(The Chicago Tribune posted the following travel column by Robert K. Elder on its website on May 18.)
GREEN BAY, Wisc. — Contrary to popular belief, “hobo,” “tramp” and “bum” are not synonyms.
No, here at the National Railroad Museum the three terms remain separated in their historical definitions.
Hobos were Depression-era migrant workers, often with families, en route to their next job. Tramps were similar, although more like Jack Kerouac in their love of the free, wandering life. Bums, according to our conductor/guide, were the lowest class of rail riders, often criminals on the lam or shunned, chronic freeloaders.
With as many railroad stories as actual miles of track, Green Bay serves as a nexus for train enthusiasts and nostalgia seekers alike. It’s also the first of two main railroad attractions for me and my tourist mom, a fellow curiosity seeker. Our second stop will be just over the northern border, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to see the ghostly Paulding Light.
But now, we’re on one of the train rides that circle the National Railroad Museum’s 32-acre collection of rolling stock — engines, cabooses and other cars.
The mile-long track around the compound neighbors the Fox River and crosses Dutchman’s Creek, where local mallards make their home behind the Victor McCormick Train Pavilion.
The 25-minute jaunt, running five times a day from May to September, serves as a nice overview of the museum’s sprawling offerings. Our young, crack-voiced conductor points out areas of interest and explains the intricacies of hobo culture, right down to the code they wrote on fence posts, trees and buildings to communicate with other rail riders.
A square with a dot in the middle, he says, means “danger” while a squiggly line under the same symbol stands for “bad water.” Other symbols can signify “unfriendly authorities,” “free telephone” or “keep quiet.”
Elsewhere on the ride, we pass a few outdoor displays such as the Wisconsin Public Service Side Dump Car, a dusty, boxy colossus estimated to have hauled two million-plus tons of coal between the years 1948 and 1963. There’s also the Milwaukee Road #38A, a 1961 locomotive used on a commuter service from Lake County to Chicago. A map we’re given indicates that the museum is seeking funds to restore the cobwebbed unit.
Economic issues, we learn from our knowledgeable young conductor, have been omnipresent since the museum opened in 1961, the same year the red and yellow Hood Junction building was erected next to what is now the fully operational track. Today, however, the museum boasts five structures housing more than 75 pieces in its collection, including Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s World War II staff train and cars.
There’s also a new, state-of-the-art welcome center — Harold E. Fuller Hall — complete with a snazzy exhibit hall, gift shop and theater. A cartoon about the history of railroading in America flickers in the dark theater to a modest crowd on this Sunday afternoon. Through the feature and adjacent exhibit, we learn about the origins of track-hauling, pioneered 2,000 years ago by the Romans, but not really put into industrial practice until 16th Century German miners fashioned wooden carts on wooden rails. What followed was a rapid technological development from English tramways to the steam engines of the Industrial Revolution.
A full-scale depot diorama opens the first part of the exhibit hall, and just a few steps away sits the altar of five-star dining cars, complete with napkins and embossed china. Once posh accommodations circa the 1890s, dining cars were an economically unsound proposition by 1960, thanks to airplanes and the dissemination of automobile culture. Still, you can see remnants of the Golden Era on menus that advertise steak for $1.50, broiled brisket with cabbage for $1 and a pot of coffee for 35 cents.
Further down the hall, in the connected Frederick J. Lenfestey Center, sit the monster crown jewels of the museum’s collection. Polished and shiny, the sleek black “Golden Shuttle” or “Dwight D. Eisenhower” steam train was so named in honor of the general, who spent much time on the top-secret, English-built command train. When it was in use during 1944 and 1945, it pulled Eisenhower and his staff on a LNER #1592 Command Car and LNER #1591 Staff Sleeper, also both on display. Later this year, we learn, there are plans to run a steam train on the museum track, one weekend a month, but thus far dates haven’t been selected.
After leaving the museum, we have to return an hour later, after closing, when I realize I’ve left my credit card inside. The few remaining workmen call their boss at home, and he’s kind enough to drive back, open up the safe and return my plastic before we head off to Paulding Light.
Just north of casino town Watersmeet in Michigan, Paulding Light, we’re told by locals, carries with it several conflicting legends. The most often told tale describes a brakeman who met an untimely demise working the track between Watersmeet and Paulding. Every night, a waitress in the Lac Vieux Desert Resort Casino tells us, he swings his lantern along the power lines at the end of washed out Robbins Pond Road. The light, it’s said, alternates between white and red as the brakeman walks his lonely, eternal mile.
In the casino gift shop, I buy a postcard depicting the mystery light bearer as a “Yooskar,” a plastic green alien with a spooky expression.
When we get there at sunset, however, all we find is mosquitoes. And not normal ones either — these are bloodthirsty, mutant buggers that make us lock the doors. We do brave a few seconds to step out and read the U.S. Forest Service’s marker that retells the brakeman’s story over a little painting of Casper the Friendly Ghost holding a lantern.
By 10 p.m., six cars have come and gone, and all we can see is what looks like a tiny, twinkling star on the horizon. When it turns red, we get excited.
“Is that it?” my mom asks.
No, it couldn’t be. What we see looks (and acts) like headlights along a distant road — the red lights being the tail lights of cars moving in the opposite direction. We flag down a teen couple who walk back from venturing further down the crumbling road, past the twisted guardrail, to see if they glimpsed anything different.
“Last night,” the girl says, “my sister and her boyfriend were chased by the light all the way up to their car.”
But, in typical urban legend form, we continue to see only what looks like sparse traffic in the distance. A dozen more cars come and go, with some tourists stepping out to take a futile flash picture of a spark in the distance.
I feel ripped off, bamboozled. By 12:30 a.m., we decide to leave the legend to the mosquitoes.
My mom, more forgiving than I, simply suggests: “Maybe his arm got tired or his light burned out.”
——
IF YOU GO:
GETTING THERE: To see (or not see) Paulding Light, roughly 185 miles from Green Bay, take U.S. Highway 141 North toward Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and U.S. Highway 2 North. At Watersmeet, Mich., turn right on U.S. Highway 45, and go about 4 miles to Robbins Pond Road, on the left. Do not be deterred by the “Road Closed” sign. Drive to the broken guardrail and wait. A Forest Service sign will also let you know you’re in the correct place.
LODGING: The Inn on Maritime Bay (101 Maritime Drive, Manitowoc, Wis.; 800-654-5353; www.innonmaritimebay.com) offers clean, spacious rooms with gorgeous views of Lake Michigan on the way to Green Bay. Rates vary, but a pleasant hotel staff offered us a rate of $65 when we arrived after midnight.
DINING: Titletown Brewing Company (200 Dousman Street, Green Bay; 920-437-2337; www.titletownbrewery.com) serves not only great spinach dip, but history itself. Appetizers are $6-$8, and entrees are $8-20. Don’t forget to try Grandma Gladys’ Sno-Cap root beer float for $2.95–not only a tradition, but an addictive treat. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Lac Vieux Desert Casino Resort (U.S. 45, 2 miles north of Watersmeet; 800-583-3599) houses the Katikitegoning Restaurant, an economical place to catch a bite with friendly service and vast weekend buffets. Menu items vary from $7 entrees to the $15.95 buffet. Open 6:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6: 30 to 9:45 Friday and Saturday.
ATTRACTIONS: National Railroad Museum (2285 S. Broadway, Green Bay; 920-437-7623; www.nationalrrmuseum.org) is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Closed on holidays. October through April the museum train does not operate. Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $4 for children ages 4 to 12.
Pinecrest Historical Village (7 miles west of Manitowoc, off County Highway JJ on Pinecrest Road; 920-684-4445; www.mchistsoc.org/pinecrest.htm) offers self-guided tours or “Tours on Tape” through the turn-of-the-century village. Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for children ages 6 to 17. Children ages 5 and under are free. Open May 1-June 30, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; July 1-Sept. 1, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sept. 2-Oct. 19, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call for special events and hours. The Farm Machine Exhibit Building and Blacksmith Shop are wheelchair accessible.
INFORMATION:
Contact the Wisconsin Department of Tourism at 800-432-TRIP; travelwisconsin.com.
Green Bay Tourism can be reached at 888-867-3342; www.greenbay.org.
Some interesting theories on Paulding Light can be found at www.backwoodswisconsin.com/paulding–light.htm and www.lacvieuxdesert.com/html/paulding.html.