Wequiock Falls - (New) Home of the Legendary Jean Nicolet Statue

Wequiock Falls

Hello fellow travelers and seekers of the less beaten path.  The Internet while replete with all sorts of bits and pieces of a particular interesting place, landmark, wayside, etc. can take an average person a lot of concentrated surfing to pull it all together. That's where THIS blog differs; if I find it interesting, I'll pull it all together for you...right here.  Together, we're also bound to discover more of what lies behind and under the surface story too.  Kinda' like most people do a "drive-by" on their lives and never really see or understand the whole picture...either too busy or too distracted.  We won't let that happen to us...no siree.

 

It's now time for my second installation of this new blog.  I thought it prudent to explain more of what this vehicle is truly about before I get too far along the journey.  Obviously it is about me and what I think is interesting in the way of roadside attractions and curiosities, however it is also about you the reader and what you could possibly take from each vignette to enrich your own brief existence here on planet earth.  In regard to the former; if something catches my attention, I find it necessary to investigate and to ultimately report via this medium.  It's just that damn near everything catches my attention lately...where to start, where to start? 

How about a recent spring trip to Door County, WI where the thing that I spied was the same thing I have seen on multiple trips up north...let's try that.  It all began with a hwy sign.  The sign interestingly beckoned, "Wequiock Falls County Park - Jean Nicolet Statue".  Now, the problem with that sign over the years of my seeing it was that it seemed to point to nothing, and to nowhere accessible; least ways from hwy 57 N. (at 65 MPH) did it point to nowhere accessible.  That and the fact that I was always "with" people who would in no way want to delay their trip to "The Door" by any more than a potty stop and some auto fuel.  This time however, I was by myself and looking to (finally) investigate the mystery.  Now I could have sworn that there was no way in hell to actually get to the statue because in all the years I had driven this route, I spotted no road access, however THIS time it looked easy as pie...why?  (I'd find out later that the statue was moved recently {in July of 2009} to this more accessible spot next to Wequiock Falls, narrowly edging out the Bay Shore Park as a contender because of proximity historical significance to his actual theorized landing spot)   In short; the new highway 57 completed in 2005 had cut off access to Jean and that was unfortunate.  It took the tenacity of Brown County Parks and Recreation Assistant Parks Director, Doug Hartman almost 3 years to shepherd the move.  This decision to keep the statue in the Town of Scott (where it had been since 1942) seemed to make the locals happy.  Timberline Landscapes in Scott was ultimately paid 40K to move it.  So, with my new motto of "life's too short...why not?" urging me onward, I pulled off Sturgeon Bay Rd (Hwy 57) onto Van Laanen Rd and followed the sign to the first parking area that looked likely to have my answer.

 

A small knot of young people were having a cookout at one of the permanent grills.  The two post-high school boys and one youngish looking girl were throwing a Frisbee back and forth, while holding what appeared to be adult beverages, as large black dog romped back and forth between them.  Not wanting to disturb this unbalanced pastoral scene with my sudden appearance (and camera) I turned the WPT around on the gravel and drove back out onto the road.  Heck, I didn't even see a "falls" anyway; let alone Jean Nicolet.  I turned right on Van Laanen and thought about finding 57 again when within 500 feet I spotted another sign and a large bronze statue in a clearing. 

 

The gravel parking area was just adjacent to a small path that lead to a bronze plaque embedded out front of the statue proper that read, "A gift to Wisconsin by her school children 1939-1940 during the tenure of John Calahan State Superintendent of Public Instruction".  The statue, erected in 1942, was the brainchild of local school principal Robert Desereau. School kids in the 1930s and 40s pitched in pennies, nickels and dimes. Next to the statue in the grass; a familiar template of the typical routered brown and white State of Wisconsin Historical Marker (complete with routered badger at the top) sign told the story of this particular monument\'s significance. 

 

Basically, explorer Jean Nicolet (Zhan "Nick-o-LAY" here in Wisconsin...but if you are in Minneapolis it's "NIK-oll-ET") de Belleborne emissary of Gov. Samuel de Champlain of New France was looking for the "Orient" in 1634 when he took a slightly wrong turn and ended up at (Red Banks) near Green Bay, WI. (an easy mistake I myself have made).  He and his entourage then exited his fleet to greet the Chinese locals; Jean in his long flowing oriental overcoat, took out his pistols from behind his gaudy cape and FIRED them for effect.  That unexpected maneuver really seemed to impress the band of Winnebago Indians who had come down to investigate, as they immediately treated him as a man of power; an ambassador and asked him to share an impressive feast in his honor where they butchered "six score" beavers.  (That's about 120 of the little buck-toothed critters in case you wondered...DAM that's a lot of busy little flat-tailed creatures for an evening meal!)

 

Then dear reader, there's the aforementioned falls of Wequiock to discuss.  It seems that the planners of the more recent resting place of Mr. Nicolet knew what they were doing when they set him down here.  All one needs to do is walk a 100 feet south and the top of the twenty five foot falls is right there under a foot bridge to the wayside park I first had driven to.  The actual address of the falls is 3426 Bay Settlement Road in the Town of Scott.  If you are into waymarking; the coordinates are: N 44° 34.109 W 087° 52.768 - 16T E 430166 N 4935392.
 

Wequiock falls (a "curtain" type waterfall) is the result of the Wequiock Creek tumbling over the Niagara escarpment (more accurately the Silurian escarpment).  It is documented to be far more impressive in the early spring as you might imagine with the natural snow melt up the creek.  The later spring day I witnessed it; it was not quite a torrent, but rather respectable as Great Lakes waterfalls go.  If you would like to peruse the UWSP geology descriptions of the actual rocks that make up the falls; look HERE.  No-Doze Alert: If you are brave enough to visit that link, you're likely to also learn all about the Maquoketa Formation too.  Frankly how the rock enthusiasts know what they know is beyond me; and for all I know it could be all made up, but it is surely fascinating in a heady sort of way.  Not to mention getting to use the word "Imbricated" in a sentence...that's priceless.

 

The foliage had grown up in the basin and the sun had warmed the air quite nicely as I descended the sturdy manufactured set of wooden stairs to the base of the creek.  These stairs are amazingly well built and are probably the nicest set of landmark stairs I have even been on...no kidding.  I was impressed and remain so to this day.  Whatever Brown County paid to have them constructed was money well spent.  I took a slow and careful walk to the bottom of the falls and breathed in the moist air...ahhh...that's nice.  Plus, who doesn't like the sound of the rushing water?  If they say they don't, they're lying...so THERE!

 

All Things Wequiock

1. Wequiock = Means "bladder" from the Ojibwe word "wikkway".  [Source: Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 29, 1939.]  So if you gotta' "go" your Wequiock is full I guess.
2. Here's Wequiock Falls in the winter on YouTube
3. Here's the falls on a PBS television station called WETA. 
4. There's even a Wequiock Elementary School in Green Bay, WI  (Bladder Elementary School eh?  Their mascot could be something like one of those red rubber hot water bottles your grandma used for an earache, however the savvy Wequiockians have chosen the "pandas" of course.  The PC crowd probably thought that the name meant an actual Indian's name like "Cheif Wequiock of the Full Bladder Tribe", so they erred on the side of caution with that one...good thing too I guess.
5. How about the Wequiock Presbyterian Church?
6. Map and Map of Wequiock, WI (Really?  Map Quest seems to think there's an entire "Town of Wequiock")
7. So does the US Gazetteer.

Anyway, enough of that insanity...the Internet is a zany madcap place indeed; so don't believe it unless you read about it here on the Roads Less Traveled blog.  Visit the park, falls and statue on your next trip to The Door...you'll like it and you'll know the WHOLE story even before you do.

Have a great journey on any road you have not been down before...and I'll see you later.

Fantastic construction eh?

From the bridge looking toward the walkway