MONDAY, AUGUST 13th - ROCK ISLAND STATE PARK
Trip Day:
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155
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Latitude:
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45°24.57'
N
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Locks Today:
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0
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Miles Today:
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26
|
Longitude:
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086°49.79'W
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Locks Total:
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81
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Total Miles:
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3,144
|
Location:
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Rock Island State Park
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Escanaba served us well to provision and get laundry done. The seas were calm this morning and the wind too light for sailing as we passed the Minneapolis Shoal Light. As we approached the Rock Island Historic State Park dock, the ranger greeted us and helped us with our lines. The harbor dock is limited, but smaller boats can tie up inside the boathouse. 
Rock Island is a largely undisturbed island off the tip of Wisconsin’s Door peninsula. It was a significant Native American settlement site and a stop for European explorers and missionaries.
In 1920 Chester Thordarson bought 775 acres of Rock Island for $5,735. He cleared about 30 acres, restored early settler’s houses, built a wonderful boat house with a huge hall above it which honored his Viking heritage. 
Thordarson, born in Iceland, was a pioneer in the field of high voltage electrical equipment and was awarded a gold medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 for the world’s first million volt transformer. The Thordarson family owned Rock Island for 55 years. Now a State park, there are hiking trails and primitive campsites that are well used. The campers take a car ferry from the mainland to Washington Island, then a pedestrian ferry to Rock Island, then carry all their gear about a mile to the campgrounds. We hiked the 1.25 mile trail to the Pottawatomie Lighthouse, built in 1836 it was Wisconsin’s first lighthouse. Volunteer docents live in the spacious lighthouse for a week and give tours.
The original lighthouse used whale blubber for the light, then converted to kerosene, and is now solar powered. The tender and assistant had a garden, caught fish and carried water from the lake. Twice a year other staples would arrive by ship, including a traveling library crate of books.
The views from the top of the lighthouse and the sunset from the dock completed our day.
This will be a delayed post again - the limestone bluffs and tall trees seem to play havoc with cell reception and, therefore, hot spot connectivity!
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