At a beach in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, the driver of a pickup eliminates a thick stick through the truck’s bed. He plays a casino game of catch with a border collie as dog romps in and out associated with water.
Between throws, the driver comes back to his cab and produces a stoic parrot, which he perches on a playground post. The bird remains put, canine’s splashes continue and also the guy shifts to small talk.
“Hey, buddy, ” he nods, to no one specifically. “When that puppy was a pup, I brought him here, and he got jerked beneath the water. I figure a musky need gotten ahold of him.”
This particular seafood story feels believable since this is Hayward, a city whose many iconic framework is a 143-foot-long replica of feisty muskellunge, the official condition fish since 1955. Men and women walk into the gut and 40 feet up for views from seafood’s gaping lips on Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum.
The town’s biggest yearly party is named the Musky Festival, Summer 16-19, in downtown Hayward, some 420 kilometers northwest of Chicago. an event associated with the location’s fishing history, the festival — today with its 67th year — features the crowning of a Musky Festival queen, live songs, a parade and, needless to say, a fishing competition.
A half-mile north associated with the fish museum could be the Moccasin club, whose wall mounts include the 67-pound, 8-ounce musky that Cal Johnson fought and caught in 1949, landing some sort of record. The big catch is exhibited among a large number of samples of animal taxidermy. Most are in remarkable poses, for instance the quartet of critters sitting on hind feet, keeping mini alcohol mugs and poised to sing the first 20th-century ballad “nice Adeline.”
A half-mile south is Fred Scheer’s Lumberjack Show, in which brawny teenage boys speed-chop wood, toss steely sharp axes, battle across floating logs and scurry up tall poles. Since 1960, the town features managed the Lumberjack World Championships, nicknamed the Olympics of the woodland.
So Hayward, population 2, 300, just isn’t generally a city for sissies. It’s not surprising locate restaurants with hefty portions, shops stocked with outside activities equipment and events that incentive energy and agility. This is certainly someplace with a tough love when it comes to great outdoors — the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, featuring off-road bike events, is Sept. 17 — and a proud, long-standing history of lumbering and trophy fishing, like the Musky Fly Fishing World Championships, Oct. 6-8.
Additionally it is someplace that acts an abnormally named nice treat: Chunky Musky, a banana ice-cream with walnuts and chocolates. It is a signature taste at western’s Hayward Dairy, 15848 W. 2nd St.
And it’s a spot where you’ll discover wall surface hangings of fish carved from birch-bark available for sale at a weekend art reasonable.
Source: www.chicagotribune.com