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REGION
FIVE
Watersmeet area
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Sylvania's old-growth forests and clear lakes, plus waterfalls and excellent canoeing and fishing
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THE JEWEL of these lake-filled highlands is the Sylvania Wilderness Area in the Ottawa National Forest. Its 30 square miles include dark old-growth forest and 34 exceptionally clear lakes famous for fishing. Most U.P. forests have rejuvenated since the clear-cut logging of a century ago, and motorists see impressive hardwoods and hemlocks throughout the Watersmeet area, which mostly lies within National Forest boundaries.
But Sylvania is one of the few sizable
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northwoods forests that escaped the axe. The woods here have had hundreds of years to mature, creating a "climax forest" of yellow birch, eastern hemlock, and sugar maple. One sees an area much the way it looked before Europeans arrived. Abundant rotting logs and leaf debris are ideal environments for mushrooms and woodpeckers. Rare wildflowers like lady's slippers have survived the years it takes to blossom. Orchids and insect-eating pitcher plants are not uncommon. Paddlers and hikers can explore Sylvania as a wilderness area, without signs to guide them.
Sylvania and the modest Upper Peninsula village of Watersmeet lie at the northern edge of the vast Wisconsin lake country, just across the state line from the larger town of Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin. The area economy has long been dominated by fishing resorts, outdoor recreation, and summer people and retirees (largely from Chicago), as well as by logging and sawmills. During Prohibition, Sylvania and many other retreats in and near Wisconsin's north woods focused less on fishing and more on drinking, gambling, and partying outside the law's reach.
Recently there's been an intense wave of vacation homebuilding. Watersmeet is known for the Lac Vieux Desert tribe's attractive casino-resort north of town, and for its Watersmeet Nimrods high school basketball team, made famous by ESPN commercials. Land O'Lakes caters to retirees and resorters with its excellent library and historical society, convenient everyday shopping, and shops and studios featuring cottage décor.
In the 1890s timber and iron-mining magnates who wanted a superb fishing camp saved the Sylvania Tract's old-growth forests and clear lakes from the logging taking place all around it, and damage to fisheries that resulted from logging's sediments and clearcuts. Today all but Sylvania's northern edge is managed by the vast Ottawa National Forest as the Sylvania Wilderness Area, a machine-free wilderness. The national forest includes most of the Watersmeet area and western Gogebic County, and most of neighboring west Iron County, too.
Sylvania and the Watersmeet area's three national forest campgrounds appeal to families, anglers, canoeists, and kayakers. The Watersmeet/Land O'Lakes area is also popular with snowmobilers because it's relatively close to large downstate cities in Wisconsin and Illinois. But places closer to Lake Superior have more snow because of the lake effect. From a snow-oriented recreational viewpoint, there's "only two months of usable winter" around Watersmeet, says a local business owner.
Adjacent to Sylvania, the Cisco chain of 15 lakes and many bays, largely under private ownership, is geared to fishing in motorboats. Its size makes it relatively quiet, too. Cottages, year-round second homes, and a dwindling number of small resorts are on its 270 miles of shoreline. For photos, a weekly fishing report, and a good fishing map of the Cisco Chain, see the web site of fishing guide Tom Schwanke. Tom Schwanke, www.wildernessbayresort.com Or stop by his bait and tackle shop on Thousand Lake Road/CR 535.
Former Wisconsin DNR naturalist John Bates has written two leisurely, informative appreciations of the area's seasons, A Northwoods Companion: Fall and Winter and A Northwoods Companion: Spring and Summer
The Lac Vieux Desert Casino and Resort north of Watersmeet opened in 1996. (It's pronounced "LAHK view duh SERR.") The "$17.5 million casino complex" was the biggest deal in these parts since Land O'Lakes' big sawmill in the 1970s. It includes a 132-room hotel, bingo hall, Country Kitchen restaurant, beautiful 9-hole golf course tucked into the woods, and now an oval for motocross and snowmobile races. The Lac Vieux Desert Band of Ojibwa takes its name from the productive lake where they had lived and fished since at least 1796. Lac Vieux Desert is known for its sport fishery and fighting tiger muskies. The big lake's outlet forms the headwaters of the mighty Wisconsin River. The lake straddles the Michigan-Wisconsin border, so fishing licenses from both states are valid.
The name "Watersmeet" comes from the area's Ojibwa name. It refers to the fact, quite important to Indians, that the waters of this rolling highlands drain in three directions: north into Lake Superior via the Ontonagon, south into Lake Michigan via the Brule and Menominee rivers, and southwest into the Mississippi system and Gulf of Mexico via the Wisconsin. The Ontonagon River's Middle Branch offers beautiful canoeing and kayaking with a bit of exciting whitewater. On it are two dramatic, complex waterfalls, Bond Falls and Agate Falls., both tourist magnets.
The Watersmeet area is wonderfully undiscovered and undeveloped compared with the busy concentration of tourist shops and lodgings just 30 miles south at Eagle River, Wisconsin. Entering Michigan from Land O'Lakes, there's far less visible development and bigger trees. Even along U.S. 2, the main east-west route across the Upper Peninsula, there's a feeling of remoteness and wild beauty from Iron River to Watersmeet and on to Wakefield. Motorists see nothing but trees for miles and miles. Maples and other hardwoods make for good fall color. Wolves prefer this kind of inland area because it has less snow than places close to Lake Superior. Gogebic County now has around 90 wolves in 11 packs. Sometimes they can be seen on the shoulders of U.S. 2 east of Watersmeet, looking for road kill. (They aren't interested in humans.)
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HELPFUL AREA INFORMATION
The Watersmeet Chamber of Commerce has a part-time secretary but no drop-in office. If you call (800) 522-5657, the Western U.P. Convention & Visitors Bureau will mail visitor info for Watersmeet. For info on chamber members and the community as a whole, visit the excellent chamber website, www.watersmeet.org.
The Land O' Lakes Welcome Center is in the conspicuous log building on U. S. 45 at County Road B. It's run by the Land O" Lakes Chamber of Commerce. It also gives out information about Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's open year-round. From May thru Sept open Mon-Sat 9-4 Central Time, Sun 10-2. Otherwise open Mon, Wed, Fri 10-3. Call (800) 236-3432 or (715) 547-3432. Fax (715) 547-8010. Check out the outstanding website, www.landolakes-wi.org. Only lodgings and restaurants that are chamber members are included.
Not just Sylvania but many other lakes, rivers, and forest land in the Western Upper Peninsula are included in the Ottawa National Forest. Its website, www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/, is quite information-rich. It includes updates on Ottawa National Forest public hearings and policy issues. Providing visitor information is the chief function of the national forest's Ottawa Visitor Center on the southeast corner of U.S. 2 and U.S. 45 just east of Watersmeet. Entrance roads are from both highways. It's open year-round, daily 9-5 Central Time from mid-May through mid-October. From Oct. 15 to May 15 open Wed-Sat from 9 to 5 Central Time. (906) 358-4724. On weekdays when the Visitor Center is closed, you can call or stop by the national forest's Watersmeet Ranger District office on Old U.S. 2 East. It's east of U.S. 45, north of the town center and high school. Turn east at the basketball court. This is the place for info on backcountry campsites outside the wilderness area. It's open from 8 to 4 Central Time. (906) 358-4551. TTY: (906) 358-4551.
The very eastern part of Vilas County, east of Land O' Lakes in Wisconsin, is part of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest . Visit its website, www.fs.fed.us/cnnf/ Phone (715) 479-1308. TTY (715) 479-2827.
GUIDED FISHING TRIPS, CANOE TRIPS & BOTANY EXPEDITIONS
Watersmeet has several guides for fishing and hunting. Sylvania Outfitters is a good referral source for all guides active in the area. Fishing guides include walleye specialist Tom Schwanke's Wilderness Bay Guide Service (906-358-9956; 906-358-4319); and Bruce Becker (715-547-3100 or 906-358-9880). At Northern Outfitters on U.S. 45 in Watersmeet, Gregg Mallick specializes in walleye. Rick Whitehead's Rangers Guides Service (715-547-6960; www.bigstinkyfish.com ) operates on Lac Vieux Desert outside Land O'Lakes. Since 1983 Rohr's Wilderness Tours offers guided canoe trips, car spotting, outfitting, and cross-country ski and hiking events in the area, including the Ontonagon River and various headwaters of the Wisconsin River. They also offer canoeing instruction and certification at all levels. (715) 547-3639 or (815) 895-7635 (winter phone). www.RWTCanoe.com. Northwoods Native Plants Society leads free monthly Saturday trips in season to unusual habitats in Gogebic and Vilas counties and vicinity. They are posted on www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/. See"Ottawa Interpretive Association."
EVENTS
Watersmeet and Land O' Lakes both have fireworks and parades over the July 4 weekend . . . . . In Land O' Lakes, the fourth weekend in July brings the big Art Impressions art and crafts show. The fourth weekend in September celebrates fall with the Top of Wisconsin Fest. Downtown merchants dress up for "A Dickens Christmas" and "A Christmas Carol" is performed. On January's last weekend, local people build impressive snow sculptures.
PICNIC PROVISIONS and PLACES
In Watersmeet, the Clark Lake picnic area (see below) at the edge of the Sylvania Wilderness Area provides drive-up access to a motor-free lake with swimming and hiking trails. Nordine's in Watersmeet is more of a large convenience and party store with some groceries. Local people shop at Greg's in Land O' Lakes or in Eagle River (below) or at the Old Settler's Co-op in Bruce Crossing. . . . Handy to U.S. 2 is the Imp Lake picnic area 6 miles southeast of Watersmeet with an interesting interpretive trail in an old-growth forest. Pleasant picnic areas are also at Mex-I-Mine Falls and Clark Lake.
In Land O'Lakes, the community supermarket is Greg's Foods on the main street, County Road B. An interesting, readily accessible picnic spot is the wayside park by the Wisconsin River's headwaters on U.S. 45 just south of town. Another picnic spot is at the Wisconsin's headwaters on Lac Vieux Desert.
If you're coming from the east on U.S. 2, a stop at the fabulous Angeli's Central Market in Iron River is in order. It's very large, contrary to what the old-timey name suggests.
Coming from the south, Eagle River, Wisconsin has two excellent big supermarkets, Trig's on Hwy. 70 East and Bonson's Pick & Save on U.S. 45 north.
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