Historic Diaries: James Doty, 1820
July 3, 1820: Around Bayfield Peninsula
Editor's Note:
Just three days after Schoolcraft noted the odd behavior of the lake, high winds and waves stopped the expedition in the fashion Charlevoix had described almost a century earlier. Schoolcraft did not comment on the coincidence, but described the scene this way: "Before we could unload our canoes, or pitch a tent, rain commenced, and it poured down in torrents for an hour or more, during which there was no alternative but to stand patiently upon the sand. If we had lain at the bottom of the lake, we could not have been more completely drenched. When the rain ceased, the wind arose from the southwest, and confined us to that spot during the remainder of the day."
Location: Sand Point, Wis.
View Doty's handwritten manuscript of this page
View page in the 1895 printed edition
We rose early & embarked, wind ahead, steering N. 33 E. to a point beyond Raspberry river which empties at the foot of a sandy bay 9 miles from our encampment. Our course was then N. 40 W. a short distance, then N. 70 W. & then S. 70 W. to the point below Sandy river, from which to the opposite point is S. 80 W. — that to the mouth of the river is S. 50 W. The sand stone passed to day seems to have regained its level & the mountains have disappeared.
Timber rather more pine to day than yesterday. At this river, 6 miles from Raspberry river, we stopt and breakfasted, when a very severe storm of rain rising we were compelled to encamp. It rained until the middle of the afternoon when the wind was so high it was impracticable to put out. Distance this day 15 miles.
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