Home > Plan a trip > Touring > Interesting towns > Beloved Bayfield

Beloved Bayfield

On WisconsinĀ’s north coast, the love affair between a village and its visitors goes way back.

Bayfield is built on a hillside overlooking Chequamegon Bay.

On a summer day on Chequamegon Bay, there are few sights more enchanting than the sailboats bobbing around Bayfield.

With the Blessing of the Fleet in June, the tourist season kicks into high gear. Ferries chug nonstop between Bayfield and Madeline Island. Excursion boats head for the other Apostles. Sailboat captains take out novices and teach them how to hoist a jib.

Once, these waters were full of cargo boats, ferrying brownstone and lumber and herring to cities in the East. Bayfield hummed with industry, and town fathers hoped it would become another Chicago.

But it was too beautiful, and too remote. Orchards took the place of pine forests, and the quarries on the Apostle Islands became parkland. Tourists came instead.

The first boom came in the 1880s and 1890s, when opulent hotels were built and excursion boats came from Detroit and Chicago. Wealthy visitors from other Midwest states built summer homes. The grandest house was built in 1890 by a Civil War general from Illinois who came to relieve his asthma in the cool lake breezes.

The area’s fortunes waned after the turn of the century, and tourism waned, too. But eventually, tourists rediscovered the area.

"When we first came here, it was really just a fishing village,’’ says Maggie Osgood of Rockville, Md., who has been visiting since 1954. "The transition has been fascinating.’’

In 1975, Gen. Fuller's Victorian "summer cottage'' became an inn and introduced tourists to the bed and breakfast concept; other inns followed. Condos went up along the waterfront and vacation homes in former orchards. In 1997, the Chicago Tribune, after a six-week search, declared Bayfield, pop. 600, the "Best Little Town in the Midwest,’’ leading to mixed feelings among long-time residents.

"People don’t want Bayfield to become like Door County,’’ Osgood said. "Part of the charm is it still has its simplicity.’’

But if Bayfield isn't the best little town in the Midwest, it's a contender. Just look at it — a hillside of clapboard cottages mixed with Queen Annes, spilling down to the harbor, where a bobbing sea of white hulls and masts gleam in the setting sun. Just to the north, the 21 islands of the Apostle Island National Lakeshore rise from the lake, misty green in the distance. Over a strait crisscrossed by ferries, there’s 14-mile-long Madeline Island, its cottages mostly swallowed by woods.

On Madeline, there’s a state park and a town park, both with beautiful beaches. There’s the elegant Lotta's Lakeside Cafe as well as Tom’s Burned-down Café, a funky nightspot. The Madeline Island Historical Museum tells the fascinating story of the fur trade, whose Lake Superior center was La Pointe.

On the Apostles, there are sea caves and sand dunes and shipwrecks. Excursion boats from Bayfield keep busy taking tourists to see them, and outfitters take groups of kayakers to the islands on overnight camping trips.

Bayfield has a few blocks of shops, most displaying the work of northwoods artists, and coffeehouses, which sell pastries made with the marvelous organic strawberries, raspberries and apples grown on the ridge above town. It’s got hip Maggie’s and unabashedly old-fashioned Greunke’s, both of which serve whitefish livers sauteed with onions and green pepper (the town’s motto is "Real Tourists Eat Whitefish Livers!’’).

It has a walking trail along the bay, a nature trail around a restored 1912 iron bridge and the Big Top Chautauqua, where foot-stomping musicals about Lake Superior alternate with concerts by nationally known performers. This year, they include Willie Nelson, the Cowboy Junkies, Arlo Guthrie, Three Dog Night and Iris DeMent.

But what really makes this area different is what you don’t see. You don’t see fast food or franchise motels. You don’t see billboards or neon or even stoplights. You don’t see condo complexes, and you don’t even see crowds, except outside the Hurricane Hut ice-cream stand on warm summer nights.

That’s due to the work of people who have loved this Lake Superior community: Gaylord Nelson, the Wisconsin senator who in 1970 pushed Congress to create the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Warren Nelson, the immensely talented impresario who founded the Carnegie Hall of Tent Shows in 1986; and even Tom Nelson, whose Carnegie Hall of Junkyards helps keep Madeline Island on island time.

There’s Mary Rice, who brought great food to town and steps in with cash when local institutions need it, and cruise-service captain Dave Strzok, who keeps track of island history. Squadrons of volunteers, many retired, work at historic sites and as rangers on the islands. And longtime mayor Larry MacDonald and others serve on a lot of committees, all trying to keep Bayfield as unspoiled as it is.

The long winter helps; in fact, it helps so much that year-round residents have to work around the clock in summer so they can afford to stay in winter. Still, it’s quite a magic trick, keeping the village shipshape but not slick, inviting but not ingratiating.

As one in a long line of tourists — and, yes, I’ve eaten whitefish livers — I’m glad the magic is still holding.

Trip Tips: Bayfield

When to go: In late August, it’s a little quieter, and the lake is warm enough to swim in. Fall is crisp and beautiful. In winter, there’s downhill and cross-country skiing, and lodging rates drop, but some shops and restaurants close.

2008 events: June 15, Blessing of the Fleet. June 30-July 4, Race Week. July 26-27, Festival of Arts. Sept. 13-Oct. 31, Scarecrow Festival & Orchard Tour. Sept. 3-20, Apostle Islands Lighthouse Celebration. Oct. 3-5, Apple Festival, with the big parade at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Accommodations: Reserve early for summer and fall weekends. There's a large array of cottages, condos, B&Bs and motels. The city web site has an availability search.

Rooms at the Seagull Bay Motel on the edge of downtown, overlooking Chequamegon Bay and adjoining the Brownstone Trail, are a very good value. It's a well-run motel with friendly proprietors, 715-779-5558, www.seagullbay.com.

The Bayfield Inn, overlooking the marina next to the cruise-service dock, is a solid choice, 800-382-0995, www.bayfieldinn.com. Harbor’s Edge Motel is just down the street, across from the ferry landing, with rooms that are a little cheaper, 715-779-3962, www.harborsedgemotel.com.

A mile north of town off Wisconsin 13, the Island View Inn and Cottages is a particularly nice place for families. Two very comfortable suites have private entrance, bedroom, kitchenette, living room with sofa sleeper and VCR, sand beach on Lake Superior, playground and swings. Breakfast is brought to the door. There are also three cottages, 888-309-5307, www.islandviewbandb.com.

The Old Rittenhouse Inn was Wisconsin's first B&B and is its best-known. It has 24 rooms, quite expensive, in three buildings, 800-779-2129, www.rittenhouseinn.com.

Dining: For a fun dinner with friends, Maggie's on Manypenny Avenue is the obvious choice.

For a romantic or special-occasion dinner, reserve at the elegant Wild Rice just outside town, 715-779-9881, www.wildricerestaurant.com.

Greunke's First Street Inn has fish boils.

Nightlife: In summer, Big Top Chautauqua brings in some of the nation's best entertainers and also stages its own musical revues, 888-244-8368, www.bigtop.org.

In Washburn, Stagenorth hosts community theater, concerts, dance performances and films, 715-373-1194, www.stagenorth.com.

Cruises: From May 10 to Oct. 14, the Apostle Islands Cruise Service runs a 3¼-hour Grand Tour daily at 10 a.m., $38, $23 children 6-12. From June 14 to Sept. 1, it offers a four-hour trip to visit the Raspberry Island lighthouse, $40, $24. From June 20 to Aug. 22, it offers a 3¾-hour Friday sunset cruise past Raspberry and Sand lights and the Mawikwe Bay sea caves, $40 and $24.

From June 21 to Sept. 1, a 1 p.m. cruise to Stockton Island gives hikers 2½ hours to explore the island, $40, $24. There's also a camper shuttle to Oak Island, a two-hour lighthouse cruise and an evening grand tour.

During the Lighthouse Celebration in September, special cruises are offered; reserve places early. 800-323-7619, www.apostleisland.com.

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore: The headquarters is in Bayfield at Washington Avenue and Fourth Street, 715-779-3397, www.nps.gov/apis.

Sailing: Three sailboat companies offer rides, $50 for two to three hours. Superior Charters offers certification courses on boats of all sizes, after which students are allowed to charter a boat of a similar size. The basic two-day "Learn to Sail'' class is $795 per person; including lunch and accommodations on the boat; the three-day course includes an overnight at anchor with the instructor, $1,195.

Students sail on Chequamegon Bay and around the Apostle Islands, cooking on board and sleeping at the dock. Call 800-772-5124, www.superiorcharters.com. Sailors who plan to charter their own boats out of Bayfield may want to be certified with the company, which has the largest freshwater fleet in North America.

Northern Breezes Sailing School, based in the Twin Cities suburb of New Hope, also offers four-day bareboat charter certification courses on Lake Superior out of Bayfield, Thursdays-Sundays from early June to late September.

Cost of $895 includes most meals and onboard accommodations. Call 763-542-9707, www.sailingbreezes.com.

Kayaking: Living Adventure offers sea-kayaking trips around the Apostles, many of them for women, 866-779-9503, www.livingadventure.com. Trek and Trail also offers trips, 800-354-8735, www.trek-trail.com.

Madeline Island ferry: It leaves every half hour during the day in summer. Round-trip fares are $11, $5.50 for children 6-11, $23 for cars, $5.50 for bicycles and $13.50 for motorcycles. 715-747-2051, www.madferry.com

Information: 800-447-4094, www.bayfield.org.

Last updated on August 16, 2008

E-mail:
Name:
Zip Code:

Other stories in "Interesting towns"

Beloved Bayfield

On WisconsinĀ’s north coast, the love affair between a village and its visitors goes way back.

Trip Tips: Bayfield