Wayside: Dugways to Water

"Dugways to Water" wayside sign at an overlook on the Bay View Trail in Port Oneida

Quick Facts

Location:

44° 56' 20.232" N, 85° 56' 58.542" W

Amenities

1 listed

Audio Description

Main Exhibit Text

How do you get your water? From a faucet, right? In the late 1800s to early 1900s, Port Oneida farmers did not have that luxury. In fact, despite being surrounded by an inland sea, getting water here was an unusual challenge. Some farms on this big pile of sand didn’t have springs or could not reach water with a well. They needed water from the lake.

The challenge was, how to get water from the shore up the area’s steep sand bluffs. The solution was persistence and backbreaking hard work—chopping, hoeing, carving—to make narrow, rough paths or dugways connecting their farm to the lake. Via these routes, farmers accessed their fishing skiffs, herded livestock to drink, loaded wagons with water barrels for homes and fields, transported building materials, hauled lake ice in winter, and, at least once, helped shipwreck survivors.

Image Descriptions

Background Image

The background of this exhibit is a water color style illustration depicting a horse drawn wagon carrying goods up a sandy hill. The hillside is covered with light and dark green vegetation. On the left side of the image is blue water. The sandy hill moves up from the water, from left to right, and ends on top of the hill where there are a couple buildings. The wagon has four large wheels and is being pulled by two horses up the hill. There are four men in the photo helping to get the wagon up the hill.

Historic Photograph (bottom right)

In the bottom right corner of the exhibit there is a black and white historic photograph of a sinking ship. The large ship is mostly underwater, with just the deck still above water. People stand on the shore in the foreground, looking out at the boat. There are at least ten people standing on the shore as well as two horses attached to a wagon.

Caption

On October 29, 1917, the steamer Rising Sun ran aground during a blinding snowstorm. Fred Baker drove his horse-drawn wagon down his dugway and along the beach to collect survivors. Everyone aboard survived.