A year ago this month, my sister Susan, cousins John and Annette, and I took a road trip to visit the 40 acres I own south of Herbster, Wisconsin, which was purchased by our Grandfather Hoyt back in 1918 and which my father Nelson gave me, on the condition I paid the taxes on it every year. At the time I thought it was a great deal. I picked up John at the airport in Des Moines, Iowa, and we drove north to Clear Lake, Iowa, where the Hoyt family comes from. Our Great Great Grandfather, Alexander Nelson, owned two houses there, a block or two from the lake, but sadly, although we found the neighborhood, as seen in the photograph on the left, we could not find those houses. Plus, we looked in the Clear Lake Cemetary, and located the gravesites, but there were no headstones on the 5 graves: Alexander Nelson, his wife Imogene, his daughter Sophie, Sophie's daughter Violet, and an infant, all unmarked. Not a trace of the family left in Clear Lake. Kind of sad, isn't it?
The next day we were going to pick up Annette, John's sister, at the Minneapolis airport, but due to stormy weather, the flight was canceled, and we headed directly up to Duluth, where we checked into the hotel in nearby Superior, Wisconsin. We then headed to the Tavern on the Hill, seen in the photograph on the right, which is located across from the University of Minnesota Duluth, to celebrate John's birthday. This is a lively spot, made even nicer by the fact that to get there you drive along Lake Superior and then head up a hill filled with beautiful old Victorians overlooking the lake.
The next day, Annette arrived in Minneapolis and rented a car, joining us in Duluth. That afternoon we drove east about 45 miles to Herbster, headed south down dirt roads to a snowmobile trail that leads to my 40 acres, and hiked in. Susan stayed in the car while the three of us headed to the property. Although that trail is perfectly fine for snowmobiles during the winter, in the spring it was filled with huge, water-filled holes, which we had to circle, brushing against the vegetation as we did. After about a mile and a half we arrived at the property line, where I took the photograph of John and Annette on the left, standing next to the orange property marker on the tree. Sadly, the woods were impenetrable, there was no sign of the cabin that was once there, and when we got back to the car, we were all covered in ticks. Not a very successful trip, I'm afraid. On the other hand, that was the first time I ever actually set foot on the property, and so that has to count for something, right?
We had dinner in Bayfield, Wisconsin, 30 miles to the east of Herbster. Bayfield in a really nice town, situated on a hill overlooking Lake Superior, filled with Victorian homes and an artsy downtown, as seen in the photograph on the right. We dined at the Bayfield Inn, but having to continuously pick off the ticks kind of put a damper on the evening. When we got back to Duluth, we did a late-night washing to get rid of the damn things, and I spent part of the next day spraying the hell out of my car to get rid of the ones still in there. And did I mention that I have received over a dozen offers to buy the north half of that property? Probably people wanting to get into the tick farming business.
The next day was pretty stormy during the morning, which is when I took the photograph on the left of someone walking along the waves with their surfboard. Evidently waves like this are not unusual up there (remember the Edmund Fitzgerald), and so to him it was probably just another pleasant day along the water. The weather eventually cleared up, and we toured the Glensheen Mansion, a local historical landmark, and had lunch at Grandma's Saloon and Grill in the Canal Park entertainment district. That is a pretty lively area, and we had dinner there, too. The next day John and Annette headed to the Minneapolis airport and Susan and I drove back to Denver, hopefully all of us tick free.
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