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Hoyt Park: Multiple personalities and a love story!

January 21, 2025  |  Topics: Places, Stories


By Eddee Daniel

This is a love story. It came about by chance. Or so it seems. When my wife and I moved to Wauwatosa, it wasn’t because of Hoyt Park. Top of mind were good schools, a walkable neighborhood, proximity to groceries and The Village, Wauwatosa’s cherished downtown—not to mention our jobs, which were roughly equidistant in opposite directions. But, considering how deeply I’ve come to love the park over subsequent years, I can’t help wondering…: Did that long stretch of green space that we drove through to reach our house subconsciously influence our decision?

Was proximity to parkland a factor in deciding where you live?

View of Menomonee River looking downstream from pedestrian bridge
View of Menomonee River looking downstream from pedestrian bridge. Yes, this is in Milwaukee County!

If parks can have personalities (and I believe they can) then Milwaukee County’s Hoyt Park has multiple personalities. Hoyt is decisively a neighborhood park. As a neighbor myself, I can testify to its constant use in all seasons and nearly all weather conditions. But Hoyt is also a destination park. Many people, who come from all around the region, know the park primarily for its pool and/or its popular beer garden, The Landing.

Hoyt Park pool.
Hoyt Park pool.

Then there are the wedding parties. You can see them nearly every weekend in spring, and tapering off through summer and fall, gathered at the iconic suspension bridge over the Menomonee River. The bridge is a shortcut for pedestrians (and cyclists) between the north side of the park and the pool. Its elegant lines and bold presence in the natural riverine landscape are a perfect setting for the love stories of newlyweds and their troops of bridesmaids and groomsmen who pose on it.

Motif #1: Painting the pedestrian bridge.
Motif #1: Painting the pedestrian bridge.

But, from my point of view, if you know Hoyt Park only by swimming in or lounging by the pool, or by quaffing a beer and listening to the various musical acts at The Landing, or dropping in for a momentary photo op on the bridge, then you are missing out on some of its other wonderful personalities. The very ones, in fact, that I fell in love with.

A panoramic swath of summer wildflowers.
A panoramic swath of summer wildflowers.

Don’t get me wrong; our two children and I spent plenty of time in the (old) pool. This was back when it cost $.25—a mere quarter—to enter. For a buck you could use the water slide. After years of leaks that made it increasingly expensive to maintain, that pool, which had served the Milwaukee County public since 1939, was finally closed in 2003. We mourned its loss, but there was, and is, more to the park than the pool. (We still use the new pool, which opened in 2011, now that we have grandchildren who clamor for it!)

A typical day on the Oak Leaf Trail.
A typical day on the Oak Leaf Trail.

No sooner had we moved into our new house than I discovered that I could use the Oak Leaf Trail, which runs through the park, to commute by bike to my job on the west side of Milwaukee. Something I continued to do for 23 years, until I retired. Retirement didn’t put a stop to cycling on the Oak Leaf Trail, however. Since then I’ve used it even more intensively—for my daily exercise. Along with hundreds of other people. In fact, I’d venture to guess that annually more people use the Oak Leaf Trail, which is open year-round (and free), than use the enormously popular but seasonal pool.

Sand volleyball next to the playground and pool.
Sand volleyball and picnics next to the playground and pool.

Sandwiched between the Oak Leaf Trail and the parkway road are soccer fields, which are also intensively used during soccer season. At other times they are used sporadically for frisbee tossing, sunning, and throwing balls to your dog. Here you will also find picnic areas, used almost every weekend between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This is the civilized side of Hoyt Park that I pass through on frequent walks on the Oak Leaf Trail. But my true love is walking on the wild side.

Have you walked on the wild side?

A tunnel-like trail leads to the wild side of Hoyt.
A tunnel-like trail leads to the wild side of Hoyt.

It’s an unlikely wilderness. A narrow strip of land, squeezed between the river and a railroad. Parts of it had been used as a landfill, now completely overgrown except where foot traffic on the trail has worn down the dirt, revealing shards of glass and metal that glisten in the sun. You get there by crossing the bridge and, instead of following the asphalt path to the pool, turning east onto a dirt trail leading into a tunnel of foliage. I don’t remember the first time I ventured down that trail, over 30 years ago. I do remember, time after time, feeling as if I’d discovered a hidden realm, a place where I could be alone with nature and my rambling thoughts.

The serenity of snow along the wild edges of the Menomonee River.
The serenity of snow along the wild edges of the Menomonee River.

In the early years I rarely saw other people back there, except on occasion the kids who’d created, at one point in the middle, an illicit BMX dirt bike track with hills, banked turns and jumps. You walk along the riparian trail for about half a mile to where the river forms a large s-curve, cutting off further passage. It is a rather remote dead end (unless you are willing to ignore the “no trespassing” signs and walk along the railroad embankment to where the Oak Leaf Trail crosses the river at the east end of the park). Stick forts at various points have come and gone with the tides of young people who build them.

One of the grander of many stick forts I've come across over the years.
One of the grander of many stick forts I’ve come across over the years.

Today it isn’t quite as wild as I remember it. The vegetation is just as untamed. But there are more people using the trails. BMX has given way to MTB. The entire park south of the river is now an official Milwaukee County mountain bike trail with several loops. The 1.9-mile circuit is rated “easy,” for beginners. There is enough use to keep the trails pounded broad and clear for bikers and hikers alike. But most of the time you are still likely to find yourself alone in the woods beside a beautiful river.

A young couple uses Bubblr bikes to ride the Hoyt Mountain Bike Trail.
A young couple uses Bubblr bikes to ride the Hoyt Mountain Bike Trail.

Speaking of the river, if you really want to have a wild experience try it in a kayak. Ten years ago a number of small dams and other impediments in the Hoyt stretch of the river were removed. The purpose of the removal was to restore the natural flow of water and allow for fish migration. But a collateral effect was to enable kayaking—for the brave and adventurous. Timing is everything. You don’t often see kayaks on the Menomonee because normally it is too shallow to be enjoyable. And right after a rainfall the flashy current can be dangerously fast and unpredictable. You need to find the sweet spot, usually in spring, when the water is at a Goldilocks level of just right.

One of my personal favorite photos of Hoyt Park and the Menomonee River.
One of my personal favorite photos of Hoyt Park and the Menomonee River.

So, have you been counting? How many personalities does Hoyt Park have?

1. Neighborhood Park; 2. Destination Park; 3. Commuter Route; 4. Exercise Track; 5. Pool and Beer Garden;

6. Athletic Fields and Picnic Areas; 7. The Wild Side; 8. Mountain Bike Trail; 9. Kayak Adventure River.

For a cool number 10 there are all the people who only experience it as a road, who drive right through it on the “parkway.”

The park has at least one more major personality. As the southern end of the Menomonee River Parkway, it is an essential portion of the primary environmental corridor. Greenways such as this are vital and rare in an urban region like Milwaukee County. If, to imagine the impossible, no humans were never to use the park again it would remain important to the survival of many non-human species, flora and fauna, that know it only as habitat. Watch for them the next time you visit Hoyt Park.

Life and death in Hoyt Park! While it appears as if this garter snake has chomped onto more than it can swallow, when I showed this image to a biologist I was assured that the frog is a goner.

But wait! There’s more.

Contiguous with Hoyt, across the railroad tracks, is the nearly 500-acre Milwaukee County Grounds. Ha! That’s another story.

The photo essay continues:

While hammocking in the park began before then, it really took off during the pandemic shutdown in 2020 when I shot this of six hammockers at once. Activities of all kinds throughout the park was consistently higher than normal for the duration of the shutdown.
While hammocking in the park began before then, it really took off during the pandemic shutdown in 2020 when I shot this of six hammockers at once. Activities of all kinds throughout the park was consistently higher than normal for the duration of the shutdown.
An unseasonably warm day in early spring really brings people out to the Oak Leaf Trail!
An unseasonably warm day in early spring really brings people out to the Oak Leaf Trail!
The eccentric blossom of Culver's Root.
The eccentric blossom of Culver’s Root.
White tail deer are a common sight, but seeing them eat buckthorn is not! (Though they might be carefully avoiding the buckthorn and nibbling other plants mixed in.)
White tail deer are a common sight, but seeing them eat buckthorn is not! (Though they might be carefully avoiding the buckthorn and nibbling other plants mixed in.)
A dramatic backdrop for a run on the Oak Leaf Trail.
A dramatic backdrop for a run on the Oak Leaf Trail.
A fat cardinal provides a spot of color in a monochromatic moment.
A fat cardinal provides a spot of color in a monochromatic moment.
Fly fishing in the Menomonee River.
Fly fishing in the Menomonee River.
A blaze of autumn reflected in the Menomonee River.
A blaze of autumn reflected in the Menomonee River.
When our grandchildren say they want to go to "the park" this is what they mean (if the pool is open they ask to go to "the pool").
When our grandchildren say they want to go to “the park” this is what they mean (if the pool is open they ask to go to “the pool”).
This great climbing tree next to The Landing is a constant lure.
This great climbing tree next to The Landing is a constant lure and a common stop on the way to the playground.
A crew preparing to remove one of five impediments in 2015 in the river to enable fish to migrate. Called the "carwash" because, at one time, a vehicle could drive across it when the current was low in order to access the landfill on the south side of the river.
A crew preparing to remove one of five impediments in 2015 in the river to enable fish to migrate. This one was called the “carwash” because, at one time, a vehicle could drive across it when the current was low in order to access the landfill on the south side of the river.
Shaggy inkcap mushrooms in a woodland.
Shaggy inkcap mushrooms in a woodland.
The “wild” east end of the park. The river and the railroad make this the dead end of the trail loop on the south side.
Cycling in the snow on the Oak Leaf Trail.
Cycling in the snow on the Oak Leaf Trail.
A lazy float down the Menomonee River.
A lazy float down the Menomonee River.

Hoyt Park is part of the Menomonee River Parkway. For more information about the whole parkway go to our Find-a-Park page.

For information about Hoyt Park Pool and/or The Landing beer garden go to the Friends of Hoyt Park & Pool website.

Related Stories:

First Snow: A meditation on winter, climate change, and feeling good! (Hoyt Park)

Rain Gardens and Bioswales: Beauty as Well as Utility (Menomonee River Parkway)

Route of the Badger: Cycling (and multi-use) Trails in SE Wisconsin (Oak Leaf Trail)

Walking on the River! (Menomonee River)

The constant lure of adventure: Kayaking a surprisingly wild urban river (Menomonee River)

Photo essay: Christmas Day in the park (Hoyt Park)

Eddee Daniel is a board member of Preserve Our Parks. Milwaukee County Parks is a project partner of A Wealth of Nature.


4 thoughts on "Hoyt Park: Multiple personalities and a love story!"

  1. KAREN JOHNSON says:

    Nice expose’!

  2. Fun article to read. Hoyt was our park when I was a kid although it competed with the Menomonee River parkway to the west. There used to be some fun playground equipment…swings that went too high to be safe and other creations.

    I love your photo of the ped. bridge! The trees have certainly grown a bunch singe the 50’s and 60’s. ha ha ha.
    Thanks for all your articles and insights!

    Right now I am focused on Knowles Nelson renewal. Any chance you might include the postcard project in your next article?
    https://knowlesnelson.org/postcards/.
    Take care and stay warm out there.

    1. Eddee says:

      I sent my postcard!

  3. Carolyn Wells says:

    Again, what wonderful pictures. And what contrasts ! A garter snake swallowing a toad, and then a beautiful red cardinal in the snow!

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