Timms Hill - Wisconsin's High Point

Order of Visit: High Point #38

Date Visited: June 2, 2021

Route Taken: Tower Trail – 600 yards roundtrip

Type of Terrain: Heavily forested, but the path to the summit is wide and well groomed.

Elevation: 1,951 feet

Ancestral Lands: Anishinabewaki, Sioux

What’s in a name?

Visitors to Timms Hill might notice that the high point’s name has two different spellings. Some websites and maps call it Timm’s Hill, while others leave out the apostrophe and spell it as Timms Hill. Both spellings are somewhat incorrect in their own ways. To understand why, you need to go back to Wisconsin in the 1940s.

Timothy Gahan, owned this small rise in Wisconsin’s northern highlands during the early 20th century. He operated a modest logging camp on the 19-acre lake near the base of the hill. And in keeping with true Midwestern simplicity, he started naming many of the surrounding landmarks after himself. There was Tim’s Logging Camp, Tim’s Lake, Tim’s Hill, and so on.

Around this time, most Wisconsinites still believed Rib Mountain, located 60 miles southeast, was the highest point in the state. Therefore, the names that Tim Gahan chose for the different features on his small camp weren’t very relevant or noteworthy to the rest of the Badger State.

However, by 1960, local surveyors discovered that at least two points in Wisconsin were higher than Rib Mountain’s 1,941 feet. Nearby Pearson Hill was measured at 1,950 feet above sea level. And a small hill on Tim Gahan’s logging camp was recorded at 1,951.5 feet. Tim’s Hill suddenly became the highest natural point in Wisconsin by just 18 inches!

In the years that followed, a retired logger and local historian, Roy Meier, began advocating for the state of Wisconsin to protect the area around the state’s newly verified high point.

In his correspondence with the Wisconsin Conservation Department, Meier made a slight change to the hill’s name. He spelled Tim’s Hill as Timm’s Hill because he believed that two M’s would make it look more like a surname, and he hoped this change would make the simple name appear more impressive to the state officials. With that small adjustment, Meier was responsible for how this landmark’s name shifted from Tim’s Hill to Timm’s Hill.

After many years, Meier’s conservation advocacy finally proved successful. In 1978, Wisconsin officials in Price County agreed to purchase the land from its most recent owner, the Beaver Land Company, and preserve it for public use. When Timm’s Hill County Park opened in 1983, county officials officially renamed the state high point Timm’s Hill.

While the second M in the state high point’s name seems to have stuck for good, there was still one more wrinkle in this story. There was no consensus among the various maps, books, or websites on whether this high point should be spelled “Timm’s Hill” or “Timms Hill.”

This issue percolated up because the U.S. Board on Geographic Names almost always omits the apostrophe in official place names. There are several reasons behind this toponomy rule.

The first push to omit apostrophes started with cartographers. As they created navigation maps, they noticed that an apostrophe often seemed to “float” out there in some names. This small mark could even resemble an island when a location was written over bodies of water. So, they began to leave out the apostrophe from the names. It seemed better to remove the apostrophe than to make a ship change its course to avoid a nonexistent island.

The second reason for removing apostrophes from place names was to prevent confusion about ownership. When a place was named after someone, local authorities didn’t want to suggest that ownership was part of the naming honor.

For example, when the highest point in Utah was named in honor of the famed geologist Clarence King, it became Kings Peak, not King’s Peak. If the state had used the second spelling, someone might mistakenly think that the land belonged to Clarence King or his descendants. By removing the apostrophe, the state clarified that the high point was named in honor of the person but was not given to him.

In the case of Wisconsin’s high point, though, Price County officials explicitly kept the apostrophe in the name Timm’s Hill and the surrounding Timm’s Hill County Park. The traditional naming conventions were seemingly ignored, and the apostrophe stayed in the name.

This decision didn’t last long. Perhaps an official from the Wisconsin Geographic Names Council flagged the naming inconsistency, or maybe a mapmaker familiar with proper naming conventions noticed it. But someone realized that an apostrophe shouldn’t be in the high point’s name.

As a result, most current maps and the federal government omit this offending apostrophe, and they spell Wisconsin’s highest point as Timms Hill, even as many local signs and maps continue to spell the name Timm’s Hill.

TRIP SUMMARY

Timms Hill was the second state high point on my June 2021 trip to the Great Lakes. I’d just completed Mt. Arvon (Michigan’s high point) earlier in the day, and drove back down into Wisconsin to see about getting a two-fer.

I knew this wouldn’t be a difficult high point to find. It’s one of the few high points situated inside a county park (the other two state high points located inside county parks are Britton Hill, FL, and Hawkeye Point, IA). So, Google Maps would take me right to where I needed to go.

On my way down south to see Timms Hill, I ended up making two quick stops. The second stop was intentional, but the other was made out of sheer joy and amazement.

You see, my route south took me through the tiny town of Eagle River, Wisconsin (pop. 1,626). As I drove through town, I passed the local VFW and immediately had to pull over. I was stunned to see a full size Cobra helicopter mounted to a metal post outside the building. It’s not everyday you see that sight!

I have no idea how such a small town managed to acquire this military equipment for display, but one of their members must have some interesting connections!

They even had mannequins inside the cockpit! Talk about keeping it real.

Next up was my stop for a quick bite to eat and some refreshment at a local microbrewery in Woodruff, Wisconsin.

One of my favorite aspects of traveling around the US is trying out the local craft beer scene, and I’ll admit Rocky Reef Brewing Co. didn’t disappoint! They had a nice outdoor patio area with picnic tables and Adirondack chairs, and I enjoyed a crisp pint of their Musky Bite IPA.

Lucky for me, the days were long, and I was far enough north that I still had plenty of time to get to Timms Hill despite these two detours. Yet, I knew I had to get moving before the county closed the park’s gates for the day.

Timms Hill is sandwiched between Bass Lake and Timm’s Lake, and the road through the park is a one-way lane off Rustic Road #62. This means you have to go to the far western side of the park to enter by car.

I pulled into the park around 8:30 pm (about an hour before closing), and I wasn’t surprised to discover I was the only visitor at that late hour.

Near the edge of the parking lot, a giant sign displayed the various trails I could enjoy. There was the 10-mile-long Timm’s Hill Trail (which coincides with the Ice Age Trail from the county park down to the Rusch Preserve/Rib Lake). There was a 1.25-mile loop around Timms Hill. And several more.

With the sun starting to set, I was focused on the high point, so I set off on the Tower Trail. It was a nice, easy 300-yard walk from the parking lot up to the two towers that sat on the summit of Timms Hill.

At the summit, I gazed up at the newer wooden tower, which featured six flights of stairs leading to a wide observation deck at the top. Just behind it, stood a second taller metal tower with a slim metal ladder leading to a small cabin.

It was an easy decision which one I’d ultimately climb. I don’t love heights. And I didn’t have a rope, carabiner, or climbing harness to clip myself into the metal ladder’s safety rail. So, any which way you looked at it, the wood tower seemed a much saner proposition this evening.

The views from the top of the tower’s observation platform were lovely. The sun was beginning to set, and I could see Bass Lake to the south, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t see Timm’s Lake to my north. I knew it was down there because I could hear voices carrying across the water. Yet I’d have to wait to see it from ground level.

Once I was back down on terra firma, I found my way over to the black mailbox containing the visitor log and signed my name. Unlike my visit to Mt. Arvon earlier in the day, I wasn’t the only person to visit this state high point today.

I felt a little bit of joy as I wrote down that this was my 38th high point in the small journal. I was now more than 75% of the way through all 50 states! And with a little luck, my tally would be into the 40s by the end of this trip!

Just a few feet away, I could also see the survey monument. It was hard to miss atop a 2-foot-tall concrete pillar located right underneath the metal tower.

Darkness was definitely starting to descend now. So I made my way back to the parking lot and detoured down the Timm’s Lake Trail to see the lake while it was still visible. The voices that I’d heard earlier from the summit were all the way on the opposite side of the lake now, and I could see them pulling a kayak up to a small dock.

That was my cue. It as time to get going before the park completely closed on me.

My plan for the evening was to camp down at Rusch Preserve near the southern terminus of Timm’s Hill Trail. This would also allow me to pay a quick visit to the Ice Age Trail, a 1,200-mile National Scenic Trail that follows the terminal moraine formed by the last Ice Age.

As I drove down toward the preserve in the disappearing daylight, I had to pay extra close attention to my surroundings. Several deer stood at the edge of the road waiting to dart in front of my rental car as my headlights approached.

I avoided hitting any of them – though I would not be nearly so lucky the following morning as I headed out to Minnesota’s high point. But that’s another story for another trip report…

DETAILS

When to Visit: This high point can be visited year-round, but the park’s gate is only open from 7:30 am to 9:30 pm from May to October. Visitors who want to see Timms Hill outside in the off-season should be prepared to hike or cross-country ski into the park.

Getting There: Timms Hill is located in the northern part of the state, approximately 105 miles northeast of Eau Claire. The high point marker sits inside Timm’s Hill County Park.

Entrance Fees: None.

Parking: There is a large parking area near the two lookout towers with a playground, covered picnic tables, and flush toilets.

Accessibility: Accessible to virtually anyone. The trail to the summit is approximately 300 yards from the parking area and well-maintained.

Bonus: Take a hike on 10-mile Timm’s Hill Trail and you’ll find yourself walking on one of our nation’s National Scenic Trails, the Ice Ace Trail. The 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail is used year-round for hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. (Note: The southern 2.5 mile segment of the Timm’s Hill Trail is closed between September and December each year. This closure is so that the private landowner with the land on either side of the trail can hunt on his property.)