Sunday Lake & Eddy Park

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The mile-long boardwalk on Sunday Lake goes through Eddy Park.

Sunday Lake, supposedly named by early prospectors who first saw it on Sunday, is on Wakefield's north side. It has long been a favorite place to swim, fish, and enjoy the out-of-doors, within easy walking distance of town. At the lake's southwestern side is the exceptionally helpful Wakefield Chamber of Commerce TOURIST INFORMATION CENTER (906-224-2222) on U.S. 2 at M-28. From May through color season it's open Mon-Fri 9-5, Sat & Sun 10-3. May be open winter weekends. Next to it is a handicap-accessible overlook, with a huge head of an Indian brave. It was carved from a tree trunk by Hungarian immigrant Peter Wolf Toth, born in 1947. His personal mission was to install tributes to North America's earlier residents, with one such figure in every state—his "Trails of the Giants" project. Obtaining logs to carve, and installing them involves a lot of relationship-building on the municipal level, kind of a grassroots Christo. He studies native peoples in each area, then visualizes a person within each log, he says. His work is amply illustrated on the Internet. Michigan has two "Giants" because Wakefield leaders paved the way with the log and the site.

Bicyclists, joggers, and walkers can now go around much of Sunday Lake, thanks to City Manager John Siira's grantsmanship. Part of the 3-mile LAKESIDE TRAIL is the paved, nonmotorized trail from the information booth to the pavilion at Eddy Park on Sunday Lake's north side, a little less than a mile. Young mothers love it for healthy family bike outings. Joggers and walkers can go around the whole lake. Half is paved, including a wood boardwalk with three fishing platforms (also accessible). More boardwalk and lighting will be built soon. The boardwalk crosses the wetlands on the lake's west end. The trail becomes a low-key city street on the south end.

EDDY PARK (in season 906-224-4481, otherwise 906-229-5131) has a pleasant, sandy swimming beach on Sunday Lake. It's convenient, and it's reliably warm enough for swimming when Superior is too cold. Mature shade trees are a bonus, too. One camper brings his family from Houghton because "the kids are always going to catch something," and the water quality is good, "refreshing and not hot even on a warm day." Don't be put off by the harmless yellow color, caused by tannin from hemlock roots. There's a newish bathhouse, two rentable pavilions (the newer has a kitchen), a large playground, and a fishing pier, all wheelchair accessible. The new glider swing has bench seats and a platform for a wheelchair.

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