Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rhinelander is small enough that you won't get lost.
Eagle River's status as a tourism head honcho was perhaps a foregone conclusion, given
thatitliesalongachainof28lakesfollowingtheEagleRiver—consideredthelongestsuch
interlinkedchainoffreshwaterlakesintheworld.Becausepreciousfewportagesexistafter
linking up with the Wisconsin River, you could paddle all the way to the Big Easy.
An interesting self-guided water tour is a boathouse tour; the local chamber of com-
merce has a detailed brochure. Head for the
Burnt Rollways Reservoir,
made up of 20 of
the lakes. At more than 7,626 acres, with 106 miles of shoreline, it's one of the region's
most popular boating and fishing areas. These lakes are in turn linked to the Eagle chain of
eight lakes by way of the historic Burnt Rollways boat hoist—dating from 1911—at a dam
sitebetweenLongLakeandCranberryLake.(Bytheway,thenameBurntRollwayscomes
from the revenge exacted on a work boss who couldn't pay some loggers; they torched his
logs stacked on the rollway.)
The
Otter Rapids Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant
is a late-19th-century power
plant still cranking out electricity. This is the beginning of the long series of dams and as-
sorted river blocks on the Wisconsin River, which have given it the nickname “Hardest-
Working River in the Country.”
Some would say that the
town
Eagle River isn't properly within the lakes district—the
Nicolet National Forest even named one of its districts for the town, after all. They cavil, I
say. Eagle River splits the two regions apart, so it could go either way.
Eagle River was apparently named in the 1850s by a pair of itinerant trappers camped
along the river who marveled at the number of eagle pairs along the river. Yet another lum-
ber babytown, it got the drop on northern Wisconsin in reshaping itself into a major tourist
destination.
It is winter, and in particular, snowmobiling, that really sets Eagle River apart from the
rest of the dime-a-dozen summer retreat towns. The community's absolutely frenetic inter-
national snowmobile races in January are simply not to be missed.
Sights
The
Trees for Tomorrow Resources Education Center
(611 Sheridan St., 715/479-6456,
www.treesfortomorrow.com
)
is worthwhile. On the south bank of the Eagle River, this
