June 24, 2015 at 3:54 p.m.
The Bearskin Trail:
A key Northwoods transportation route for more than 120 years
The Bearskin Trail:
By By Kyle Rogers-
It's likely that most Bearskin Trail users are aware they're traveling along an old rail corridor. After all, the rails-to-trails movement is nothing new. By the early 1980s, the railroad industry was abandoning between 4,000 and 8,000 miles of line annually, and the push to repurpose those old railways into trail systems began to pick up steam. It was around this time that the Bearskin began its transformation from abandoned railway to trail. Still, it's easy to forget the role that such rail corridors had in building the communities we know today.
On the Bearskin, about halfway between Rhinelander and Minocqua, sits a structure that serves as a reminder of that important role the railroad once played in the Northwoods. Built in 1888, the small wooden shed appears suddenly alongside the trail as just a curiosity, a dilapidated relic of another time. It once was used as tool storage and shelter for two Minocqua brothers, who would travel the rail line with a handcar and repair any damage they saw along the way. Keeping the rail line in good working order was particularly important in those days since the rail was the primary connection among communities. Rail lines first developed in the Northwoods out of a need to transport timber back to the big cities, but it wasn't long before passenger cars started running down the lines, thus launching the beginnings of the Northwoods tourism industry. Passenger service for the 18-mile stretch the Bearskin Trail now covers began on Jan. 29, 1888, with a train leaving Merrill daily at 7 a.m. and arriving in Minocqua shortly after noon. The southbound train returned to Merrill by 6:25 p.m. The 50-mile trip one way took more than five hours, but was comparatively fast to the alternative of traveling by foot or horse on dirt roads.
Passenger trains also ran from New Lisbon to Minocqua daily, and it was in New Lisbon that passengers could connect to the main line running between Milwaukee and Chicago and St. Paul, Minnesota.
By the 1920s, passenger service along the Bearskin corridor had picked up considerably with tourists from the Chicago and Milwaukee areas using the line to travel to the growing resort area around Minocqua. Passengers would ask to be dropped off at various points along the route, where they would then be picked up by horse-drawn wagons from the resorts and taken to their destination.
It was around this same time that a special weekend service from Chicago to Minocqua was introduced. What became known as "The Fisherman's Special" included nine sleeping cars and two coaches, and was usually filled to capacity. The train would leave Chicago at 6:10 p.m. on a Friday and passengers would dine and sleep en route. After spending two days in the Northwoods, the train would leave late Sunday night, returning to Chicago at 2 a.m. Monday.
"The Fisherman's Special" service continued until 1941 when the federal government asked railroads to cease operation of recreational trains to save fuel and materials for the war. The service started back up again in 1946 and continued until 1948.
One of the more notable trains that operated regularly along the line during this time was the Northwoods Hiawatha. The Hiawathas were a fleet of five passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad between Chicago and various Midwest and Western destinations. The shorter portion of trail that runs south of the Bearskin into Tomahawk is dubbed the Hiawatha. Debuting in 1936, the Northwoods Hiawatha included air-conditioned streamlined coaches, a tap lounge, and a diner parlor car. During the summer months until 1943, the Northwoods Hiawatha provided service from Chicago to as far north as Star Lake. That service was cut back to Minocqua, but the summer weekend service from Chicago to the Northwoods remained the trend for the Hiawatha until 1956. At that time service was cut back even more to Wausau and the Hiawatha name was dropped. The service was discontinued completely in 1970. The development of U.S. Highway 51 and the increasing popularity and ease of car travel had made the passenger train obsolete.
Though no longer needed for rail service, the Bearskin and other abandoned rail corridors have been able to find a second life as recreational trails thanks to the rails-to-trails trend that has emerged over recent decades. The Bearskin started as an integral piece to the logging industry that spurred the development of Northwoods communities like Rhinelander. It evolved into an equally important piece to the key industry that followed - tourism. Now the Bearskin is simply part of the Northwoods landscape for people to enjoy by foot, bike or snowmobile.
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