SUPER 8 MOTEL - MARINETTE

Civil War Monument

by yooperprof

"Stephenson Island" is a small verdant park next to the Wisconsin banks of the Menominee River. That's where you find this monument which dates from 1917 and is dedicated to the Civil War soldiers of Menominee County.

There's also a small local history museum, but it was closed when I was last there.

Marinette Marine

by yooperprof

Marinette Marine is the firm that won the contract to build the new Staten Island ferries. They employ several hundred people here. The company also does a lot of work for the Coast Guard - a number of their smaller boats have been constructed here.

Marinette's Connection to the World

by yooperprof

"Didja Know That. . . .?"

The new Staten Island Ferries are being built in Marinette WI? Every time I've driven through Marinette in the last few months, I've seen one of the bright orange vessels being built in the Marinette shipyards. Not too many people think of Wisconsin as being a shipbuilding center - but it is!

It's a long trip from here to Manhattan. Presumably, when the ferries are finished they go through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway - but isn't there a "shortcut" via the Eric Canal, so they don't have to go all the way up to Nova Scotia?

"This river is named after the Menominees who lived here until they moved to the Wolf River in the 1850s. The Menominee River served as the main artery of commerce until the 1850s. Indians and fur traders moved their furs downriver in canoes to a fur trading post on the river run by Marinette, a French Indian woman, and her partner, William Farnsworth. The decline of the fur trade in the late 1820s led Farnsworth to turn to lumbering in 1831.

"The Menominee River became one of the most important lumbering rivers in the Upper Great Lakes during the years 1865-1893. Trees cut upstream were floated downriver and sawed into lumber on both sides of the river from this bridge down to the bay. During the summer months the river above this island was choked with logs; below, schooners and barges lay anchored while being loaded with finished lumber before sailing to Chicago. The decline of lumbering started in the 1890s, with the last log drive in 1917, and the law sawmill in Marinette closing on July 31, 1931."

"Historical Marker - Menomnee River"

Marinette's a coastal community in far Northeastern Wisconsin. In fact, if you are driving northward on US 41, it's the last Wisconsin town you pass through before you reach the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That's why Yooperprof knows it so well - it's practically in the U.P., after all. Of course, Green Bay is no Lake Superior, and snowfall here is less than a third of what it is in Marquette.