Thursday, October 2, 2014

Streets of Hatchet Creek - Day 18

The other night, I shared a bunch of the scenic pictures from Frenchtown. Now I should back track and tell those of you who don’t know, just what Frenchtown is.

Highway 86, which is the route to the Paper Mill, runs through Frenchtown on the south side of town. When I was a kid that Paper Mill was the number one industry in town and the fathers of most of my friends worked there, including my dad of course.  

I am sure that Frenchtown was named for the many French who lived in that area when the town was young. It is a known fact in my hometown that the founder of Tomahawk, William Bradley, didn’t like the French and wouldn’t sell land to them. Many of them would go to him and use a false name, an Americanized name which wouldn’t give away their ancestral roots, so that he would sell to them.

Here are just the random pictures I took the last two weeks of September. 
 This is Frenchtown Park, more specifically, the sledding hill. Doesn't look like much now, but I will have to try to make it back when there is three feet of snow on the ground and this little hill is covered in kids.
 The less famous end of Frenchtown Park.
 Just a tree along Tomahawk Avenue that I thought looked so cool.
 I hope some kids still fish on Mirror Lake.
 And there it is.
 Don't know what this is. A trap for a really big critter, maybe?
 The sign on this store front said closed, but I kinda think it hasn't been opened in quite a while.
 And does anyone know if this soda machine still works? I was afraid to even get close to it.
 Aww, and I had to include one more picture of the Paper Mill.
Those streets in yellow are what make up Frenchtown. I walked quite a few of them twice, just to get them all in. I think I would have covered better ground if I had carried a map, but I would be way too embarrassed to carry around a map of my own hometown. 

1 comment:

Vicki said...

Thanks for the tour. I am enjoying your travels to parts of town I have not been to for a while. My grandpa used to live on Wilson St.