If Hiawatha took you on a tour of his northern wilderness, I doubt he would do it with something called a Toonerville Trolley and a boat that holds 250 people.

And yet, let me tell you, it’s not a bad way to go. Although the Tahquamenon River excursion is now in its 78th year and many of us have done it before, it is a different and very special experience today under the leadership of Chris Stewart and his wife, Dixie, who have owned and operated the business for 24 years.

In the old days, some 15,000 people made the annual trip over the nation’s longest 24-gauge railroad through 6 miles of wilderness and a 21-mile riverboat trip to the upper Tahquamenon Falls.

“We still do all that, of course,” says Chris, “but everything today is geared on the beauty of the River wilderness and we present it from a naturalist’s point of view.”

And so he does. If you spot a moose, Chris gives a loudspeaker lecture on the moose, it’s habits and population here. See a bear and get the same treatment. Spot a beaver house on the riverbank and you will soon learn lots about the beaver. And so it goes on the trip where you and your children can get a great short course on Upper Peninsula wilderness and all of it’s birds, animals, trees, flowers, grasses, insects, mushrooms, and much more.

So, many years ago, I took my family on the trip and, while we enjoyed it, it seemed like once was enough. Recently, though, my wife, Darl and I joined nearly 100 other Paradise folks to charter the boat trip for a day. All those Yoopers, so used to the wilderness splendor around them, came off the boat singing praises of it all. Charlie Jacques, a friend of mine who knows everything about the River and local wildlife, says: “Jim, this is about the eighth year on this fall trip with the Paradise folks and I am still dazzled by the way Chris Stewart mixes such fun and learning experience so well. This river excursion is nearly 80 years old, but it has never been in better hands. If you write something about this tell moms and dads to bring the kids because it is so much better than a lesson in a school classroom.”

The Tahquamenon River is about 100 miles long—from McMillan in Luce County to Lake Superior at Paradise. From 2,000 to 5,000 gallons of water per second go over the upper and lower falls at normal times, but the rate jumps up to 30,000 gallons per second in spring runoff. In earlier days, it was called the “Little Niagra” because more water goes over those falls than any other east of the Rockies, except, of course, for Niagra.

Chris says Tahquamenon is an Indian word meaning “dark water.” “The dark water comes from tannic acid of the forest and things are visible only up to 15 inches.” Most of the river is about 80 feet wide and from 8 to 10 feet deep. In winter, the area gets up to 300 inches of snow, and ice forms up to 30 inches thick on the river.

Chris has made more than 2,200 trips with customers on the Hiawatha Boat. As a business, he says, it’s like farming.

“A summer of cold weather can really hurt you and so many other things affect the tourist business. On the day after 9/11, not a single car came for a trip. After Katrina, we had the worst Labor Day weekend in our history. But we do our best and would not want anything else. What splendor it is to live in such a wilderness,” he says.

Chris likes to put the folks “on” a bit with his humor along the way: “See that government tree over there on the right? That’s called a government tree because it is straggly at the bottom, crooked in the middle and deadwood at the top.”

It all ranks in there with the Soo Locks, Pictured Rocks, the Quincy Mine, and even Tahquamenon Falls itself. Good job, Chris and Dixie. Such a Michigan treasure should never die.