees with the fields of crops changing as harvest time approaches under the blue skies but with a bit of summer green hanging on.
Autumn Colors
Normally I wouldn’t post a picture this poor quality as it was scanned in from an old 35mm slide, but today is my father’s funeral, who was known as one of the state sheep specialists and raised sheep most of his life, including his Targhee ewes in this picture.
Final Sunset for a Shepherd
The sun might be shining this morning but it is a bit nippy out with it below freezing and the frost covering the ground. And since we had snow Friday night, I think these sawtooth sunflowers are coming to the end of their bright smiles as soon they will wither and turn brown.
Coming to the End
Morning breaks on the shore of Lake Superior and Mother Nature provides a spectacular scene for those who venture out as dawn approaches.
Lake Superior Morning
After seeing the waterfalls along the Lake Superior shore, ‘Big Falls’ on the Eau Claire River doesn’t seem so impressive in height but it makes a lot of noise with the volume of water falling and if you only have a little pond in your backyard, any waterfall is ‘big’.
Big Falls on the Eau Claire
Not too many kids will be getting out of school on a Friday from a one room schoolhouse. Just down the road from the Dells Mill is the Dells Schoolhouse built in 1866, two years after the mill. While one room schools are not seen as often as they used to dot the landscape, but you probably knew someone who went to an one room school, whether yourself, parent, grandparent or great grandparent.
Dells School
