Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-03-07
LITTLE FISH
Inc VILLAGE

A. L. Fontaine, Editor Reporter,
Grand Rapids, Wis.
Dear Sir: This place is a little
fishing village on the north shore
Of Lake Superior and is practically
inaccessible excepting by stage which
carries the mail in winter, and by
boats which ply between Duluth and
Port Arthur during the season of
Navigation, the only buildings are
a combination church anG school
house and a combination store and
hotel "a few small cottages occup-
led by fishermen, and the warehouse
and office of the Pigeon River Lum-
Der Co., which is used as the base
Of supplies for their Logging operations
some eighteen or twenty miles in
land.
This has been the coldest winter
ever experienced by the people re-
siding here and it is the first time
in the knowledge of white-man that
Lake Superior has been entirely
frozen over. Ice packs are piled
for miles along the shore, rising to
towering heights in chains of dune
like hills, sparkling and glistening
in the sunlight like millions of dia-
mond sunbursts, blue and green in
color, like clear Lake Superior wat
er, capped with fleecy white, chang
ing to rainbow colored hues by shift
ing Light, the beauty Of it is wonder
full but withal not cheerful as it seem
cold pitiless CLEAN with no prom
ise of warmth or joy. These ranges
and hills of ice are piled up by the
force of an 9fflake-- wind driving
the ice onto the beaches, the force
of the up-heaval creating peculiar
structural formations, which must be
witnessed to fully realize the won
der of it, when seen at sunset the
impression is that of wonderful
city with glittering house tops. A
line of cliffs along the shore are
icy coated, forming wonderful caves
from which one would not be sur
prised to see water nymphs and fair
les disporting themselves.
To the people here these sights
are common enough and they are not
impressed, but to me, seeing them for
the first time, they are miracles of
coloring and design. The lake it
self, frozen over as it is, presents
a lonesome, dreary outlook, like a
| locked door, shutting off communica-
ton with the outside world, ice as
far as the eye can see, broken here
and there by channels of water which
are ever changing their course, dis
appearing today to appear again to-
morrow in new and unexpected
quarter. A tall spruce tree stand
ing on a point of Land close to the
| shore-line was covered with frozen
spray by the early January storms
and it now appears a pillar of ice,
standing Like a marble monument
fifty or sixty feet above the level
| VI lltS WdGSI. L uS A1oIISIIlSn oGOI-
ing ice for summer are finding it a
very difficult proposition owing to
the depth to which it is frozen. Ma
Vigation between Duluth and Port
Arthur and on Lake Superior in gen
eral is likely to open up much later
than usual on account of the severi-
| ty of the present winter, the small
villages and hamIets scattered along
the shore are running out of pro-
visions and other supplies and the
outlook is becoming somewhat seri-
Gus to them in consequence as there
can be no replenishment until the
boats are again in commission, but
so far there appears to have been
no real suffering. All the Grand
Rapids boys who are up in this
country are healthy and happy
| Respectfully yours.
Ted Thompson.