45° North, 90° West
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Over the last twenty years I have visited 84 confluence points in seven different countries, a journey encompassing some amazing adventures. Without particularly noticing it, in recent years I have transitioned into confluence hunting semi-retirement, and switched my efforts to visiting the highest point in each of the 50 United States (a hobby I perhaps should not have waited until age 76 to pursue!). However, when a whole integer latitude/longitude crossing is close to a planned travel route, I will occasionally add such a visit to my itinerary. Which brings me to 45N 90W, a location that has intrigued me since my earliest introduction to this website.
"The Center of the Northwestern Hemisphere"
The story begins in 1969, when Marathon County, Wisconsin, erected a geographical marker and created a minuscule roadside county park (“the smallest in the state”) to mark the spot. The driving force behind this effort was John Gesicki, lifelong resident of the unincorporated community of Poniatowski, who operated the nearby Gesicki’s Store and Tavern. To promote pub business, John started the “45×90 Club,” headquartered at the bar, where visitors to the marker could afterwards stop in to sign the club membership logbook and purchase 45×90 merchandise, such as bumper stickers and t-shirts. The project became so successful John singlehandedly put tiny Poniatowski “on the map”(the official Wisconsin highway version, that is!). After John’s death, his wife Loretta continued the club tradition until she retired in 2003.
The 45x90 Club
Administration of “the Club” then passed to the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention and Visitors Bureau, which spearheaded a community sponsored major park renovation. Since 2018, a new quarter mile walking path leads to a large medallion-like marker, with nearby benches and interpretive signage. Since the pandemic, the Visitors Bureau has been without a visitor center location, and the impressive 45×90 commemorative coin they gift to all visitors is currently available at the Wausau LaQuinta Inn.
In planning our multipurpose trip from Mississippi, my wife’s primary objective was to spend several days with her BFF (back fence friend) at Isle Royale National Park, while mine (in addition to providing the backpackers taxi service to their Lake Superior seaplane take-off) was to visit the highest points in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. As 45N 90W is a mere 45 miles mostly south of Timms Hill, at 1,951’ the highest point in Wisconsin, adding an additional stop on the way to Isle Royale made perfect sense . [As a side note, Wausau (about 23 miles to the east of 45N 90W) is also the home of Rib Mountain, which at 1,940’ for many years claimed the title of “Wisconsin High Point,” and still sports a 100-year old bronze plaque boasting “highest known point in the state.” Depending on who you talk to, Rib Mountain is currently recognized as Wisconsin’s third or fourth highest point, but its prominence compared to Timms Hill makes its view worth a stop.]
Cardinal Directions
Normally, if you visit a confluence a mere 101 days after Joseph Kerski has documented a similar trip, there is little left to say. The obvious change we observed: the surrounding bare fields were now sporting a corn crop tall enough to obstruct most of the view. We arrived on a weekday midmorning, on Day 2 of our drive north from Mississippi.Signage in from the main roads was easy to follow.
On our walk in, we passed a local visitor who had arrived via motorcycle, and we passed only two other people during the return to our car. We spent a little time matching “all zeroes” on our GPS with the center of the marker, although a posted sign reminded us our recreational-grade navigation device was no match for the half inch accuracy of the professional-grade GPS unit used to fix the location.
45N 90W was the perfect place to introduce our friend Susan Adams to the sport of confluence hunting, and her excitement matched her thrill at summitting Timms Hill and Mt. Arvon (Elevation 1,979.238’, Michigan’s highest point) later in the day. The subsequent trip to Isle Royale proved a great success, as did my climb of Eagle Mountain (2,301’, highest natural point in Minnesota, and my 39th out of 50 states).
