This photo shows smelt dippers lined shoulder-to-shoulder along a bridge in Menominee, Michigan — long poles angled over the water as the spring run draws a crowd. The handwritten label on the image reads, “Smelt Fishing, Menominee, Mich.”
This scene likely ties to the Interstate Bridge between Menominee and Marinette, where smelt season became a big-deal tradition. Wisconsin DNR history notes that, in smelt-run “heyday” years, festivals drew huge crowds — with lights, food vendors and even a Smelt Queen in nearby Marinette. A Michigan Tech archives postcard listing also documents “smelt fishing at the Interstate Bridge connecting Marinette, Wis., and Menominee, Mich.”
Did you (or your parents/grandparents) ever dip smelt off the bridge — and what did you cook first?
#Menominee #UpperPeninsula #MichiganHistory #SmeltRun #GreatLakes
