Ashland, Wisconsin–City of Murals

 

We stayed at Ashland City Park (Kreher Park) in Ashland, Wisconsin, which is on the shore of Lake Superior.  The campground is spacious and open with good views of the lake – and a bicycle trail goes past it.  It was a great location for us!

         

The eight-block Main Street business district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the background for an interesting walk through Ashland’s history as seen through the eyes of mural artists Kelly Meredith and Susan Prentice Martinsen.

         

         

Thirteen murals depict people and events from Ashland’s past. 

           

         

In the late 1800s, Ashland, Wi was one of Wisconsin's largest cities and a major Lake Superior port.  Now the mural is all that’s left of the ore dock.

         

         

The end of the logging era and other economic changes took its toll, and in the latter part of the 20th century, Ashland was a depressed area. Tourism is helping Ashland rebound.

            

The people depicted in the murals are real people who lived in Ashland.  Many are painted from photographs.   

During our “mural tour” of Ashland, we were fortunate to come across one of the artists busy at work on a new mural near the railroad station.  Irene enjoyed talking with her about the murals.

         

             

While not on the National Register, this 1926 Ford Model T Coupe that was parked in front of the Ashland Historical Museum, was another reminder of the past that we saw in this interesting town.

         

Ashland is bike friendly – we toured the murals by bike – and it also has trails that run beside the lake. 

         

Leaving the lake, trail goes beneath the highway to reach the downtown area.

         

We enjoyed exploring Ashland and enjoyed our campground at the lake’s shore.  And we enjoyed seeing the peaceful sunset over Lake Superior.

         

A Good Ride at Marquette

 

While at Munising MI we noticed that not far away to the north in Marquette, Mi there is an interesting bike trail along the waterfront. We partnered with friends Brian and Cindy to visit Marquette and ride the trail. At the northern end of the trail we wound up at Presque Isle Park where we road the wooded loop trail at the top of the hill.

                    

                    

Returning to Marquette we had lunch downtown at Elizabeth’s Chop House where we had a nice view of the lake from their rear deck. We all had the same thing, the prime rib sandwich which was great.

          

After lunch we walked around the downtown area and enjoyed the street festival that was going on before returning to camp in Munising.

         

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: A first

 

The highlight of our stay in Munising, MI, was a boat tour of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, the first of four national lakeshores. The Pictured Rocks are sandstone cliffs rising 50 to 200 feet directly up from Lake Superior. The cliffs begin just east of Sand Point and stretch for about 15 miles. Mineral seepage creates the colors. Red and orange are iron, green and blue are copper, black is manganese, and white is lime.  There are also a number of waterfalls.

            

When we visited this area in 2009, it stormed and then continued to be very windy.  The boat didn’t run until the last day we were there, and there were still whitecaps on the lake then, so we decided not to go.  We were really pleased to have lovely weather with little wind for the boat trip, and we enjoyed it tremendously. 

            

Soon after leaving the dock we passed caves formed when the softer rock near the lake eroded, followed by colorful striped cliffs.

           

           

There are three other national lakeshores in the US National Park System:  Indian Dunes and Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan, and Apostle Islands on Lake Superior.  We’ve been to all but Indian Dunes.

Miner’s Castle is one of the outstanding rock formations.  It can be seen from the lake and visited by road. (Note observation deck on top left).

           

We passed many interesting rock formations and colorful rocks on the cruise.

           

           

           

           

The Flower Pot:

                          

The boat entered a small circular area where we were quite close to the cliffs.  At this point we headed back to Munising.

           

On the return we saw more colorful rocks – one area with the blue of copper.

              

Amazingly, this tree is growing on top of rock and is sustained by its roots going back to land on the left.

      

We enjoyed the boat tour of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and so did the other Yankee RV Tours members.

           

           

Kayakers enjoyed exploring the lakeshore and cliffs as well.

           

As the boat returned to the dock, it detoured by the old light station, not in use now but still standing guard at the entrance to the harbor.

            

Our Next Stop: Lighthouse, Falls, Bears

 

Our next big adventure was a daylong car caravan to a variety of stops including the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Tahquamenon Falls, and Oswald’s Bear Ranch.  We drove along Lake Superior much of the way to Whitefish Point to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum which we had visited on our Great Lakes trip in 2009.  It was just as impressive the second time as it depicts the sinking of many ships in the Whitefish Point area. 

            

Whitefish Point Light Station is the scene of the most ship wrecks on Lake Superior. It is a place where the lake narrows and ships are funneled to the locks at Sault Ste. Marie.  In the old days there were 3,100 ships on the lake with no radar. Collisions were common. Today there are about 200 big freighters. The most recent (1975), famous, and mysterious ship wreck is the Edmund Fitzgerald.  It was caught in one of the worst storms ever on the lake with 90 mph winds, 30 foot waves, and blinding snow on a night when the Whitefish beacon was not working. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank, taking all lives aboard.  Its bell was raised from the wreckage and replaced by a bell with the names of all the crew engraved on it.  The original bell is displayed in the museum.

            

Equally impressive is the rescue exhibit with lifeboat and a series of lines in graduated sizes to throw lifelines to those in need.  The docent explained the process and told us that their motto was “You have to go, but you don’t have to come back.”  That succinctly expresses the danger of their job in rescuing people from the lake and their commitment to it.  We saw an excellent video telling about the work of the life saving station, and Rod, Yankee RV Tours wagon master, also commented on their daring work (bottom photo).

            

            

            

The lighthouse keeper’s home has been meticulously restored with period furniture and shows how the family lived.  It’s the red roofed building next to the light.

                            

Irene enjoyed seeing the kitchen with its Eureka woodstove.

              

From Lighthouse Point we caravanned to Lower Tahquamenon Falls where we ate our picnic lunches.  Then we walked the trail to see the falls, a pleasant walk through the woods.

            

            

            

One of the things we love about northern Michigan is the trees including all kinds of conifers.  We especially love the “Christmas trees” which we see frequently as we drive.

From the lower falls, it was a short drive to the Upper Tahquamenon Falls, one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi.  It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. The amber color of the water is caused by tannin leached from the cedar, spruce, and hemlock in the swamps drained by the river.  On the way to the falls, we stopped for a photo op with a “moose.”

                      

                

Our last stop of the day was at Oswald’s Bear Ranch, a refuge for bears.  The bears were behind fences with viewing areas for visitors.  Females, males, and cubs are in separate areas. 

            

            

From Oswald’s Bear Ranch, we returned to the RV park, having had an interesting and varied day.