The Shore Path: A Potawatomi Road That Never Closed

The path that circles Geneva Lake, which sources measure at between twenty-one and twenty-six miles, follows a route that is far older than any of the estates built along it. The original trail was worn by the Potawatomi, who used it to move between their villages and fishing sites on the lake's shore. When American settlers arrived in the eighteen thirties and forties, they used the same path.

When the wealthy Chicago families built their summer mansions along the waterfront in the late nineteenth century, their estate workers used the path to travel between properties without crossing private grounds. The path remained a working right of way, claimed by custom and continued use even as the lakefront became more exclusive. By the late nineteen hundreds the legal status of the path had become contested, as some estate owners moved to close sections of it.

The state of Wisconsin and local courts ultimately affirmed the public right of way. Today the Shore Path is one of the most unusual public amenities in the Midwest: a continuous walking trail around the entire circumference of a lake ringed by private estates, open to any member of the public who wants to walk it. The estates are visible from the path, their boathouses and stone walls and grand porches facing the water.

The walk takes several hours. It passes former Wrigley and Schwinn and Swift family properties. It passes the old Playboy estate, now a resort.

What it follows, beneath all of that history, is a Potawatomi road.