P.O. Box 177
Empire, Michigan 49630
Prepared by Fred Swanson, Newsletter Editor
Vol.14, No.3 November 2003
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P.O. Box 177 |
Vol.14, No.3 November 2003 |
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Welcome to the 1st newsletter since November 2002 We hope to continue publishing this newsletter three times a year to keep our members informed as to the happenings of both South Manitou Island, and the Memorial Society itself. Remember: new members are always welcome! See our website, southmanitou.org, for membership information.
Minutes SOUTH MANITOU MEMORIAL SOCIETY The rain did not dampen the spirits of the 48 people who attended this year's Picnic and Annual Meeting. Several brought items to show and stories and conversation filled the room with a congenial atmosphere. Due to a prior commitment and limited time, Kim Mann was introduced at 12:00-noon and gave a brief update of NPS activities relating to South Manitou. The Visitor Center and Lighthouse are open to visitors each day. Take note of the new windows in the Lighthouse Keeper's residence! Restoration is beginning but it is not open to the public yet. Bill Osterhaus is a new maintenance person and has showed an interest in Island history. On weekends, there is only a maintenance crew on the Island. Dusty Schultz is NPS Supervisor and the new Assistant is Tom Ulrich. He has a common sense approach and has an interest in partnering with the various groups who have interests in the Islands. The GMP plans are gone! So it's back to the 1979 GMP along with any laws enacted since then. The motorized tour is operating, provided by Manitou Island Transit. Roads are open on both Islands and a possibility of more being opened. A question was raised about older and/or handicapped persons who wish to visit the Islands. Kim suggested the Board present the request to Tom. It has already been done on North Manitou, where a park vehicle transported persons who needed help. The meal began at 12:30 with Invocation given by Lynn Roe. The Annual Meeting was called to order at 1:55 p.m. by past President Paul Rocheleau. President Don Morris gave a brief statement, saying he and Zella have enjoyed the years working for the Society but now they must step down due to health reasons, then turned the meeting over to Paul. Lynn has consented to taking minutes due to the resignation of Secretary Joni Carlson. Introductions were made around the room with each person stating their interest and/or relationship to the Islands. Treasurer Joe Orbeck gave the financial report (June 30, 2002 - July 1, 2003). Webmaster Gene Warner reported all newsletters are now online. A July 1989 newsletter was given by Lynn Roe. "Are there any prior to this?" We now have an online library? It consists of six books - "A Nationalized Lakeshore", "Beautiful Glen Arbor Township", "Coming Through With Rye", "Farming at The Water's Edge", "The South Manitou Story" and "The Manitou Passage Story". The NPS reports include census records. The Library would be more complete if we had "A Garden Apart" and "Tending a Comfortable Wilderness"; does anyone have these? Personal photos can be submitted for display, with captions. The web site is an excellent repository for our Island History and SMMS activities. The address is www.soutbmanitou.org. Discussion on the election of officers. Comment was made that it will be very important to fill these positions so that our meetings may continue. Nominations were as follows: President Paul Rocheleau, VP Bill Goeman, Secretary Gene Warner, and Treasurer Joe Orbeck. James Anderson moved to accept the slate, Don Morris seconded, motion carried by unanimous voice vote. The position of Picnic and Outing Organizer was suggested and Lynn Roe volunteered. It was agreed that the Board would invite volunteer Fred Swanson to accept the open position of SMMS Newsletter Editor. Lynn Roe commented on a conversation with Kim Mann regarding the possibility of using our Jack Phillips Fund to purchase historical panels to be displayed at the lighthouse complex. However, NPS policy is that no memorial names can be used. Lynn will check into prices and contact widow Connie Phillips Marsh to see if she would approve. Pat Warner called our attention to several attractive items that Gene can do that could be potential fund-raisers ... stationery and bookmarks. These can be assembled as a group project. Joe Kruch brought up the 2002 project to locate outlying gravesites that were identified in the 1980's by SMMS. These sites were located and flagged using GPS. NPS has removed flags due to campers attempting to follow them. Discussion followed on how to follow up on this project but no action taken as yet. Tomorrow's outing was discussed. Boat leaves at 10:00 a.m. sharp! Check-in no later than 9:15. NPS knows we are coming and a vehicle for 13 has been reserved with MIT. Henning Vent called to say that his Uncle William Vent died last week, age 97. He is brother of Myron Vent and together they authored "Pioneer Tales" (about life on South Manitou in the early days) Meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Newly elected/appointed help. New cards and mailers for Memorial Gifts Member families often designate the Society as a recipient of gifts memorializing their loved one. Upon receiving such gifts, the Society sends acknowledgment cards to both survivors and the donor. These nicely formatted, embossed cards also serve as a valued keepsake. Memorial gifts can be made electronically on the Society's web site, or mailed in the usual way. Mailers are available for those planning funerals who wish to designate the Society as a recipient of such gifts. Tastefully printed forms with matching envelopes can be obtained at www.southmanitou.org, or by calling the secretary. SMMS "Sand Hill Savages" In earlier years the Memorial Society sponsored a fund-raising activity encouraging kids (of all ages) to search the islands for a seagull feather and stone with a hole in it, then send in a photograph of themselves wearing the feather in their hair and necklace made from the stone. They were then officially inducted into the tribe of SMMS Sand Hill Savages! We're going to do that again, but as a companion activity similar to the Park's Junior Ranger feature. In our program, we'll concentrate on Island history and culture, the questions posed and commentary offered by such island notables as Putnam Burdick, Beneth Johnson, Bertha Peth, Gerald Crowner, Tracy Grosvenor, W.R. Angell, Paul Maleski, Rita Rusco ... and maybe more Then we'll encourage other area organizations to join the fun by offering similar challenge games of their own on the web. Kids will be able to collect a whole jacket full of badges ... from the Lakeshore, the Memorial Society, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, Friends of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Leelanau Historical Society, Citizens for Access to the Lakeshore, Shielding Tree Nature Center, and anyone else connected with the Lakeshore. We Need You! To get started with our pilot sites, we're inviting volunteers to participate in ...
Are you familiar with the history and cultural traditions of the islands? If so, you might be just the right person to write a few simple instructive dialogs and challenging multiple-choice questions that will appeal to kids from five to fifteen. To see what the dialog and questions might look like, visit the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore site. Can you create colorful caricature drawings like those on this page? We'll have photographs of the "stars" who'll be featured on the SMMS site. These games feature about twelve questions. You can use your imagination to design the characters for each one. Are you a wizard with your computer-controlled sewing machine? Can you make things like this? Imagine ... kids all over the country wearing your patch on their shoulder! The Lakeshore sent out about 234 of these patches in 2003. Don't be Bashful! If you can help, step right up and become a part of the fun. Just fill in the following and Send to: SMMS Secretary Name: ________________________________________ Copyright 2004 SMMS All rights reserved Another Short Story Perhaps the most ghoulish of South Manitou's stories centers around a ship headed towards Chicago that was jammed to the gunwales with Irish and German immigrants, according to Andrea Gutsche and Cindy Bisallion in "Mysterious Islands: Forgotten Tales of the Great Lakes"(Lynx Images, $24.99 Canadian). That's when Cholera broke out. Passengers first suffered dysentery, then vomiting, then cramps and seizures. And they died. To protect the crew from sickness, the Captain pulled the ship into South Manitou in the dead of night and hauled the victims ashore. Most of the victims were dead. But some were not quite. The sailors dug a shallow grave. As they covered the victims, moaning and protests could be heard from those still breathing. Local stories say, on foggy nights you can sometimes still hear the muffled moans of those ill-fated victims. An Article from Kim Mann A new island foreman, Bill Osterhaus, started on the island this summer. Bill arrived this spring from Pennsylvania. Apparently, Bill has enjoyed his summer on the islands getting to know the structures and the history. The addition to the maintenance shed on South Manitou Island is proceeding. It is anticipated that the new addition will be completed by the end of the 2003 island season. The new addition will house the ranger's fire cache and the battery bank for the photovoltiac array that will be placed on the maintenance roof. It is anticipated that the majority of power needed by the island operation will be collected in the PV array, thus eliminating the need for the generators throughout most of the summer months. This is good news for those who want a quieter visit to the island. The Leelanau Historical Museum held their annual tour of North Manitou Island on the 6th of September. Approximately 75 people attended this year's tour. The day hikes were broke into a mushroom hike to Lake Manitou, a hike to the southern end of the island to see the work on the Bournique homestead, and tours of the village structures. Family members were transported to the Maleski farmstead and to the island cemetery to visit graves at each site. The tour to Bournique's included 20 hearty souls who trekked the 5-miles to the southern end of the island. The tour was scheduled so that the public could see the amount of repair the National Park Service has been accomplishing on the house and other outbuildings over the past two summers. The group was surprised and excited to see that the house had a new roof, the porches had been repaired and rebuilt, and vertical logs had been replaced in the holes that were present only a year earlier. The evidence of work was also visible on the privies and the icehouse behind the main structure. After making a stop for lunch and to tour the site, the group continued south to see the sand and water from just past the trees at Dimmick's Point, and then to turn around and return north to catch the boat prior to its 4:30 p.m. departure. The group stopped at the cemetery to see Rita Rusco who returned with her family to visit the cemetery. A new addition to the group and new members to the SMMS were the relatives of Mrs. John Webb, who is buried in the cemetery. Mrs. Webb's grave is currently unmarked and it was decided to place one of the concrete markers provided by SMMS next spring with the help of the Memorial Society. The location of the burial site was identified and the family will be coordinating with SMMS president Paul Rocheleau on the specifics to be engraved on the plaque mounted on the cross. Additional work on North Manitou Island for the season included re-siding and painting the north side of the Hans Halseth house, repairing and repainting the porch on the U.S. Life-Saving Service Dwelling, and repainting the 1854 Volunteer Rescue Station. Over Memorial Day weekend the Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids Sierra Club cleared shrubs and debris from the Beuham Orchard in the middle of North Manitou Island. Both islands were busy again this summer with visitors coming to hike, climb the lighthouse tower, camp, and backpack.
SHE IS A CAPTAIN Traverse City, October 15 - Northern Michigan has an interesting character in the person of Captain Florence Haas of South Manitou Island, mail carrier between that Island and Glen Haven. A quiet, unassuming little woman, with slight form, light hair and blue eyes, she has the determined and assured look, which comes from facing and successfully overcoming dangers from which the majority of men would shrink! Three times a week in storm or shine from the earliest days of spring until the ice forms on Lake Michigan, she makes the ten-mile trip, often in storms which drive large lake boats to harbor at the Manitous. Mrs. Haas comes naturally by her love for the water. Her father Captain Raimo, was one of the old time lake captains, remaining on the water until advancing age caused him to give up his boat and spend the remainder of his days on a farm in Leelanau county. His daughter is a master hand with a sailboat and nervy and daring to a degree, and her neighbors tell of many adventurous risks she has taken on the lake. For a long time, she has carried mail in her sailboat, which has a twenty-four-foot beam [sic.], but she has more recently decked the boat entirely over back of the mast and put in a twelve-horsepower gasoline engine. She ventures out in any kind of sea, sometimes with the waves washing over the cabin. She says "No water can get in now, so what's the use of being frightened?" Several times this summer she has taken the seventy-five mile trip across to Green Bay, WI, starting at night. Her boat is speedy for its size, making twelve miles per hour. Woman Knows no Fear One night last year she started out from Green Bay at dusk accompanied by her husband and son. As it grew late, they both dropped asleep, and thinking it a pity to waken them, she made the trip entirely unaided reaching home harbor in the early morning. The boat is a great convenience to people wishing to cross between the island and the main shore and in addition to carrying mail it is used as a passenger ferry. Last fall during an unusually sever storm, a lumberman was a passenger on the boat. When about halfway over he became greatly alarmed and offered her $500.00 to turn back. With a flash in her eyes she turned upon him and said, "You keep still and I'll land you on the other side for 50 cents which is the regular fare." Mrs. Haas is not compelled to carry on her perilous business. Her husband is an exceedingly well-to-do farmer on the island, where Mrs. Haas has lived since she was seven years old. She has a son who is an experience sailor, and she loves the water and would not be happy anywhere else. Story by Fred Swanson -New Newsletter Editor My family became familiar with South Manitou Island through Fred and Bea Burdick, Uncle Fred and Aunt Bea are my Godparents, I am Uncle Fred's namesake and I spent summers on the Island helping Aunt Bea and Uncle Fred with the general store and cleaning the cabins near Lake Florence. (My parents even built a small cottage on the Island). Many wonderful memories were made on South Manitou Island. Story by Gene Warner - Secretary/Webmaster When I was born my family was living on the Island. My father, Lonzo Warner, had grown up there as the eldest son of August and Rosie Warner. At the time of my birth, he'd been in the Coast Guard for almost thirteen years, and was stationed at the Sleeping Bear Station. My mother, a nineteen year old Kelderhouse girl from Port Oneida, was hired by August, then President of the School Board, to teach on the Island. As part of her compensation package, she boarded with the Warners during her two years as the Island Teacher (1933 to 1935). August hired a teacher and wound up with a daughter-in-law. August was (according to family whispers) the illegitimate son of Katherine Pertner and one of the Carlson boys from North Manitou. My grandmother Rosie's lineage was somewhat more "blue blooded", going back to original Island settlers George Conrad Hutzler(her mothers side) and George Haas (her fathers side). I vaguely remember my paternal great-grand parents, the gruff and formidable Grandma Holland (Katherine Pertner Werner Holland) and the cheerful and congenial Grandma and Grandpa (Henry and Maggie) Haas... which for the record was pronounced Hayse not Hahz! (Short Stories from other members in relation to the Island can be e-mailed to fswanson@southmanitou.org for inclusion in future newsletters.) Saturday, September 6, 2003
Annual Island Outing Thirteen Members boarded the Mishi Mokwa for this year's voyage to South Manitou Island. Cooperative northerly winds chased the morning clouds away, providing a beautiful blue canopy and a little roll in the passage. Those standing got their glasses cleaned with crystal-pure waters of the Manitou Passage! Personal stories where shared during the 90-minute trip to the Island, and while taking time to regain our "land legs" after docking at the Island. Lynn Roe provided entertainment while the troupe enjoyed a picnic lunch on the lawn of the old US Coast Guard Station, reading excerpts from her late fathers book "The Manitou Story". Then it was off on "the tour" with everyone loaded into one of Manitou Transit's aging red dune buggies, chauffeured by MIT driver Rory Grant. Every stop elicited more memories ... some ancient, some recent; some of adventure, others of love; some of sadness, some hilarious. All to soon it was over. With only a few moments remaining before the crew of the Mishi Mokwa would let the ropes go and sail away, some hurried to the visitor's center and lighthouse, reluctant to leave without paying homage to these institutions. Then it was time to say goodbye until next year. A more detailed report on this grand day can be found in the "members area" of the Societies web site www.southmanitou.or2. Legend of the Sleeping Bear  Once a long, long time ago, a mother black bear and her two playful cubs lived in the woods on the west side of Lake Michigan, a place we now call Wisconsin. One day a terrible fire broke out. Crackling and roaring and licking at the tall trees with great yellow tongues, the blaze swept through the wood with ferocious speed. To escape, the mother bear quickly but very carefully led her two cubs to the shore of the big lake. Other frightened animals fled there too ... the wolverine, the mink, the white-tailed deer, the chipmunk, and the playful otters. "The fire is coming"; the mother bear told her cubs. "We must swim safely to the other side of the lake." So they splashed into the cold, choppy waters and swam toward the opposite shore, far to the east. They swam and swam. The mother bear often looked back to keep track of her cubs, but soon darkness came and she could no longer see them. When she finally clambered up on the shore, she looked again. The cubs were not there. In black of night, She did not realize that her two tired cubs had slipped below the surface. So she laid down to wait for them, finally sleeping. Patiently, never entirely giving up hope, the mother bear laid by the shore day after day, week after week, season after season. Eventually, the blowing sands covered her. And thus, were created the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes near Glen Arbor which, to anyone with an imagination, looked very much like a dozing bear. Because the mother was so loyal to her cubs, the Great Spirit Manitou created two islands in the lake, just where the cubs had drowned. And if you stand on the shoulder of Sleeping Bear Dune, you can see the islands in the distance. They seem dark and small as black bear cubs. And they are now called North and South Manitou Islands. Junior Rangers & Sand Hill Savages  We're creating some fun online activities for "kids" of any age. These will be educational features presented in a game-like genre, designed to teach a few facts about the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Manitou Islands. SLBE "Junior Rangers" Like many other National Parks, the Lakeshore sponsors a "Junior Ranger" program. Completion of the Junior Ranger Workbook earns each participant a patch, a certificate signed by a Ranger and his or her name on our website list. This challenging program is an excellent activity for families visiting the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Even Mom and Dad are guaranteed to learn how to become better stewards of our nation's resources. Many parks offer visitors the opportunity to join the National Park Service Family as Junior Rangers. Several already offer this kids' resource online, an excellent example being Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. SLBE's program is not yet web-enabled, and SMMS has been offered the privilege of working with the Lakeshore to make that happen. It'll be patterned after the Park's existing workbook. Editorial comment This edition of the Newsletter was a personal joy to compile. I enjoyed reading and researching information and stories about South Manitou Island. It seemed as if Uncle Fred was overlooking my work. I know he is happy that the Newsletter continues Stories and photos that you would like considered for submission in the next Newsletter should be E-mailed to fswanson@soutbmanitou.org , or Snail Mailed to :Fred Swanson, 9805 Lydell Aye, Farwell, MI 48622-9785. Remember keep us informed on your own well being, as well as members no longer with us.
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