Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Michigan

August 15-17, 2010

We entered the park at the western end at the Presque Isle River area and hiked around the waterfalls and rapids for a couple hours.  Simply fabulous.  There are three waterfalls, none terribly high, but just gorgeous.  The water is tinged with brown from tannin, so the water flies over the rocks caramel-colored.  There is a suspension bridge to an almost island near the mouth into Lake Superior.  There were a zillion or so steps, but it was worth the ups and downs.  Along the island the channel narrows, and the rapids swirl so fast that potholes have formed in the sides of the rock where the eddying water and debris cut round holes in the rock.  So cool.

We camped two nights in Union Bay campground on the eastern edge of the park.  Nice campground right on the red rocky shore.  The Porkies were set aside as a park to preserve the last big tract—35.000 acres—of virgin hardwood and hemlock forest in the Midwest.  Lake of the Clouds is lovely as reputed.  We wanted to hike more, but the trails—90 miles of them—tend to be rough with rocks and roots, something very difficult for Don.  So we did a number of shorter hikes including the Summit Peak with lots of stairs.  We also hiked into the Union Mine site, the Nonesuch Mine site, and the Overlooked Falls.  Don did amazingly well with the trails, rough as they are.  He used his support blind cane to double as a hiking stick which helped a lot.  This is a wonderfully relaxing place—so old with the remnants of the copper mining history, old growth forest, and Lake Superior relentlessly beating the red rock layers.

We did have one exciting moment.  On the Union mine trail, the path was getting rougher, so Don took advantage of a bench and told me to just go on without him.  A few hundred feet further I loudly read an interpretive sign to him and then continued on.  I hadn’t gone more than 25 or 30 feet when I heard a tremendous groan and crash.  A huge dead birch tree landed in front of the sign I had just left.  I would have been killed a minute earlier.  A near-death experience does make a person thank God and the guardian angels.

Big Top Chautauqua Oral History Project, Passport in Time

Big Top Chautauqua Oral History Project

Passport in Time

August 9-13, 2010

I have always wanted to see one of the original history musical shows the Big Top Chautauqua does in Bayfield, Wisconsin, but we have never been here when they were performing one.  Passport in Time is a program of the USDA Forest Service that gathers volunteers for historical and archeological projects.  When I saw a PIT Chatauqua project, we decided to join.    

The PIT project’s goal is to create an oral history of the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield to be archived with the Wisconsin Historical Society and to provide material for a special exhibition next year commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the Chautauqua.  We had two days of training in gathering of oral history led by Mary Rehwald, assisted by Susan Nelson of the US Forest Service and Linda Mittlestadt of the Wisconsin Historical Society.  Our headquarters was the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center outside of Ashland.

The project involved interviewing 35 people involved with the Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield from its inception by Warren Nelson with his partner Betty Ferris and others through the present after 24 years of operation.  Nelson and Ferris created a number of musical history shows over 30 years about the area using actual words from journals and writings of the time, original songs and some prose soliloquies all performed in front of a huge screen showing period pictures of the events being sung about.  They did shows for the centennials of Washburn (Souvenir Views), Bayfield (Riding the Wind) and other towns, for the sesquicentennials of Wisconsin (The 30^th Star) and Minnesota, and for the centennial of the National Park System (Centennial Green).  They also did other history shows about the area: Keepers of the Light about the lighthouses in the Apostle Islands, Wild River for the dedication of the St. Croix National Wild River and others. They have moved toward more big name concerts and fewer locally generated shows to stay financially viable.

When local philanthropist Mary Rice of the Anderson Windows fortune offered to help fund a theatre for this new drama company in Bayfield in 1985, Warren Nelson said he wanted a tent instead in the old time Chautauqua tradition.  And it was done.

We were scheduled for six interviews with the executive director, a long time volunteer, a singer and others.  We enjoyed it so much.  People’s stories of their lives and their involvement with the Chautauqua were fascinating.  Bayfield and the surrounding area feel strongly about “our Chautauqua.”  Residents volunteer; they attend shows; they love the artists; they support the Big Top as the jewel of Bayfield.  Bayfield needs the Chautauqua as a unique draw to set it apart from other tourist areas; the Chautauqua needs the local people to volunteer and support it.

 Phil Anich has been singing in the Blue Canvas Orchestra (the Chautauqua house band) almost since the beginning.  He works full-time for the Chautauqua doing the Big Top radio show on Public Radio, putting up the tent and supervising many aspects of the operation.  He played guitar and sang a private concert for our group at the boat bar at Good Thyme restaurant near Washburn.  That night was so special.  He sang about a shipwreck and then said, “As long as we are sinking ships, let’s have the Edmund.”  Susan mentioned that several Washburn and Ashland men were on the Edmund Fitzgerald.  Phil sang a long, haunting rendition of the song.  It sent chills—it’s a local thing here.  Phil can really sing.

We camped for the week at Thompson’s West End Park in Washburn, Wisconsin, a lovely open campground on Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay.  There is a great hiking trail along the lake and a not so nice beach and a great biking trail in Ashland..  We are both enamored of Bayfield and the Chautauqua now as never before.  We plan to return soon.  It is a very special place.