I have long been a fan of the "lake" at Harrington Beach State Park. That's in quotes because really, the body of water is an old quarry that has filled with water.
The old Stonehaven quarry at Harrington Beach, up in Belgium, has a great, if precarious for little children, path encircling it and it makes for a peaceful walk. I also love that the foundations of some of the quarry-era buildings for workers have survived. A visit is fun and opens a window on Wisconsin and immigrant history.
Recently, I went to Menomonee Park for the first time and got a peek at Lannon Quarry, which is very similar to the one at Harrington Beach, except that this quarry lake, in addition to having a path around it, has a beach with swimming for families, a dog swimming area and you can even go scuba diving in it, which sounds cool.
On my visit, I took some photos of the old quarry lake, the beach, the old, idle stone crusher and the ruins of a building executed, as you'd expect, in Lannon stone, probably quarried right there on site.
The beach house has an amazing floor to ceiling fireplace made entirely of the local Lannon stone.
As a fan of Lannon stone, this quarry was really fun to visit.
Apparently Fox Brook Park – also a popular inland beach destination – is also a former quarry, but I haven't been out there to check it out yet.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
