Apostle Islands

It's just a little tiny story about a little tiny city.

So Bayfield, that's up near the Apostle Islands, way up in the northwest part of the state, is the smallest city in Wisconsin.

It's the smallest incorporated city by population.

They only have 584 people, but they're incorporated.

Well, guess what? Bayfield has been named one of the eight most inviting towns in the northern United States by World Atlas.

Bayfield sits on the south shore of Lake Superior and is sometimes referred to as the mainland gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

That's, of course, those famous forested islands, red sandstone sea caves.

They're a magnet for kayakers in the summer and ice hikers in the winter when they're open.

One of which is from you.

Haven't you been to the Apostle Islands?

I think it's under visit.

That's why I want it to be a national park.

The region's well-drained, slightly acidic silt loam soils provide the perfect drainage and nutrients required for healthy apple root development.

And in 1870, Brad, a lighthouse keeper named Roswell Pendergrast successfully experimented with growing apple trees on a nearby island, Michigan Island, one of the Apostle Islands, Michigan Island.

Decades later, in 1905, local businessman William Knight noticed how well backyard apple trees did in town, and he planted the area's first 20-acre commercial orchard, proving that fruit farming could scale successfully on the peninsula.

And generations of multi-generational families like the Hausers and the Eriksons sustained this tradition.

Sorry, it was Wisconsin.

Actually, you know, Lake Superior, the, the Apostle Islands.

Google that.

It is magic, freaking magic.