Diana Kuehl loves exploring downtown Milwaukee, its lakefront and nearby neighborhoods. But when she saw a sign that said “Water Current Walking Tour,” she was flummoxed.
“I had never heard of it. I saw the signs and I had never heard about it. And I thought, 'Where does this trail go, and how will people find it?'” she wondered.
So Diana turned to Bubbler Talk, and we turned to Alexis Laverdiere. She’s the water program manager for the City of Milwaukee Environmental Collaboration Office, or ECO.
We meet along the Menomonee River next to the Harley-Davidson Museum — one of the stops along the Water Current Walking Tour.
The idea for the tour blossomed back in 2019. “They were planning the Democratic National Convention. We were thinking about what story we wanted to share with all the visitors, and water is a really big element of Milwaukee,” Laverdiere says.
The project stalled when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the DNC to a mostly virtual event.
But in 2022, the city and community partners picked up the project again. “We officially had our ribbon cutting at this very spot. I made fish-themed cookies for it. We got a lot of people for it, but you’re right, I don’t know that a lot of people knew about it,” Laverdiere says.
The 3.5-mile trek features stops along the Menomonee River, its confluence with the Milwaukee River, the inner harbor and spots in between. The tour highlights ongoing efforts to protect and restore shared waters, as well as innovative water technologies being developed in Milwaukee.
Arts @ Large helped develop signage and artwork to guide and educate visitors along the way.
To get a taste of the walking tour, I met Liz Sutton outside the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences. She’s the outreach manager at the school, which sits at the southeast end of the water trail.
“We are here in Harbor View Plaza, and we’re looking out at Milwaukee’s inner harbor. This sign is about Jones Island, which is right on the other side of the harbor. There’s a huge, long history,” Sutton says.
It’s not just where the city’s wastewater is cleaned, treated and returned to Lake Michigan. “It was a fishing village at one time. Indigenous populations lived there. Then a Polish group of people came through. It’s actually a peninsula, even though it’s called Jones Island,” Sutton says.
We trek west on Greenfield Avenue, then north onto Second Street. We pause at Rockwell Automation, where eight stories above, a 49,000-square-foot rooftop garden captures rainwater and offers extra benefits.
“They added a beehive so all those plants could be pollinated, because naturally bees won’t travel up that high. So there’s a beehive up there with a beekeeper. They produce honey that I believe is sold at some farmers markets,” Sutton says.
Heading west onto Walker Street, we find a half-acre gem called Paliafito Park. A sign there tells of a huge underground cistern.
“That is basically underneath the raised beds here and the performance platform and the stage. The community helped put it in,” Sutton says.
Each sign stands four feet tall and shares water stories along the trail. The podium-shaped steel signs were made by welding students at Bradley Tech High School. The project meant a lot to them, according to Kristin Steinbach-Holtz, the school’s industrial liaison.
Steinbach-Holtz says Bradley Tech students helped install the signs and took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, too.
“To get them outside and get them connected to some of our school’s neighbors was positive and let them know they were contributing. There’s a place for their talent. And I think also just to be part and being part of this larger movement to promote the resources of Milwaukee,” Steinbach-Holtz says
Artist Marina Lee designed a series of 3-foot-diameter mandalas that decorate sidewalks along the route. I met Lee on the trail.
“It’s balance. It’s just all about a circle, and everything is connected. The water drops create a clockwise motion, and that’s because that’s the way the sun goes,” Lee says.
She also painted footprints with a water drop motif to guide walkers between the mandalas. Lee has done lots of public art projects and says this is one of her favorites.
“It’s not an in-your-face project — it’s there if you notice it and eventually you might catch on to what's going on and keep following them which to me is fun. It’s kind of a treasure hunt and we do have a treasure with the lake,” Lee says.
There are unexpected treasures you find along the way. A massive mural depicts wildlife and fish that inhabit our waters.
Our tour ends south of the public boat launch at Boone & Crockett.
Beyond food trucks and picnic tables you’re treated to a spectacular view of the Hoan Bridge and Lake Michigan beyond.
“It’s a really great example of the recreation that also happens in our harbor. You can go and take out one of the boats and go out in the inner harbor and the rivers. There’s also a kayak rental area here. This is also a great place for when the Hoan Bridge is lighted — they do some different lighting schemes. This is a great place to see that — probably one of the best,” Liz Sutton says.
It's one of the many views of the water, and the city, you’ll find on the Water Current Walking Tour.
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