"Arlington to Oconto, And Bring Your Rod!"

Southern terminus: Dane County, at the U.S. 51/STH 60 junction near Arlington

Eastern terminus: Oconto County, Main Street and Brazeau Avenue (U.S. 41) in Oconto

Mileage: about 176 miles

Counties along the way: Dane, Columbia, Marquette, Waushara, Portage, Waupaca, Shawano, Oconto

Sample towns along the way: Pardeeville, Montello, Wautoma, Wild Rose, Waupaca, Rural, Clintonville, Embarrass, Shawano, Gillett, Oconto Falls, Oconto

Bypass alternates at: Waupaca, Shawano

Quickie Summary: State “Trunk” Highway 22 is one of several state highways that meander a bit while changing direction. Running right up the center of Wisconsin at first, Highway 22 winds through a number of central and northeastern Wisconsin towns, providing access to lakes and rivers that offer some of the state’s best fishing, eventually provides access to the waters of Green Bay.

The Drive (South To East): Highway 22 starts out at a series of rural crossroads, where U.S. 51 veers away to head toward Portage, and “coast-to-coast” Highway 60 crosses both. The first ten miles of Highway 22 take you through wide-open spaces - for Wisconsin - and a series of “Ethanol YES!” signs, indicative of corn and politically active farmers in the area.

Highway 22 begins nondescriptly, as U.S. 51 veers westerly for a spell about 20 minutes north of the Madison area.

Some good-sized hills emerge a few miles further north, including a pretty scenic one as you cross Rocky Run. The first town you enter is Wyocena, where Highway 16 crosses. They built an interchange for a 16 bypass decades ago, and the “old” 16 just north of it shows just how tiny some of the major routes used to be. Try following it; it’s a small side street that, decades ago, was the main route for Milwaukee-Minneapolis traffic. Makes one appreciate expanded bypasses sometimes!

Just north of where Highway 22 crosses Highway 16 today is the marker showing the origin of Wyocena, founded by Major Elbert Dickason in 1843. His wife was named Obedience, which has sort of fallen off the "popular baby names for girls" list over the last century or two.

For an area thought of as fairly flat, this part of central Wisconsin sports some sizable hills and nice views as you cruise.

Three miles later lies Pardeeville (pop. 1,995) and yes, it’s pronounced “partyville”. Not that it’s known for parties… or is it? You’ll have to find that out on your own. In the middle of a Saturday, things were pretty calm. I was getting 37 mpg to this point – and that includes punching it to get around some slow people on this 2-lane highway.

Highway 22 serves as Pardeeville’s main street. While looking for a pardee of some sort, I came across an Everbrite factory that caught my eye because gas prices were even more shocking than usual. This wasn’t as a gas station, however; Everbite makes some of those digital signs that show prices at gas stations, and the examples they had out there weren’t pretty. If you want to see what $6 gas looks like, just check out the picture:

Thankfully, those aren't real prices (at least as of press time). Everbrite's facility in Pardeeville makes some of the digital price signs gas stations use. It scared the heck out of me for a second.

Pardeeville’s downtown strip runs for only a few blocks; Highway 44 begins its run towards Oshkosh at this point, and 22 jogs past Park Lake and over the Fox River, the first of many crossings over that river.

Watermelon Seed-Spitting and Curling. Pardeeville is big on watermelons in summer and curling in winter. Every year, Pardeeville hosts the U.S. Watermelon Eating and Seed-Spitting Competition. The 2009 edition was visited by the State Trunk Tour, and featured here is 10-year-old Colton Ketter of Lomira. Spitters from all over came to Pardeeville for the chance to take home glory - and a ribbon. Pardeeville also has a very active curling club that has been at it since 1875. Curling Olympian Debbie McCormick hails from Pardeeville and still serves as the organization's vice president.

Between Pardeeville and Montello, County F provides access to John Muir County Park, which boasts a broad array of diverse and rare plant species, lakes and wetlands. This area was the boyhood home of Sierra Club founder John Muir (hence the county park’s name) and also features a trail and boardwalk around 30-acre Ennis Lake.

Continuing along Highway 22, one notices many antique stores… and you gotta love the ones that, in addition to “classic” antiques, also sell a wide variety of live bait.

The bait is popular, though, because there’s tons of good fishing in the area. Dotting Highway 22 are side roads to Fox River and area lake fishing and recreational trails. Marquette County alone has 60+ lakes and 15 trout streams, most of which have good public access.

From the "You'll Never Know What You'll Find on the State Trunk Tour" department: lawn jockeys in their Packer gear, lighting the way in for these Green-and-Gold worshipping residents.

While I didn’t run across any, this area is also home to a significant Amish population. Use caution in case you share the road with them, since their horsepower amount is usually one or two.

When you reach Montello (pop. 1,397), you’re about 35 miles from the southern end of Highway 22. Montello’s downtown spreads along Highways 22 and 23, and the aforementioned Amish sell many a craft in stores along the route. At the intersection with Highway 23, beautiful, rocky waterfalls greet you. Montello claims Wisconsin’s largest tree in front of Le Maison Granit, a historic mansion (oui, a French one at that) on Underwood Avenue, which requires just a short jog on adjacent Highway 23. Wedged between Montello Lake and Buffalo Lake, the city of Montello is very water and water sports oriented.

At the main crossroads of Montello.

The countryside meanders north of Montello; few towns or points of interest lie between in and Wautoma (pop. 1,998), which you reach about 56 miles north of Highway 22’s starting point. Wautoma features antique stores a’plenty and a nice shopping strip on the main street, which is along Highway 21 just after 22 turns back north to head out of town.

Once out of Wautoma, open spaces greet you for a while. You go through small burgs like Wild Rose, where you can sit atop the upper level balcony at the Duck Blind, and cut the southeastern corner of Portage County - for literally about a mile and a half. At this point, you're making a beeline for Waupaca. And yes, it sounds like Wautoma, but it's Waupaca. You'd think they'd come up with a wider variety of name styles back in the 1800s when all these towns were founded.

Waupaca hosts a number of events throughout the year. On this particular day, I happened across Strawberry Fest, a festival that I could only assume celebrates strawberries. Downtown was loaded up with berry, berry happy festivalgoers (sorry, I couldn't resist), bands playing the park, and stores eager to serve the people visiting from other places. Being the county seat of Waupaca County and the largest town for about 20 miles, Waupaca bustles quite a bit for a city its size.

The Rosa Theater and part of Main Street in Waupaca, the second-largest town along Highway 22.

Following Highway 54 and/or Highway 49 east through the rest of Waupaca will bring you back to Highway 22 for the trip on northeastward (if that's a word.) Highways 22 and 54 actually combine for a while before 54 heads east toward New London. At this point, you're combined with Highway 110 and heading for rodeo country in the form of Manawa.

Yes, it's east-central Wisconsin, and I said rodeo country! Manawa (pop. 1,330) is home to the annual Manawa Midwestern Rodeo, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer (bring your boots.) In winter, you can use the rodeo grounds to access the network of snowmobile trails, of which there are 165 miles in Waupaca County. There are 21 snowmobile clubs in just the county maintaining these trails.

After departing Manawa and the combo with Highway 110, Highway 22 heads east again. Dropping into a nice little valley over the Wolf River and through the town of Symco (that sounded like a song about grandmother's house for just a brief second there), I knew I was away from it all when the dominant station on my radio was called "Moose Country" (it's AM 960, for all you country buffs.)

After joining U.S. Highway 45 for a brief stretch, you reach Clintonville (pop. 4,736). For the first time in a while, I suddenly had cell phone service again, as well as a Pamida sighting and the presence of numerous fast-food restaurants. It's a water city: along with recreation and fishing on Pigeon Lake and along the Pigeon River, Clintonville won the "Best Tasting Water in Wisconsin" contest in 2005, as sponsored by the WWA. That's the Wisconsin Water Association and yes, there is one. Clintonville seems like a very pleasant town, although not much happens here - the city's website at the end of 2006 still featured a link showing "storm damage" pictures. The pictures turned out to be three ripped-up trees from a storm in 2003. Ah, the easy pace of small-town living...

Shortly after Clintonville is a town many have heard of when commercials or shows are pointing out interesting American place names: Embarrass, Wisconsin. Embarrass (pop. 487) is a small village, named after the river that flows through it. And they're not ashamed to say it!

Shawano (pop. 8,298) is the county seat of Shawano County and is the largest town on Highway 22. Abutting Shawano Lake, it’s also the largest town between Green Bay and Wausau along Highway 29 and is a major point along the Mountain-Bay Trail, a great 83-mile rail-to-trail bike route that connects Rib Mountain in Wausau with the shore of Green Bay. In Shawano, a former railroad depot has been retrofitted to Joe BikeLer’s Bike Shop (620 South Main Street, 715-526-2216), offering everything from bicycles to a coffee bar. It’s right there as you cross the trail on Highway 22. Weekends from 8am to 4pm, the Trailside Farmers Market runs late May through October and features vendors offering crafts, produce, baked goods, ceramics and more.

Highway 22 doesn’t exactly traverse tons of major cities, so Shawano seemed like a metropolis compared to most towns on the route. The stretch of Green Bay Avenue lasts for several miles and combines State Trunk Tour Highways 22, 47, 55 and the old 29, which now routes south of town on a freeway bypass. The cheapest gas on the route is here, as well as restaurants and hotels.

	Joe BikeLer's Bike Shop serves hungry, thirsty and flat-tired bikers huffing up and down the trail from Wausau to Green Bay...and drivers touring Highway 22!
A whole lotta State Trunk Tour highways combine for the ride through Shawano.

Hydro-whatting?
While going through town, I saw a sign for Shawano Well Drilling. They do hydrofracking. So what in the name of all creatures big and small is hydrofracking? Well, hydrofracking is the process of pumping water to open new or existing water veins or lines to increase the water flow, designed mainly to create or increase production of water wells. To me, it sounded like something naughty involving a swimming pool. Either way, I learned a new word driving through Shawano.

Shawano is considered by many to be "up north", but its Native American name is actually "to the south." At 6,100 acres, Shawano Lake was big enough to mark the southern border of Chippewa tribal territory. Highway 22 runs for over seven miles along the lake's southern shore, passing a historical marker (pictured below) that tells you more. Meanwhile, you run into Cecil (perhaps a Shawano suburb? Maybe?) and make your way towards the highway's final easterly push.

How and why Shawano got its name, told in roadside historical marker style along Shawano Lake (click on picture for a bigger view).

Past Cecil, you begin to weave over and past the Oconto River, a key stretch of running water that 22 will follow towards its terminus. Rolling hills line sections along the river, and evidence of the "old" 22 abounds:

	Rolling hills make the ride fun as Highway 22 crosses, and then parallels, the Oconto River;
...and paralleling much of the way is the Old Highway 22, making us thankful for modern engineering.

Into Gillett (pop. 1,303), where you meet up briefly with Highway 32, my Ford Escape Hybrid was able to coast all the way through town on battery power alone. The town was named after Rodney Gillett, an early settler in the 1860s. Gillett is home of the Oconto County Fair and the Earthaven Museum, an earth sciences museum a few miles north of town up Highway 32 just down Valley Line Road. The Earthaven Museum features thousands of rocks, minerals and fossils with extensive collections of early human tools and artifacts. It's a rockin' time. Get it? Okay, we'll move on...

From (Rodney) Gillett - I'm resisting the "close shave" jokes, too - Highway 22 more or less follows the Oconto River into Oconto Falls (pop. 2,843), a lovely town where a dam expands the river into a more lake-like recreation setting. The dam, of course, replaced the "falls" part of Oconto Falls in 1883, but they chose to keep the original name. Built on sawmills and solidified on papermaking, Oconto Falls continues to be a source for tissue and other paper products that get shipped all over the world, some of which have to perform very uneviable tasks.

	Rising like a wooden dinner fork, this tree provided a nice foreground subject with the dammed Oconto River in the background.
	A nice day at the beach in Oconto Falls.
	Built in 1885, the Caldwell House hosted new workers and visitors to the pulping operations of the time. They came often by railroad, which came to Oconto Falls two years earlier.

Highway 22 dips into Oconto Falls' downtown area and then heads back out, pushing east to the railroad - and now highway - stop at Stiles (not named after Julia, although I think of her everytime I drive past), you cross U.S. Highway 141, which is now a freeway letting travelers speed ever faster go get "up north."

From Oconto Falls to Oconto - the end of the line
The last eight or so miles of Highway 22 is fairly non-descript, kind of like the first eight miles back in Dane and Columbia Counties. One interesting place to check out, however, is the Copper Culture State Park. The park contains artifacts over 5,000 years old and is a former Native American burial ground, the oldest cemetery site in Wisconsin, and one of the oldest metal use archeological sites in North America. The park is not maintained by the state DNR and is free, although you are encouraged to make a donation at the Werrenbroeck Museum, which takes care of the area and also chronicles the area's extensive Belgian history. No, they do not make waffles.

Highway 22 comes to an end at U.S. Highway 41 on the western edge of Oconto (pop. 4,708), within sight of a Pamida. A new bypass of Oconto carrying U.S. 41 will be open soon, so we'll update this portion when it opens.

The east end of Highway 22, hooking up with U.S. 41. You can, of course, continue east for a short distance on County Y into downtown Oconto.

	Old-school beer drinkers may recall Oconto Beer, and signs sporting the brand are still up in various parts of town. (See a cool photo gallery of Oconto beer brands and labels here.)
For those who imbibe too much, the lovely Oconto County Courthouse is not far away.

Oconto, the seat of Oconto County, has a similar history to Oconto Falls in that lumber, sawmills, and papermaking were all important industries. Oconto borders the waters of Green Bay, however, as serves as a port city between Green Bay and Marinette. Consequently, it's where they build Cruisers Yachts, since the company was founded in Oconto in 1953. Oconto also has a long history of producing gloves - not surprisingly, considering the winter climate - and during the 1930s Oconto's Holt Company was the largest producer of maple flooring in the United States. The city is the main town between Green Bay and Marinette, has a view of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula across the bay, and it's where we reach the eastern end of Highway 22 on the State Trunk Tour.

Total miles: 176
Mileage in the Ford Escape Hybrid: 32.9 MPG.

South Terminus:
Can connect immediately to: Highway 60, U.S. Highway 51

East Terminus:
Can connect immediately to: U.S. Highway 41
Can connect nearby to: U.S. Highway 141, about 8 miles west

Upcoming events in places along Highway 22:
Shawano County Fair, Shawano, September 1-6, 2010
U.S. Watermelon Speed-Eating & Seed-Spitting Championships, Pardeeville, September 11, 2010

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