On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
In April 2020, I moved from my 150 year old restored farm house in a very rural location into an apartment in beautifully restored commercial building in the center of town. A major change in life style in a normal time, but this was the beginning to the pandemic lock down. So there would be no travel opportunities for the foreseeable future, which had been one of the reasons for giving up home ownership in favor to the easy life of the lessee. At the time, I started to think about doing a “staycation” post to highlight the interesting sights in my new neighborhood. Now I have finally gotten to do it.
This 12-foot revolving metal badger (we are in Wisconsin after all) sculpture stands at the mouth of the Manitowoc harbor. He is called the Shipbuilder, created by Carl Vanderheyden; and he is holding a caulking hammer, a tool used in building wooden boats. This is in recognition of Manitowoc as a major shipbuilding center, where 26 different firms operated at one time or another, building over 200 ships, including 28 submarines during World War II.
The Mariner’s Trail runs along the shore of Lake Michigan from Manitowoc to Two Rivers, 7 miles of uninterrupted lake access. The Trail is always busy with bikers, skaters, walkers, runners, and dog walkers. This is a view looking south from Two Rivers.
When the Trail was originally created, the two cities maintained the landscaping along the route. After a while, the local garden clubs took over and turned gardening into a competitive sport. There is a waiting list for the chance to get a Mariner’s Trial garden to design and maintain. This one is at about the halfway point, looking north.
The municipal electric utility and the local art museum teamed up on beautification project. Artists selected a work from the museum collection as an inspiration piece to paint one of the many utility boxes around town. This one and the next are in my downtown block.
The building behind the psychedelic lobster is the newly constructed garage for the tenants in my building. The city required them to add the bricked up windows in the wall, to make it match the old building across the street where real windows were bricked up long ago. Urban planning can be odd.
There are a lot of murals all over town. Manitowoc has a sister city relationship with Kamogawa, Chiba, Japan. This mural, based on Hokusai’s Great Wave Off Kamogawa was painted to memorialize it.
The Irish pub across the street decided that their wall needed a little Gaelic attitude.
When I first came to town, a long time ago, these silos were adorned with three giant bottles of a beer more associated with St. Louis than any place in Wisconsin. After the malting plant was sold, the new owners upgraded the mural. The bagel in the lower right caused some initial confusion.
At the far end of the seawall that surrounds the marina and a bird sanctuary, there is a dog park. This little piece of whimsy shows the way to it.
HinTN
Looks like a very beautiful place to live. In delighted by the garden club “competition” and the dog park sign
ETA: Really? Posted at 0500 and this is the initial comment at 0900? Y’all been missing out.
JanieM
All the local artwork is great — I never got to Manitowoc when I lived in Milwaukee, but maybe I should have! Nice pics.
JanieM
@HinTN: I was up for a while at 6:00 and the post wasn’t here yet, but I went back to bed so I don’t know when it actually appeared. They don’t always show up when they say they’re going to…..like some people I know, actually. ;-)
stinger
Great pics! I love the lamppost-leaner outside of Moore’s, and the dog.
Pandemic aside, how has the move from rural to urban worked for you? I ask because a similar move is probably in my (hopefully distant) future.
Betty
What a lovely town.
delphinium
The Mariner’s Trail looks lovely and like all of the murals and sculptures. Seems like a very nice place to live.
Another Scott
Great pictures! A retired colleague was from Manitowoc. He was a very bright and good guy and a character. He was very proud of his home town. From your pictures, I can see why. Weren’t there huge aluminum companies there too?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Old School
None of the sites from “Making a Murderer”? Next time.
Also, there’s a spot marking where Sputnik (or some such thing) fell.
Gravenstone
Was gonna say, didn’t those silos used to be Bud bottles? I’m on the other side of the county, but honestly don’t get to Manty too often.
Gravenstone
@Another Scott: there’s still an aluminum foundry up there. But maybe you’re thinking of Mirro cookware? They had a big plant there until a couple decades ago.
PaulB
Loved the pictures and the comments. Thank you for sharing your neighborhood with us.
Elma
@stinger: Street noise has taken some time to get used to. Not that the rural life was quiet, just a different kind of noise. The street running past my building is an echo chamber for guys with BIG engines. (My son knew that and failed to mention it when I was thinking about the move.) Fortunately, they seem to all go home to bed by 11 pm. Must be OLD guys with BIG engines. I had lived in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison, so I was familiar with urban life in the past.
Elma
@Another Scott: Yes, Mirro was the the big one. It was a mainstay of the local economy. When it finally closed it was devastating. It has taken a long time for the community to recover, but I think it most has by now.
Elma
@Old School: On September 10, 2022, the city will close off 8th Street, where the piece of space junk fell, and celebrate the annual SputnikFest. https://www.manitowoc.org/1109/Sputnikfest
Another Scott
@Gravenstone: Yes, Mirro, but I think there was more. I think that we still have an aluminum skillet that says Manitowoc on the bottom and isn’t a Mirro.
Historical Society link mainly talks about Mirro though.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Elma: 👍
It’s hard when major industry transitions or fails. (I went to high school in Dayton.). Glad that things are looking up. All that water is going to be a big draw for lots of people soon. ;-)
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Scott.
eclare
The views of the lake are gorgeous!
HinTN
@Another Scott: That happened in Chattanooga. It used to have foundries and a tannery right along the Tennessee River. ‘Nooga is in a bowl and they created a nasty pall (think Pittsburgh) that was bad as seen coming over Lookout Mountain on US41. Fortunately, the rich folks really put their money where their mouth was and pushed the local government to create the vibrant riverfront and revitalized Main Street that we enjoy today. It wasn’t easy and it cost a lot of money. There was lots of contention but the result is wonderful.
Super Dave
As young newlyweds my wife and I took our first “official” vacation together in 1971. We traveled from our home in Lincoln Nebraska to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in our new 1971 Datsun 510. Being a gearhead, I picked the destination in order to see John Morton drive the BRE Datsun 510 the Trans Am races at Elkhart Lake. We spent a night in Manitowoc along the way. The lake looked like an ocean to us! At the races, we met the then famous Y. Katakana, President of Datsun USA. John won the race against the Alfa Romeos. A very memorable trip.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
Made my first and second trips to Wisconsin this summer for work. Loved it. Wouldn’t object to living there — the people I met were incredibly down-to-earth and I miss flat, bicycle-friendly terrain.
If only my husband weren’t so in love with warm weather. Might just have to ditch the guy. Oh well, it was a nice marriage, and I’ll remember him fondly. [loads bicycle on car rack]
Elma
@Super Dave: I had a Datsun 610, bought it new in Zion Illinois, in 1973. My first new car. I drove it until I moved to Manitowoc in 1979 to take my first professional position, working for the county. The next year I was able to buy my second new car, a Ford Mustang. My son is a gearhead, a bowtie guy. We never had anything but GM after he got old enough to weigh in on decision making.
Elma
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Wisconsin is a wonderful place in the summer and very nice in spring and fall. My sister who has lived in Florida for 40+ years makes brief trips home in winter, to remind herself why she no longer lives in Wisconsin.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@Elma: Yep. I’m guessing the first time they have me come to Milwaukee during the winter will be a rude awakening. My years here outside Atlanta have conditioned me — I don’t mind winters, but I need them to be short.
Super Dave
@Elma:
Great story! I was working for a Datsun dealer at the time, from 1969 until 1974. Those were great years for Datsun. We sold 510’s, 610’s and 710’s to all our families and friends, and all of them had good service from those cars. I also had two 240Z’s and a 260Z. Fun stuff. Ah, the good old days!
stinger
@Elma: I dread the (different) noise and above all the fact that it never gets dark.
dnfree
I have been to Manitowoc exactly once, in probably February, 1968, as part of Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign. We had volunteered, from Illinois, and were bused to various towns in Wisconsin. I remember my husband shaving off his beard in a restroom, with a rusty razor, as part of the “Come Clean for Gene” movement, so we wouldn’t scare the denizens of Manitowoc by appearing to be some of those dirty hippies as we went door-to-door. We should come back to see it now, when my husband wouldn’t have to shave off his now very white beard.
dnfree
@Gravenstone: I guess that’s another peripheral connection to Manitowoc for me. I worked at Newell Rubbermaid (now back to just plain Newell) when Mirro was closed. The idiot CEO we had then also wiped out one of the main businesses where we lived when he moved corporate headquarters to Atlanta from Freeport IL.
https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2004/03/15/daily1.html
Kevin
Looks like a nice town. We almost stopped there after visiting Green Bay this summer but opted for the beach in Racine instead. Maybe we need to go back!