The Grassy Island Range Lights were built in 1872 on a small island about 1 mile from the City of Green Bay to aid ship navigation as they entered port. They would have been located a few hundred feet apart to allow entering ships to light up the two range lights upon arrival. When the lighthouses were about to be torn down due to disrepair in the 1960s, the Green Bay Yachting Club relocated the lights to their marina on the mainland. A group of Yachting Club members restored the lights and have maintained them ever since. They are normally not open to the public (the Fresnel lenses are replicas, so they are ornamental and not operational), so the Yachting Club open house was the best time to check them out. Plus, it's pretty cool to say one was hanging out at the Yachting Club.
Grassy Point rear range light (slightly taller than the front range)
Stillmank Brewery
We have been spending a lot of time outdoors over the last few weeks and (surprisingly) still haven't visited all the microbreweries in Green Bay, especially since many taproom have very limited hours. We had a chance to visit Stillmank, a new brewery, for a tasting and an impromptu tour when we joined what appeared to be some kind of club gathering (homebrew organization?). The brewmaster has been producing the infamous Wisco Disco for several years down in Milwaukee, but just opened Stillmank and began production in Green Bay in April. The beer was good and the tour was really interesting- he actually elects to can instead of bottle beer- not due to the expense (he claims it's actually cheaper to bottle), but rather the desire for an airtight seal, longer shelf life, and cleaner taste. The brewmaster, a WI native, sources nearly all of his ingredients and packaging materials from Wisconsin.
High Cliff State Park
High Cliff has been on our to-do list since it's pretty close by (about 30 mi away) and on Lake Winnebago. Lake Winnebago is an "inland" glacial lake (i.e., not one of the Great Lakes), but is in fact the largest lake contained within a single US state (about 30 miles long by 10 miles wide) and visible from space. Winnebago is the name given to a Native American tribe (they call themselves the Ho-Chunk) that historically inhabited the area, meaning "people of the filthy water"- apparently associated with the fishy smell during summer. Lake Winnebago drains into the Fox River, which is one of the few rivers in the world that flows north (another: our New River in Virginia), into Green Bay.
The Niagara Escarpment (the same rock formation creating Niagara Falls in New York) runs west through the Great Lakes Region to High Cliff State Park. The escarpment (a.k.a. "the ledge") is visible from the interstate and has elicited a few exclamations from our vehicles of: "Cool, mountains! Well, sort of..." Historically, the park itself was a rock quarry owned and operated by Western Lime and Cement Company and was later turned over to the State of Wisconsin. In addition to the quarry, remnants of the lime kiln operation, last used in 1956, remain visible on the site.
Scaling "the ledge"
Remnants of the Western Lime and Cement Company operation
High Cliff is unique in that it also contains a series of burial mounds built by the nomadic tribes inhabiting the region 1,000-1,500 years ago. The mounds, carefully constructed in the spring after thaw, were formed into the likenesses of revered animals (e.g., panther, bison) and sited on cliffs overlooking water, making High Cliff a prime location which may have been used for this purpose for hundreds of years.
A panther mound behind and to the left of the sign
View from the tower- north end of Lake Winnebago
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