A Road Less Traveled

Eagle Terrace in Peninsula State Park connects centuries of history, from possible sacred significance for Indian people and a vantage point over Eagle Harbor to the 1853 journey of Norwegian immigrants led by Reverend Andrew Iverson, who crossed the frozen harbor to establish a Moravian community at what is now Ephraim. The bluff also supported industry when the Eagle Bluff Stone Company quarried limestone there around 1900, until the quarry closed after Peninsula was established in 1909 and the site became a popular picnic place. Today the area is known for sunrise views, while the nearby Beech-Maple Forest State Natural Area, designated in 1952, preserves eighty acres of land dropping 150 feet from bluff to shore past fern-covered limestone outcrops. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps camp known as Camp Peninsula supplied men with pay and meals, and its workers built the stone wall at Eagle Terrace and the steps leading to the overlook.

Gibraltar, Wisconsin · United States