During our travels to Lake Superior in September, we stopped at the Holy Mother Mary's Wayside Peace Park on Highway 13 on the route to Bayfield, Wisconsin.
Curiosity got the best of me, I decided to dig a little more into the story behind the wayside.
Below is a bit of the story above from the Superior Catholic Herald
Both of his brothers are dead, and only Fritz manages the operation. It’s not as much fun as it used to be, he admitted: “Now it’s just me against the orchard.”
Fritz renamed the business a couple of years after they died. Fritz Brothers seemed silly with only one brother, he thought. He dedicated the apple business to Mary, and he calls the shrine Blessed Mother Mary’s Wayside Peace Park.
At night, the shrine is lit up – Fritz waited 13 years before hooking up electricity – and during the day, a choir of nuns sing from a hidden compact disc player.
There’s a boardwalk for the Stations of the Cross, and signs and statuary scattered about. On Aug. 17, Mary had fresh flowers for the commemoration of her Assumption on Aug. 15.
The idea to build a shrine came to Fritz in 1990, and for years, he’s devoted any spare money to the effort.
His decision wasn’t compelled by anything supernatural.
“I didn’t hear any voices or anything,” he said.
Mostly, he liked the site, the parity between Hwy. 13 and Mary’s Fatima appearances on the 13th of the month.
He was also influenced by the people he encountered as a janitor at St. Thomas University, the saints he read about in “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” while working overnights in the Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library.
He’s also helped out at several other shrines – Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, others in Texas and Montana – and noticed the dearth of devotional sites in the Diocese of Superior.
“There’s quite a few nice shrines in Wisconsin, but in this area, not much,” he said.
Fritz didn’t want to take donations for his project. The church has enough needs, he said, and he’d rather seeing the money go toward Catholic schools, the St. Vincent de Paul Society or the many other services in the diocese.
The only problem is finishing the shrine by himself is slow going, and Fritzes don’t generally have a long lifespan. While he’s outlived his brothers, Fritz is afraid if he doesn’t keep at it, he won’t get it done.
“We tend to die young,” he said.
He aims to have the visitor’s center, built from a 1970s geodesic dome kit, open by May 2017. The month marks the 100th anniversary of Mary’s first appearance in Fatima; he’s also built a replica of the arch constructed at the site.
When he’s not working at the shrine or picking and selling apples, Fritz might be en route to Mexico, where he helps at an orphanage a couple of hundred miles south of Mexico City.
A few of the orphans get adopted, Fritz said, but most of the children he sees grow up a little more every year.
The clay crosses ornamenting the dome were fired and painted by the orphans.
He also buys most of his religious articles – statuary, Stations of the Cross and more – across the border. Fritz is planning improvements – and he wants to expand the shrine, move it farther back into the 20-acre lot and build a chapel.
He’s also diversified his fruit-growing operation with pear and plum trees. Squash vines are blooming across a freshly landscaped garden; he’s hoping he’ll have enough to give apple customers a free squash with every purchase.
If Fritz is around when a potential customer pulls up, he’s evangelizing among the apples, discussing the importance of thanking God for one’s blessings.
If he’s away at a farmers’ market, a prominently placed sign offers the same reminder:
“Thank God for all the mountains and the seas, for all the apples on the trees, for giving life to you and me, wherever you may be, thank God.”
Promoting devotion to the Blessed Mother is his ultimate goal, and Fritz hopes drivers passing the shrine will be inspired, if only for a moment.
He said he always feels the wealth of God’s gifts.
We stopped in and we did not see anyone, we were not greeted by anyone. We took a few photos and walked along the flowers, apple trees and pear trees.
During my research of wanting to find out more about the wayside.
I learned that David F. Fritz passed in May of 2019.
David. F. Fritz, age 65, of Superior, WI passed away suddenly on May 9th. Dave was known for selling apples in front of his shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary on Highway 13. He is survived by Char and Jim Sutter, Barb and Ernie Keller, Marg Vick, Jia and Liu Fritz, Don Harens, Bob Gremore and many nieces and nephews, and cousins. Visitation is on Monday, June 3rd at 9:30-10:30 followed by mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church- 920 Holley, St. Paul Park, MN.
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| Many boxes of statues, flyers and more where all scattered about. |
I wonder what will become of the Wayside?
We will be traveling that way again this summer of 2020. I will take a peek and see if anyone takes over David's vision of making a special Wayside along Highway 13.
Thank you for coming along with me On the Road Friday to a unique Wayside.
