APOSTLES’ SPIRIT FEELS CANADIAN
Wisconsin attraction features breathtaking caves carved by mighty Lake Superior
It feels Canadian here, and that’s a beautiful thing.
The Apostle Islands, perhaps the most scenic spot in Wisconsin, and the scattering of small towns and villages with names like Bayfield and Cornucopia on the nearby mainland, are known for their friendly people, sincere values and tight connection to nature. Whether they realize it or not, they’re Canadian in many ways — or at very least know how to make the thousands of Canadians who discover the rural region each year — feel very much at home.
Located in the state’s northwest, close to the Minnesota border, the Apostles are a grouping of 21 islands likely named by Jesuit missionaries 200 years ago. Accessible from mainland villages such as Bayfield and Cornucopia by kayak, water taxi, or tour boat, the islands have at various times been home to Ojibwe Native Americans, French explorers, fur traders, farmers, loggers, and anglers. Six lighthouses on the islands are on the National Registry of Historic Places and some offer guided tours while others are still in service.
But the main reason to visit the Apostles are the deep caves and towering sea stacks, carved out of the sandstone cliffs by the mighty waves of Lake Superior and the winds of November. In summer and fall, along the shoreline and especially on Devil’s and Sand islands, legions of kayakers explore the caves. In winter, if the authorities deem it safe, visitors can walk onto the frozen Lake Superior to explore the ice caves.
Kayakers can launch on their own, but will enjoy the experience more fully (and safely, given Lake Superior’s weather) by using a local expert guide. A guide might also be needed to watch out for and give a heads-up to visitors about the wildlife living on the islands, including many black bear.
My own foray through the Apostles was aboard the Superior Princess out of Bayfield, loaded with some 100 passengers for a weekday afternoon narrated excursion lasting three hours. The excursion took us past areas once mined for brownstone to rebuild Chicago after the great fire, Hermit’s Island, where the lone inhabitant used to come into town and pay for supplies with Mexican gold coins, and Stockton Island, famous for its singing sands caused by wind passing over the dunes.
The boat’s captain manoeuvred in tight to the caves and to a restored 1930s fish camp on Manitou Island.
More time would have allowed exploration of the fish camp and the several remnants of commercial activity tried but ultimately abandoned on several of the islands. Outer Island, for example, was logged from the 1930s to 1960s. Logging companies left behind airplanes, trains, and automobiles, now reclaimed by nature.
While sailing was calm for the grand tour of the Apostles, Lake Superior’s rage was in overdrive by the next day, when four-metre waves cancelled ferry service and a day planned to explore Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostles.
No matter. It just meant more time to explore charming mainland communities such as Cornucopia, known as Corny by the locals.
There, I discovered a tiny yet charming museum where key artifacts on display revealed this Russian-founded community’s sense of humour.
These were uniform items from the mythical Cornucopia Yacht Club, invented by locals so they could get into the best yacht club members-only dining rooms when wintering in Florida.
Local members, except a handful, owned no boats.
Further up the street, there was Ehler’s Store, which dates to 1915 and retains its charm as an organic grocery mart and hardware store.
It’s now co-owned by a Canadian, Jayne Norton, who came through from British Columbia and never moved home.
I also discovered the region’s fruit farming fame at the third-generation Erikson Orchards Country Store and Antiques, where the claim to fame is an apple-cider doughnut. Each October, Bayfield hosts an apple festival which is one of Wisconsin’s most popular fall events.
The county’s cultural centrepiece is the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua (sha-ta-qwa), a tent theatre in the countryside about 10 kilometres from Bayfield.
Its season stretches into the fall. On the night I was there, the locally famous Blue Canvas Orchestra had the audience spellbound with a spectacularly powerful rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
It was, of course, just another way the Apostle Islands and Bayfield County make a Canadian feel at home.