Welcome to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Summit Wahl found the end of this rainbow right on the edge of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, This shot was taken in 2011, however, not in the 19th century when things looked very different in the harbor. 

Here is a brief excerpt from BirthRights: A Dangerous Brew, Chapter 2, in which  Adam Koenig, a German-American boy raised on a Wisconsin farm, has come to Milwaukee in 1870 to fulfill his dream of learning to brew beer and eventually to own his own brewery. But he has yet to land a job:

 Adam sat down on a log (beside the Milwaukee River) and watched the current carry an old crate lazily under the bridge. Just a mile or so downstream, the river met the Menomonee and the Kinnickinnic, and together they flowed into Lake Michigan. It was at that place, sacred to the Indians, that elders of thirty tribes had met for ceremonial feasts and councils for as long as time remembered.  The Potowatomis. The Foxes. The Winnebagoes. The ancestral elders would never recognize it now. The harbor had been dredged and the swamps filled. Today the smokestacks, the railroad yards, the busy river traffic told the story of industrial growth—a modern ceremonial feast. Already they were beginning to build mountains of coal to feed the factories and homes over the long winter. The sight of so much progress depressed Adam, for he felt empty of plans. But soon an idea came to him, and once it took hold in his mind it seemed fool-proof, as sure as the flow of the three rivers to the lake….

            To read more about Adam’s clever plan, buy the e-book at one of these sites:

Smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/129111

Amazon Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074YV5SG

Barnes & Noble Nook:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/BirthRights--A-Dangerous-Brew?keyword=BirthRights%3A+A+Dangerous+Brew&store=nookstore

Here are a few more pictures of present-day Milwaukee:

A stormy Lake Michigan Sunrise, September, 2011

The lakefront, with the Milwaukee Art Museum in the Center

Adam Koenig would not recognize it today.

A closer view of the Art Museum with Discovery World behind it

Walking toward the Milwaukee Art Museum,

Architect Santiago Calatrava

July 3, 2011, the US Bank Fireworks at the Milwaukee lakefront

Adam Koenig would have loved it!!