Weekend Getaway: Broughton Marsh.
Deep peat bogs shelter wildlife, deter development
From the top of the 80-foot wooden tower that rises above the 14,000-acre Broughton Sheboygan Marsh Park and Wildlife Area northwest of Elkhart Lake, visitors get a view of a vast wetland filled with cattails and home to numerous critters such as deer, beaver, sandhill cranes, red-tail hawks, geese and other migratory birds.
When a friend and I climbed the four-decked tower recently, a steady rain was falling over the marsh and we seemed to have the entire area to ourselves. From our perch, the wetland stretched off to the western horizon as the water and vegetation merged with the low clouds.
It wasn’t too hard to imagine members of American Indian tribes such as the Menominee, Chippewa and Potawatomi — who lived here for thousands of years — hunting or fishing in their canoes in the waters far below.
“I think of this wildlife area as something of a ‘hidden jewel’ in Sheboygan County because a lot of people don’t know much about it or even where it is,” said Lil Pipping, president of Friends of the Marsh. “But it has a lot to offer with all its birds and animals.”
Thanks to YMCA’s Camp YKoda, however, thousands of school-age kids get to participate in outdoor programs each year at the marsh, focusing on wetland ecosystems, canoeing, kayaking and overnight camping at the park’s adjacent 30-acre campground.
Anglers, hunters, birdwatchers, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers also use the campground and marsh.
The tower, which opened in 2009, cost $500,000 to build. Pipping said it was a bargain, thanks to the generosity of the Joseph Schmitt and Sons Construction Co. after the owner’s daughter took part in a marsh outing and wrote an essay about what she liked about the area.
“We have the tallest wooden tower of its kind in the state,” Pipping said. “But if people can’t make the climb they can get the same view at the nearby Marsh Lodge tavern and restaurant from a camera that’s attached to the top of the tower and can be manipulated with a joystick.”
To make the wetland even more of an asset, her group has embarked on an effort to raise $2.3 million to build a multipurpose education center that would include space for teaching programs, showers and toilets for Camp Y-Koda kids, and room for public gatherings.
“These things take time,” she said. “But we are optimistic. We raised the money for the tower entirely from donations and didn’t have to ask for or use any tax dollars.”
Like many areas of Wisconsin, the marsh was covered by a thick glacier during the last ice age that ended about 15,000 years ago, she said. As it retreated, meltwater formed a large kettle lake behind a natural limestone dam. Over the millenniums, the lake filled with decayed plant matter, leaving behind the present-day marsh, lime-rich mud and peat bogs that may be 100 feet deep.
In the past, she noted, now-extinct animals such as the mastodon, mammoth, musk ox, giant beaver, barren ground caribou, big-horned bison and the 175pound dire wolves that preyed on them called the marsh home. Their remains may be buried and preserved in the peat.
When European immigrants arrived in the area in the 1800s, they attempted to drain what they viewed as an unproductive swamp for farming, dredging out canals to remove the water.
“But it didn’t work out very well because the peat and the muck weren’t that conducive to agriculture and there was better land around,” she said. “In fact, the muck is more than a little of a problem if you fall out of your boat. You could be stuck in there
for a while, which is why we always advise people to let others know where they are going, in case they get lost or something like that.”
She said developers tried several times to drain the marsh, first in the 1870s. Prior to 1920, they made a second go at it, digging more than 20 miles of ditches that were 20 feet deep and 60 feet wide. Of them, the South Ditch remains and can be used during periodic drawdowns.
Pipping credits Charles Broughton, after whom the marsh is named, and the Sheboygan Chapter of the Izaak Walton League for spearheading the effort to restore the marsh to its natural state in the 1930s.
“But it didn’t happen until after there was a big fire that lasted for several years in the dried-out peat bogs,” she said.
Pipping said the Izaak Walton League first bought 80 acres and donated it to the county. Later, the county acquired another 6,349 acres of the marsh in a foreclosure sale for $17,646, which she described as an incredible deal.
In 1938, the county installed a dam near the tower that flooded the area and began restoration of the marsh. Over the years, the wetland has grown to 14,000 acres, which is jointly managed by the state, the county and private owners. In 2006, it was designated as a Wisconsin Land Legacy Place by the state Department of Natural Resources.
“My favorite thing about visiting the marsh is its peace and quiet,” said Pipping, who lives in Elkhart Lake. “It truly is a wonderful wildlife area to see and experience.”
More information: See dnr.wi.gov/topic/
lands/wildlifeareas/she boygan.html.
Getting there: The Broughton Sheboygan County Marsh is off County Road SR about two miles northwest of Elkhart Lake, which is around 60 miles north of Milwaukee via I-43, Highway 57, Highway 23 and Highway 67.