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The Queen of Bayfield One woman’s unconventional and unyielding dedication to a small Wisconsin town is just what it needs. | BY LINDA MACK
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t’s a sparkling summer day in Bayfield, Wisconsin, the gateway to Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands. Mary Hulings Rice is in full plumage, donning a coral fishnet sweater, dangly coral earrings of her own creation and lipstick-red, patent-leather sandals. She is comfortably ensconced in the glass-roofed room that attaches her 1892 Queen Anne house to a tower addition. Filled with black-and-white photos of her beloved Sand Island retreat, whimsical paintings and signs with sayings like, “Save the Earth: It’s the only planet with wine,” the solarium overlooking the lake is a suitable throne room for the woman affectionately known as the Queen of Bayfield. Not that Rice, founder of the restaurants that give the Lake Superior burg its gourmet cachet, is pretentious. Far from it. When she rides in the Applefest parade in early October, for instance, she sits in an old bathtub on top of an ancient Chevy station wagon. (“Been doing it for years, sun or rain or snow,” she notes.) It’s just that Rice, gung-ho supporter of arts and social services, is the one many Bayfielders go to when they want to make something happen. The Hulings family was blessed with the financial fruits of developing the world-renowned Andersen Windows corporation in Bayport and expressed its love for the area by supporting numerous institutions, including Northland College in nearby Ashland, Wisconsin.
198 Artful Living
| Summer 2014
“Mary has served on Northland’s board of trustees for more than 20 years and has been involved in every major project, from the sciences to the arts,” says Michael Miller, Northland’s president. “Her philanthropic spirit and care for the region and its people are remarkable, as seen in her unique role as host, community builder, philanthropist, advocate for the arts, restaurant owner, and artist.” “We would not exist without Mary, and there are a dozen others who could say the same thing,” says Scott Armstrong, executive director of the Bayfield Area Recreation Center and North Coast Community Sailing. Visitors to the area encounter Rice’s wit and color through her small but far-reaching restaurant empire: the acclaimed Wild Rice, set in the woods south of Bayfield, the perennially popular Maggie’s, where plush pink flamingos and south-of-the-border-inspired food abound, and breakfast go-to Egg Toss Cafe.
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23 mph is plenty,” read the small signs in the prairie grasses along the gently winding road that leads from Highway 13 south of Bayfield to Wild Rice, a gourmet oasis in the northwoods. The road sweeps by the gray, four-gabled building to loop into a forest-framed parking lot. From there, a sequence of experiences heightens the anticipation: