Apple Country and the Bayfield Apple Festival

The hills behind Bayfield are covered in orchards, and the town throws one of the great apple parties in the Midwest. The Bayfield Apple Festival got its start in nineteen sixty-two, an idea sparked by a local orchardist named Jim Erickson, who wondered why growers hauled their apples so far to sell them. Held on the first weekend of October, it now pulls in tens of thousands of people for apples, cider, and crafts.

The fruit grows well here because of a quirk of geography. Lake Superior is so deep and cold that it tempers the wind in every season, keeping spring frosts late and autumn frosts early, so the peninsula enjoys a gentler growing climate than its far northern latitude would suggest. The first big commercial orchards were planted in the early nineteen hundreds.

But fruit growing reached back even further. Even earlier, lighthouse keepers out on the islands are said to have experimented with fruit trees and shrubs. Today a loop of orchards and berry farms rings the hills above town, and each fall the smell of ripe apples and the sight of laden trees pull the whole region up to Bayfield.