Local historian offers walking tour of Bayfield

Local historian Elizabeth Downey wants to expose Bayfield’s past through historic walking tours. Each tour features 15 stops complete with vintage photos and commentary along a half-mile loop of the downtown area.

Participants will learn about Bayfield’s early days as a city in the mid-1800s and the boomtown days.

“I designed the tour to be interesting to both locals and tourists—there’s something for everybody. I love seeing peoples’ jaws drop as I share some of the facts about that time period — it surprises even those who lived here their entire lives,” Downey said.

In the late 1800s, Great Lakes steamboats arrived as frequently as 10 times per day in the summertime, dropping off as many as 4,000 tourists in Bayfield at once. Facts like these are why Downey wanted to dive deeper into Bayfield’s early history.

“I’ve always loved learning about history, especially in the 1800s,” she said. “I realized Bayfield had its own version of the Gilded Age due to the huge changes brought on by the lumber, mining and fishing industries, accompanied by shocking population growth — at one point, Bayfield’s population expanded 600% within a span of just 10 years.”

Downey moved to the Bayfield area in 2009 to study at Northland College, where she began with a 1.5-year program called Superior Connections, a curriculum that used the local region as a lens to learn about history, sociology, science and art.

“I fell in love with this area and the many layers of fascinating history that are just beneath the surface,” said Downey, who chose to continue living here after graduating from Northland in 2013 and can’t imagine being anywhere else.

Information provided by the Bayfield Chamber and Visitor Bureau.