Other stories in "Outdoors towns"

• Adventure on the Gunflint Trail
  For outdoorsy folks, this Minnesota wilderness is a year-round playground.
• Hitting the trails in Trempealeau
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• Dreaming of Ely
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• Door to the Door
  A longtime gateway, Sturgeon Bay also is a great getaway.
• Trail mix
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• City on the bay
  In a calm corner of Lake Superior, Ashland gets a second wind.
• Playtime in Ely
  At the edge of the wilderness, fun starts when the snow falls.
• Plainly Superior
  Scratch the surface of Duluth’s homely twin and see it sparkle.
• Languid in Lanesboro
  In summer, head for lovely Lanesboro and go with the flow.
• Beloved Bayfield
  On Wisconsin’s north coast, the love affair between a village and its visitors goes way back.
• Sightseeing on the St. Croix
  Thanks to glaciers, Taylors Falls is the Pothole Capital of the World.
• Copper Harbor refuge
  Early fortune-seekers left their mark on a village atop Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula.
• Exploring Thunder Bay
  Beauty is all around Lake Superior's biggest town.

Madeline's magnetism

The largest of the Apostle Islands has a personality rooted in an uncommon past.

Over the centuries, waves of history have buffeted Madeline Island and given it as many variations as a Lake Superior agate.

This wooded island off Wisconsin's Bayfield Peninsula, the largest of the 22 Apostle Islands, exerts a magnetic pull.

The Ojibwe came from the east, led to "food that grows on water'' — wild rice — by a cowrie shell in the sky, according to their origin mythology,

French fur traders followed and established the first fort in 1693. Rival Protestant and Catholic missionaries built the first churches and schools in the 1830s. Well-to-do families from St. Paul and Nebraska built the first cottages in the 1890s, and their descendants and friends summer there still.

Now, thousands of vacationers and day-trippers come over each summer on ferries from Bayfield. Many head for rented cottages, melting into the woods that cover most of the 14-mile-long island.

The day-trippers bring bikes and take off on the quiet roads, or explore La Pointe by foot. La Pointe was a hub of the fur trade, a center of civilization when the rest of the Great Lakes region was frontier.

Now, it's a few blocks of little cafes and shops on either side of the dock, plus a museum, arts center and two small motels. In middle age, it's a place whose laid-back atmosphere attracts free spirits from all over.

Bulletin boards in the shops and cafes announce a bird-watching hike in the Wilderness Preserve, Irish music at the cafe and a concert by members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, up for the annual music camp. There might be a folk trio at Tom's Burned Down Cafe and a loom-making workshop at the Art Guild.

The Fourth of July is one of the best times to be on the island, which hosts a 1950s-style event that also evokes the pioneering 1850s, the fur-trading 1750s and a Brigadoon-like epoch that reappears yearly and is best described as Island Time. It’s the perfect expression of this little island, a historic crossroads where old money, new money and no money happily co-exist during the halcyon days of summer.

From the yacht club comes peewee pirates; the wilderness-preserve association sends bumblebees in yellow tulle. A chef waves a spatula, teens from the music camp wave violin bows, an emu waves its long neck and children wave American flags.

Others wear papier-mache masks, puppets and costumes made at free, drop-in workshops at the Art Park, across from Tom’s Burned-Down Café. The parade always winds up on the lawn of the Madeline Island Historical Museum, where the  Declaration of Independence is read and Big Top Chautauqua founder Warren Nelson leads the crowd in "America the Beautiful’’ and Woody Guthrie’s "This Land Is Your Land.’’

Tom's Burned-Down Cafe is one part of island tradition, separated from the stars only by a bit of the old Big Top Chautauqua tent. It's a folk venue and art salon, and sculptures from past steel-wrestling festivals adorn the lawn. Inside, hand-drawn placards provide commentary: "Normal is a setting on a washing machine.''

There's another face of the island down the road at the yacht club, where some of the gleaming white vessels surpass ostentation. They're only a few yards from the rustic old mission cemetery, where gravestones bear Ojibwe and French names and also modern offerings of pennies, trading cards, bead necklaces, tobacco.

There are shin-high spirit houses and the graves of Chief Buffalo, negotiator of the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe, and Michel Cadotte, the fur trader and first settler whose Ojibwe wife gave the island its name.

It's a wonderful place to think about the past, but the Bad River Band, to whom the cemetery was deeded by the Catholic Church, has closed off access. The cemetery, along with 200 acres now leased to cottagers, is all the Ojibwe have left on the island, and that's a sore point.

"We've had traditionalists visit who say the whole island is sacred, and eventually it will return to the Ojibwe people,'' says Steve Cotherman, director of the Madeline Island Historical Museum.

The superb museum, run by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, ties the strands of history together with photos and words of all those who have come to the island, from picnickers with parasols to the Ojibwe, who said, "All the gifts the Creator gave our people were here.''

Circling around the island, visitors find Big Bay State Park, whose long sand beach curves gracefully into a crescent, Caribbean-style, facing nothing but a long blue stretch of Lake Superior. It looks enticing, but swimmers who dash in before late July, or even August, learn to dash out fast, before they can feel the cold.

At the north end of the beach, there are warmer waters at the lagoon of Big Bay Town Park, as well as campsites and canoe rentals for wildlife-watching in wetlands. On the south end of the beach, state-park trails lead hikers onto sandstone cliffs and ledges.

As a homeland, Madeline was bountiful, providing fish and protection from enemies. As a vacation spot, its attributes are more ephemeral, but just as appreciated.

Trip Tips: Madeline Island

Getting there: The ferry 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

2008 events: June 8, free day for ferry passengers and visitors to the museum and state park. June 22, 50th anniversary celebration at Madeline Island Historical Museum. June 28, Celebrating Ojibwe Art & Lifeways at the museum.

July 4, Independence Day celebration. July 12, Pedal, Paddle, Plod & Plunge quadrathon. Aug. 16, Sand Castle Day at Big Bay State Park. Oct. 18, Fall Festival.

Accommodations: The Inn on Madeline Island rents condos, cottages and private homes in all price ranges. Many lake houses rent by the week, 800-822-6315, www.madisland.com.

Brittany Cottages, on the National Register and surrounded by restored formal gardens, includes four older cottages, a new cottage and new suite, $185-$325. It's open Memorial Day to October. 715-747-5023, www.brittanycabins.com.

The Island Inn is across from the ferry docks next to the museum; rooms are $119 in summer. 800-899-1916, www.ontheisland.com.

There are 60 campsites at Big Bay State Park.  Sites can be reserved 11 months in advance at 888-947-2757, www.reserveamerica.com. The park also rents a rustic lodge near Big Bay Town Park to non-profit groups, $40 (See The more, the merrier). It has a wood-burning fireplace and electricity but no running water and can be reserved a year in advance, 715-747-6425, www.wiparks.net.

Big Bay Town Park has 36 tent sites, $15, and four electric sites, $20, first-come, first-served. 715-747-2801.

Dining: Lotta’s Lakeside Cafe is the kind of place to which you go for a special occasion — which is to say, it’s really good but expensive for a laid-back town like La Pointe. 715-747-2033, www.lottascafe.com.

Near the ferry landing, Grampa Tony's serves pizza. The Beach Club overlocks the water and serves sandwiches and, on weekends, sushi, www.beachclubmadeline.com. The Bell Street Tavern is a sports bar and restaurant.

Nightlife: Tom's Burned Down Cafe keeps rising from the ashes, zanier than ever, 715-747-6100, www.tomsburneddowncafe.com.

Bell Street Tavern often has live music, 715-747-2700, www.bstavern.com.

Musicians from the Madeline Island Music Camp play concerts at the Clubhouse from June 13 to July 12 in 2008, 715-747-6045, www.music-camp.org.

Madeline Island School of the Arts: It offers three- to five-day workshops in such arts as photography and quilting, 715-747-2054, www.madelineartschool.com.

Madeline Island Historical Museum: It's a block from the ferry landing and well worth a visit. Open daily May 24-Oct. 4, then weekends to Oct. 18. Admission is $7, $3.50 children 5-17. Admission is free during the annual Visitors Appreciation Day, June 8 in 2008.

Golf: The Madeline Island Golf Club has 18 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones, 715-747-3212, www.madelineislandgolf.com.

Canoeing and kayaking: Apostle Islands Kayaks rents boats at its shop across from Joni's Beach in La Point, $27 for four hours, $37 for eight hours, 715-747-3636, www.apostleislandskayaks.com.

At Big Bay Town Park, Bog Lake Outfitters rents canoes to paddle around the lagoon, 715-747-2685.

Bus tour: Madeline Island Bus Tours offers a two-hour tour, with a stop to explore Big Bay State Park, at 1:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday June 30-Aug. 23, $12, $4 children 6-11. 715-747-2051.

Information: Madeline Chamber, 888-475-3386, www.madelineisland.com.

Last updated on October 22, 2008