South Manitou Island

A private company offers a boat trip to the "cubs" of Sleeping Bear NLS at a reasonable price for a day trip, so I took advantage of it on one of the most beautiful days in this area. Lake Michigan was calm, there was nary a cloud in the sky, and the temperature got up to about 75 degrees. A bonus was that they started their "one boat to both islands" schedule, so we stopped to pick up and drop off campers at North Manitou Island as well.

While on the island, we ate our packed lunches at picnic tables, then went on a motor tour of part of the island. There were wood, subsistence, and some cash crop farms here before the National Park Service acquired the islands around 1970. The "wooding" was done when the island was discovered by a Mr. Burton. There is a nice, deep, natural bay where ships could come close to shore to weather a storm while going between Chicago and St. Ste. Marie and further. It was also a great place from which to save people stranded from shipwrecks and then to build a lighthouse for the Manitou Channel and house light keepers and life savers (all that became the National Guard). People lived in "kit" houses made by Sears, Roebuck or Montgomery Ward! Bavarians found the island a good place to live and they had communal farms with community property to work them. A type of rye (Rosen) grew well here and was better suited to an isolated place so as not to mix with other rye and lose its properties. That rye won awards at fairs. But, alas, the island became too isolated because of railroads and automobiles on the mainland, causing less and less ships to transport goods.

Oh, a big crop of Michigan is Michelite pea beans, called Navy Beans since WWII!!!!

There are two private properties on South Manitou Island, owned by the tour driver and boat captain, and his cousin. They owned the property before 1964 and so are allowed to keep it or sell it to whomever they will. They must not improve their land or property, so they stay in the kit houses! They are just summer retreats for them now. Those that had bought property between 1964 and 1970 had to leave and "give" the property to the NPS. Realtors sold them land in that time saying the National Park will not happen and they will be safe. NOT!

So, out tour took us to the harbor (where the boat docked!), to the inland lake from which the settlers got their ice for themselves and for mainlanders, the corner of the main streets of the island when it was planned as a town, a remaining farmstead in pretty good condition, the one-room schoolhouse, and the lighthouse.

With the remaining hour, I walked to one of the 3 primitive campgrounds. It was a little over a mile south of the "village" but was set in the woods with easy access to Lake Michigan. Another campground is along the eastern shore but close to the dock and not so shady. The third is on the northern shore, 3 miles away, and offers the most privacy. I can see why - visitors must walk there. The two one-lane dirt roads don't go there and they are strictly for the use of the tours and two families that live there.

Sep 2, 2009

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