Last month, we "traveled" the portion of Highway 51 from Hurley to Stevens Point. This month, we'll head south from the Point area to where 51 exits Wisconsin south of Beloit.

To the south of Point, you'll travel through Waushara County, which bills itself as "Where Up North Begins." The county is a mecca for outdoor activities, with 150 miles of trout fishing streams and 100 lakes.

You'll also find the oldest fish hatchery in Wisconsin in the county. The Ice Age Trail runs through the county.

The outdoor beauty and recreation opportunities continue in Marquette County, which John Muir once called home. The largest tree in Wisconsin also grows in the county, and the granite for Grant's tomb came from Marquette County.

A definite stop to the south in Columbia County should be Portage. This community indeed gets its name from early explorers like Marquette and Joliet, who portaged their canoes through the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, which connected the Fox and Wisconsin rivers.

The Native American tribes that once lived here, and later the European traders and settlers, took advantage of the lowlands between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers as a natural "portage." The French fur traders used to describe the place as "le portage." As a portage, this community developed into a center of commerce and trade, and later, a canal was constructed to facilitate this trade. When the railroads came through, it continued in this role.

By the end of the 17th century, the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, linked at The Portage, served as the major fur trade thoroughfare between Green Bay and Prairie du Chien.

Today, Portage is a charming town that offers several attractions for the Highway 51 traveler. Sticking with the history angle, you can tour the old canal, or the Indian Agency House, built in 1832 and now one of the oldest houses in the state.

A climb up Society Hill will take you to 138 residents, which houses some of the area's oldest and most prominent citizens. Pulitzer Price winners, playwright Zona Gale and historian Jackson Turner, once lived on the hill.

You'll find shopping, recreation and dining in the Portage area. Wisconsin Dells also is nearby. Its attractions have been documented several times on OnMilwaukee.com.

As you head south of Portage, you gradually leave the "north" behind and enter the gentle, rolling hills of central Wisconsin. Of course, Madison is a major stop along Highway 51.

As the state capital, and the home of the major University of Wisconsin campus, the city has many attractions, again which have been documented before on OnMilwaukee.com.

Stoughton, to the south of Madison, is an easy stop off 51. Victorian-style architecture and a strong sense of Norwegian heritage flavor this beautiful community on the banks of the Yahara River.

Lake Kegonsa is a excellent boating destination and offers fishing for bass, walleye, panfish and northern pike. Lake Kegonsa State Park features boat launches as well as scenic nature trails.

Continue south along 51 to Edgerton. The community is rich in history with museums and several historic buildings. Edgerton was once known as "The Tobacco Capital of the World." The crop was a major part of the area's agribusiness scene at one time.

Many people speed by Janesville and Beloit along the freeway on their way to Illinois. But, both cities have attractions worth seeing, and 51 brings you very close to them.

The Lincoln Tallman Restorations in Janesville is an award-winning historic house museum, including five levels from the basement to the cupola. This 26-room Italianate villa style mansion is the only private home still in existence in Wisconsin that can boast Abraham Lincoln as an overnight guest.

Janesville also is known as Wisconsin's Park Place, with more than 2,000 acres devoted to public parks. Traxler Park is the site of the Rock Aqua Jays Water-ski team performances on Wednesdays and Sundays throughout the summer and the site of the Veterans Memorial Walkway. The park also features a boat launch and fishing, outdoor hockey and ice rink, horticulture gardens, sand court volleyball and play equipment.

The last community along 51 in Wisconsin is Beloit. A tour of Beloit College is worth your time. It's one of the oldest colleges in the state.

Angel Museum is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest privately held angel collection in the world. More than 7,500 angels are on display, including 500 from Oprah Winfrey's private collection.

Another Beloit attraction that holds the distinction of being the largest is Autorama. The event is held in September in Preservation Park and, with more than 1,000 cars, is designated as the largest auto event in the Midwest.

South of Beloit, you enter Illinois and head toward Rockford. You can continue south, all the way to the Gulf Coast, as 51 lives up to its label as the "ribbon" that ties north to south in the country.

By the way, a reader of the first Highway 51 column, points out that the highway does indeed have a song, done by none other than a young Bob Dylan. It's called the "Highway 51 Blues." Here's the YouTube video.