WANDERING WITH WUNDRAM: Bluff Lake is worth the trip
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By Bill Wundram | Friday, July 11, 2008 |
Kevin E. Schmidt/Quad-City Times Bluff Lake is an unusual restaurant in a scenic area north of Maquoketa, Iowa. It is built on two manmade lakes and began as a simple cabin offering snacks for fishermen that has been added onto until it may serve up to 600 people on a weekend day. Buy this Photo
MAQUOKETA, Iowa — I thought we were never going to get where we wanted to go. Our car tires grumbled down a country road, past big round hay bales and goldenrod that is getting an early start on autumn.
I kept thinking, “Out here in the boondocks of Jackson County, Iowa, there can’t be a restaurant that attracts 500 or 600 people on a Friday or Saturday night.”
So, I kept on driving to this place called Bluff Lake Restaurant where people are passionate about such fixins’ as a Saturday haddock meal with a sauce called “Linda’s Goop.” Quad-City companies take big-city visitors to Bluff Lake for an unusual Mid-America “experience.”
To get there, I take U.S. 61 through Maquoketa, turning left on Cave Road at the edge of town. Cave Road is a good name because it leads to Maquoketa Caves State Park. It also leads to Bluff Lake, a unique (understatement) restaurant that is a touristy thing with good food abut 10 miles west of Maquoketa.
Located as it is in the middle of nowhere, it’s no wonder that when it was built 39 years ago, the people around Maquoketa called it a folly. Some folly! Sometimes these days it’s difficult to get in!
The sign to Bluff Lake is tough to spot among all the weeds on Cave Road. After following Bluff Lake Road, I drive through barnyards. At one spot, it looks like I’m going to head smack into a big red barn. Along a fence, I am close enough to pat the cows on the head. I can’t believe it. Holding tight to the wheel, I go around a bunch of farm outbuildings and there — oh mercy — is this place in the middle of a couple of lakes. I know I’m there because a big bus is waiting for a bunch of tourists to finish their early evening dinner.
“Hello-o-o,” says Linda Wells, the owner, who is hurrying around this sort-of weird place. Off to one side is a wide deck. People used to wait on this deck and, when it was time to eat, a server would yell out the screen door, “Hey, Arnold, it’s your turn.” There is sophistication now in a sound system.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s beautiful out in the boonies. Bluff Lake has water on two sides. A waterfall, a couple of stories tall, tumbles from a steep bluff. The waterfall is new and quite impressive. Last year, water was pumped from the lake to the bluffs with a fire hose. A heron kept pecking holes in the hose, so this year the hose was replaced by vinyl pipe, and now it looks like a small-size Niagara Falls spattering through the greens.
Watch your step once inside Bluff Lake. The place is on more than one level because it was added onto a couple of times. That is charm, I suppose, because this is an offbeat place. It’s big, too, quite a spread from the tiny cabin that a farmer built. If you’re lucky enough to get a lakeside table, you will never dine anyplace that is closer to water. It laps right alongside you.
“My dad, Clayton Kuhlman, a farmer, dug a lake on this property 39 years ago and stocked it with fish for his own supper table. He allowed other people to fish, so he figured he could start a side business and built another pond and stocked it with lots more fish,” Linda says.
Clayton was a foxy fellow. He knew the fishermen would need refreshments, so he hired a couple guys to build a one-room snack shack. Fishermen could get a sandwich or have the catfish they caught fried right on the spot.
“The building was put up at very little cost. He paid the workers $2 an hour and all the beer they could drink. Maybe they drank too much beer,” Linda says.
When you come into the restaurant today, the right corner is eight inches higher than the left side.
People around Maquoketa first called it “Clayton’s Folly,” but in time he built a full kitchen, and that took more space and a bigger menu.
“Look at us now,” Linda says, spieling off the Bluff Lake menu that specializes in pond-raised catfish, haddock and ribs. None of the fish come from the ponds that seem to create an island out of Bluff Lake. The area is green and lush. Water from the manmade lakes, which cover several acres, reflect the restaurant at all hours. Twilight is especially picturesque, a time when many diners take pictures.
Ducks nest around Bluff Lake, and you can expect to see all types of wildlife. The other day, a deer jumped in and swam across one of the lakes. Raccoons are all around, too.
It’s a fun, informal place where anything might go … like on Mother’s Day this year, when a customer got down on his hands and knees in the grass at the point of one of the lakes and proposed. She accepted and they went inside for dinner.
People get hooked on Bluff Lake. They come from the Quad-Cities and surrounding area, with many regulars such as Darlene Gady, who lives in Clarence, Iowa. “I’ve been coming here at least once a week for about 30 years,” she says.
Bluff Lake has an old look, which appeals to diners. It still has that cabin-esque feel, an appeal to beer drinkers in the big bar section where you can dine and watch the fish splash and the mallards squabble.
“They used to get a kick out of using the outhouses that we had out here,” Linda says. “Now, we’re very modernized. There are slick, new inside restrooms.
“But a lot of people laugh and say they miss the old outhouses.”
Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.
Bluff Lake and the Maquoketa area
Bluff Lake is an unusual restaurant in a scenic area north of Maquoketa, Iowa. It is built on two manmade lakes and began as a simple cabin offering snacks that has been added onto until it may serve up to 600 people on a weekend day. Its attraction — besides the food — is that it seems impossible to find, requiring guests to drive through farmyards in the boondocks of Jackson County.
Contact information: The telephone number for Bluff Lake is (563) 652-3272. It takes no reservations nor credit cards. Hours are 4-8 p.m. Thursday; 4-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Call for the special of the day. The Maquoketa Chamber of Commerce can be called at (563) 652-4602. For information about other area attractions, go to www.maquoketachamber.com on the Web.
Attractions: One of the features of Bluff Lake is its proximity to Maquoketa Caves State Park. A suggestion is to spend the day exploring the park and then have dinner at Bluff Lake, which is about three miles from the park. Other Maquoketa attractions are below.
Getting there: Take U.S. 61 north from Davenport to Maquoketa. This is about 40 miles, an easy straight-line drive. Just north of Maquoketa, watch for a sign that says “Cave Road.” Take that past Maquoketa Caves. About two miles past the caves, watch for a sign pointing left to Bluff Lake. This is a gravel road that many think leads nowhere but takes you indeed to Bluff Lake Restaurant.
WHAT TO SEE IN MAQUOKETA
Maquoketa’s motto is “One of a kind” because there is no other city in America with that name. It is pronounced “muh-coke-it-uh.” If you’re dining at Bluff Lake, there are plenty of other nearby attractions:
MAQUOKETA CAVES STATE PARK, seven miles north of Maquoketa. Mysterious caves with walkways and rock formations. Iowa’s most unusual state park. Features include Dance Hall Cave and Dugout Cave. Free admission. Trails and campsites.
OLD CITY HALL ART GALLERY, 121 S. Olive St., original oil paintings by nationally known artist Rose Frantzen and other artists. 45-minute tour, donation $1.
MAQUOKETA ART EXPERIENCE, 103 S. Main St., offers exhibition area and a space for artists to work. Call (563) 652-5611.
OHNWARD FINE ARTS CENTER, 1215 E. Platt St., a theater-auditorium used locally and for national attractions.
DECKER HOTEL 123 N. Main St., on the National Historic Register. Lodging, dining, historic atmosphere.
HURSTVILLE INTERPRETIVE CENTER, one mile north of Maquoketa on U.S. 61 Exhibits, nature trails, bathrooms, elevator. $1 for a 45-minute tour.
SQUIERS MANOR, 418 W. Pleasant St., restored 1882 Victorian home on the National Historic Register. A bed and breakfast that offers one-hour tours. Donation $1.
JACKSON COUNTY NEW MUSEUM, located in the Clinton Engineering Building, Clark and Maple streets. Opening Aug. 16. Excellent exhibits. Donation $1.
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