WEST SHORE FISHING MUSEUM Take the Tour
The Living Lake

Green Bay is part of the collection.

Trails and boardwalks lead through dunes, swales, woods, and shoreline history — all part of the Green Bay landscape that made fishing life here possible.

Open the grounds map → Take a virtual visit
Boardwalk approaching Lake Michigan
Leathemport Trail sign at the north trailhead
Six trails, two trailheads. Leathemport, Native American, Ridge, and Savanna trails start from the north entrance; Red Rock and Hemlock trails lead south toward the shore and the boardwalk.
The red rock in the shallows at Rochereaux Point

Red Rock & Rochereaux Point

In the 1600s and 1700s this boulder was a signpost for French-Canadian voyageurs paddling the west shore of Green Bay. Here at Rochereaux Point they met Native families who wintered in the marshes five miles inland, trading kettles, blankets, and beads for beaver and muskrat pelts bound for Mackinac and French Canada.

Read the sign at the platform The Legend of the Red Rock interpretive sign, with a map of the voyageur water trail from Mackinac to the Mississippi

The rock stood much taller then, marking the water trail that ran between the Straits of Mackinac and the Mississippi River. The marshes where the voyageurs traded are known today as the Hayward Lakes.

Recovered tar vats near Red Rock Trail

The Tar Vats

Before nylon, nets were cotton or linen and rotted within weeks in the cold water. Fishermen dipped them in these vats of heated tar to seal and stiffen the twine, then hung them to dry. Every net came back here all season to be mended and dipped again.

Why tar a net? →

The boardwalk leading to the viewing platform on Green Bay

Dunes & Swales

The boardwalk crosses a wooded dune and swale complex: a series of old beach ridges and wet hollows left behind as the level of Green Bay dropped over thousands of years. The dune at the end of the platform is today’s foredune; the start of the boardwalk sits on an older one. The platform was built to reach the shore without harming the swale beneath it.

Read the sign at the platform Dunes and Swales interpretive sign with a cross-section diagram and an aerial photo of the shoreline

Ridges carry upland forest; swales hold wetland, especially near the shore. Michigan counts the wooded dune and swale complex as a distinct natural community, and the museum trails show its ridge-and-swale pattern clearly.

Learn more from Michigan Natural Features Inventory →

Trails & shoreline

Walk the grounds.

North trailsLeathemport, Native American, Ridge, and Savanna trails open from the northern entrance.
South trailsRed Rock and Hemlock trails lead toward the shoreline.
Boardwalk & viewing platformAn accessible boardwalk reaches a platform on Green Bay near historic Rochereaux Point, crossing a wooded dune-and-swale complex on the way.
BeachThe grounds reach the water at a quiet stretch of sand and scattered stone.
Picnic areasMake a longer afternoon of your stop.
Find your wayThe grounds map can show your position and open the stories at each place.