Wisconsin land of 15,057 lakes, or lots of ice and stuff.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Wisconsin land of 15,057 lakes, totaling slightly less than 1,000,000 acres.

Lake Winnebago alone is 137,708 acres in size

Lake Superior and Lake Michigan account for nearly 6.5 million acres of water on our border.

What’s so special about this? You can walk out or drive onto all that acreage at some point when it freezes to ice. How many standard ice cubes is that? All this is only a small fraction of the frozen fresh water lakes in the northern United States and Canada. Brrrrrr.
Wisconsin DNR lakes article

Lake Winnebago has the largest population of Sturgeon in the world. They spawn in the fox, wolf and other rivers. The spawning beds are patroled by volunteers in the spring all over the state to prevent caviar hunters. I watched some footage on these fish spawning on the Wolf river and its impressive to see it happening with these large fish, every where you look.
An article on Sturgeon and a picture of Sturgeon spawning.

We have another endangered prehistoric fish in Wisconsin. You have to see the Paddlefish to believe it.
Article about and picture of paddlefish.

Did you know that there is a complete home that fell through the ice just off Bayfield Wisconsin? They use old Christmas trees to mark the ice road between Madeline Island and Bayfield Wisconsin. I can’t find a link for the house, but the historical museum on the island has a picture and text for the event.
Ice road to Madeline Island.

The ice caves of the Apostle Islands are very interesting and beautiful.
Ice Caves of the Apostle Islands.

The Apostle Islands are full of lighthouses, but my favorite is in Minnesota. Straight north of the Apostle Islands on a tall granite cliff is Split Rock Lighthouse. Notice the size of the cliff. Water has reached the top of those cliffs during the worst storms.
Picture of Split Rock Lighthouse.

The best nautical museum to visit is the Maritime Museum in Duluth.
The last Whaleback is in Superior, but they cut a hole in the side for an entrance. Grrr.
Whaleback pictures and information.

At one time they did manage to keep the Great Lakes open for shipping all winter to prove it could be done, but it was highly impractical and the attempt isn’t made anymore. Somebody has a film out on this endeavor.

I thought this might give those stuck inside because of the cold, something to do. Let me know if you found this an interesting thread.

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Hey I am going out on Lake Winnebago this weekend in an attempt to spear one of those sturgeon. I am fairly sure that WI is the only place in the U.S where you can spear a sturgeon through a bathtub sized hole in the ice.

Anyway, I know they are taking the bridges out on to Winnebago this week to cover any large cracks, sturgeon spearing is a big thing locally.

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I’m shocked. I know, or used to know, how many lakes Minnesota has. (15,832 give or take a few(hundred)). I don’t know offhand how much acreage that involves. I know about lakes freezing in winter.

But somehow I never thought about Wisconsin having a bunch of lakes in it’s own right.

'Course I only figured out what the “Boundary waters” is the “boundary” of a few years ago, and I’ve been hearing about the boundary waters for years. (Boundary of U.S. and Canada–it’s in northern Minnesota, well, and I guess, southern Canada.)

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There used to be pictures of it on a wall at Tom’s Burnt Down Cafe. Or was it the Beach Club? One of them. It was a lot cheaper to move a house in rather than build, since hauling all the building supplies, etc, would take several trips. The house was going to be torn down, so he got it for really cheap.

Stockton Island, just north of Madeline, is home to too many black bears. Problem bears used to be shipped there, creating a shortage of food. Now the full grown bears you see up there are stunted.

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You need to check out this article with a Sturgeon fry pictured. I’ve never seen such a distinct looking fry in my life.
Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine

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You can also walk out onto some of that acreage in the summertime, jump up and down, and watch the trees wiggle for twenty feet in every direction.

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I believe Lake Michigan is the largest lake that freezes over in historical times (i.e. not an ice age).

Hydrologically speaking, Lakes Michigan and Huron are the same lake (since they are at the same elevation)

Brian

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I was born in Wisconsin and am glad to read interesting information about the state-from a safe distance.

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Don’t forget Snake Island with a large snake population.

Spruce Lake Bog is a bog that has Pitcher Plants, Pink Lady Slippers, and Water Arum. It’s hard to find but worth it. The walk onto the bog is made of timbers with wooden planks so it can float on the bog. Many times you will not be able to walk on some or all of this trail. It becomes submerged in high water conditions. You shouldn’t step off the trail for two reasons. These are endangered rare plants, and you may break trough the bog and fall through with one of two results. You fall in part way and are very wet and dirty. You sink in too far and can’t get out and die. What beter reason to stay on the boardwalk, and leave the protected species be. :smiley: I have spotted Pitcher Plants and other rare finds on Madeline Island in the area behind the State Park swim beach.

I’m trying to stay on water topics here so I won’t go into flora any further.

This is an excerpt from Wiki.

The Great Lakes are:

Lake Superior (the largest by volume and deepest, larger than Scotland or South Carolina)
Lake Michigan (the second-largest by volume and third-largest by area; the only one entirely in the U.S.)
Lake Huron (the third-largest by volume; the second largest in area)
Lake Erie (the smallest by volume and most shallow of all the great lakes)
Lake Ontario (the second-smallest in volume and smallest in area, much lower elevation than the rest)

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I live on the shores of Mishigami, Ojibway for “Great Waters”.

I saw it frozen over once in my life. Back in 1979.

My great-grandmother, whose father fished the lake, remembers seeing sturgeons spawn on Lake Michigan’s sandbars.

It’s very cold on our beach right now. But the ice goes out only a few dozen yards.

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Out on the Great Lakes some scientist discovered groves cut into the lake bottom at times. It turns ot that when the ice has a driving wind behind it, it sometimes piles up until it drags and cuts the lake bed. He advised that people wishing to burry cables across the lakes remember that. Lake Erie has a oxygen dead zone most years in the middle. Lake Erie Dead Zone

We have underwater pyrimids in Rock Lake next to Aztalan. Here’s a time line article on the mystery structures.
Aztalan site pictures on the page.

I can’t believe all the canals thatwere proposed in the 1800’s in Wisconsin. The train came along just in time to stop many canals from being constructed, not that most were fessable in my books. Here’s one that would have crossed Wisconsin connecting to and through the lakes at Madison Wisconsin.

The proposed canal through Madison.

Many archives on Wisconsin and the proposed and raely built canals.

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and the Lakes that surround it are sometimes refered to the Jewels of Wisconsin.

A Madison man is ordered to pay a debt with fish.

Madison, Rock Lake and sea serpants of the Wisconsin, mostly from the mid 1800’s.

My favorite art on a lake is Lady Liberty on lake Monona.

I hope you enjoy the additional material.

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Thanks for the links…I truly love Wisconsin & Michigan…I don’t think you can beat them for natural beauty.

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I’m happy to oblige. The state has so many things going on because of the glaciers, I live near the intersection of all our different zones, so I have visited all our different geological zones.

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Of which 15,056 are certified Otis Redding-free!

Wisconsin, was of course, the birthplace of the Republican Party as well as the Cradle of the Progressive Party, and elected the longest period of Socialists mayors in US history. But not to be overlooked is the fact that it was the birthplace of The Pail and Shovel Party, who paid tribute to the nobility of its state’s citizens by placing the Statue of Liberty up to her nose in frozen water.

Above the entrance to the state senate chambers in Madison state capitol building sits brooding an enourmous gilded beaver. Standing in its presence in the august neo-classical splendor, one can almost hear the word “Dinsdale?”

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I’m just posting here so you can take advantage of the link in my sig.

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Devil’s Lake.

One of my favorite places in the whole country.
Check out the galleries in the link.

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One day in winter I hiked up the bluff trail to check out the view of the lake. The lake looked like it was instantly frozen in the middle of a squal. It was a great illusion of deep troubled water boiling in a tempest.

Interstate Park the oldest state park in Wisconsin is on the St. Criox and has a mate on the Minnesota side of the river. Both parks have Glacieral potholes, but the Minnesota side is the place not to miss, when seeking this feature. The largest potholes I’ve ever seen in person are at Interstate Park in Minnesota. Here are pictures of these monster behemoths. Assorted pictures of the potholes. I didn’t find pictures of the largest ones in the area.

Pattison state park contains two beautiful water falls. Big Manitou and Little Manitou fals.The tallest being Big Manitou Falls. You can’t take a picture of the falls that includes the whole drop, and those trees are ancient monsters. Big Manitou falls is the 4th highest waterfall east of the Rocky mountains.

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Northland College – an environmental liberal arts college: http://www.northland.edu/Northland

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My first thought on reading “Sturgeon fry” was that it was going to be a bunch of guys grilling up sturgeon steaks. I must live too close to Sheboygan, home of the “brat fry”

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I had some excellent smoked sturgeon at the American Club a few months ago!