With today being a holiday for some people, they may have enjoyed a three day weekend and could take a ferry ride over to Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands, and doing a little exploring.
Ferry Ride
Picture of the Day for August 2, 2022
With the hot temperatures today, spending time on the cool waters of Lake Superior might be a way to get some relief, but I would be too chicken to take this little boat out the big lake.
Little Boat on Big Lake
Picture of the Day for July 30, 2022
On a nice summer Saturday afternoon, I imagine there are many water activities happening, including some sailing on Lake Superior between Bayfield and Madeline Island.
Sailing to Madeline Island
Picture of the Day for February 22, 2021
Although I haven’t seen that the ice road between Bayfield and Madeline Island is officially open, I have noticed on the webcam, a number of vehicles driving across the ice. The 1.9 mile ice road is an extension of County Highway H during most winters, which is lined by Christmas trees and crosses Lake Superior. It is a different feeling traveling across the ice road listening to the cracking of the ice.
Temporary County Road H
Picture of the Day for March 1, 2015
People sometimes take a Sunday drive to enjoy the scenery at a slower pace, but for me, a Sunday drive isn’t as appealing during a cold winter day as a summer day. But there one drive you can’t do in the summer as part of County Road H disappears when the ice melts! For a short span in the winter when the ice forms a thick layer over Lake Superior, the two miles of ice road between Bayfield and Madeline Island connects the two land masses. The six lane Highway H across the frozen ice is lined by Christmas trees to help see where the road is when the snow blows across the flat surface.
Sunday Drive on the Ice Road
Picture of the Day for July 16, 2014
The evening of July 16, 1942 was an event for those living in Bayfield, Wisconsin, will never forget when an estimated 8 inches of rain fell in about 12 hours and caused a massive flood which destroyed homes, businesses, city blocks, equipment and unearthed caskets from the cemetery. The “Big Ravine” forms a natural drain in normal times, but became a roaring river that night which tossed boulders like marbles and ripped through the city with destructive forces, leaving mud and sand everywhere when the waters receded.
The thirty graves which washed away from the cemetery, where scattered among the mud and not of all the bodies where able to be identified and some had to be re-buried in unmarked graves. In 2007, during a sewer project, more bones were found and were
believed to have been deposited by the 1942 flood.
In front of the Bayfield Heritage Center, a recreation of the mud filled streets which buried cars and trucks from the 1942 flood is on display as well as a section inside the center dedicated to the history of the flood.
Buried by the 1942 Flood
Picture of the Day for January 1, 2014
Happy New Year!
Some may have rang in the new year last night, but church bells that rang today may have been ringing for peace in the new year. Pope Francis spoke of peace today and said, “This brings a responsibility for each to work so that the world becomes a community of brothers who respect each other, accept each other in one’s diversity, and takes care of one another.”
I wish everyone a wonderful, healthy and peaceful new year!
Ringing in the New Year
Picture of the Day for October 29, 2013
Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse on Long Island in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior near Bayfield, Wisconsin but when workmen arrived to build it in 1853, a local representative of the Lighthouse Board, directed them to Michigan Island.
The light on Michigan Island entered service in the spring of 1857, but was closed after only one year of operation. Evidence suggests that higher authorities in the Lighthouse Service repudiated the rash decision of their field representative, and ordered the hapless contractors to go back and erect a new lighthouse at the planned Long Island location.
In 1869, however, authorities decided that a lighthouse on Michigan Island might actually be useful, so was $6000 requested to renovate and relight the abandoned station on Michigan Island.
Fifty years later, an effort began to place the Michigan Island light in a higher tower. When the Lighthouse Service discontinued operation of the Schooner’s Ledge light on Pennsylvania’s Delaware River near Philadelphia, the cylindrical steel tower was disassembled and brought to Wisconsin. Originally built in 1880, the tower was transported to Michigan Island in 1919, where it sat on the beach, awaiting assembly, for another ten years.
On October 29, 1929, the Fresnel lens was transferred from the old lighthouse to the new tower. “Started up new tower at sunset,” wrote Keeper Lane. “Everything in good shape but station looked odd, the old tower being dark for the first time in navigation in 72 years. NEW TOWER IN COMMISSION TONIGHT.”
The old Michigan Island Lighthouse is currently under repairs and Michigan Island is unique in that the old lighthouse was supposed to be built somewhere else and the newer lighthouse was originally built elsewhere.
Wandering Lighthouses
Picture of the Day for October 27, 2013
Apparently one of the sea gulls heard about the snow that is coming and is as disgusted as I am. The older two are probably like the people who can’t wait to get their snowmobiles out on trails. I prefer some more fall days first.
Disgusted Sea Gull
Picture of the Day for September 29, 2013
I wonder if this sea gull is keeping a watch on the time but then it probably doesn’t take 15 minutes to ‘unload’ and if it is trained sea gull, he will keep the white parking lines nice and white!
Unloading Sea Gull
