USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 40
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The old ditches of Fort Holmes, built by the British while they held possession of the island in 1812-14, and the locality where the British troops landed July 16-17, 1812, is also clearly defined, as well as the road along which Colonel Croghan and his American soldiers were am- bushed by the allied British and Indians on August 4, 1814.
The above pretends to but brief mention of the rich historic lore which clings to the very soil of this beautiful island.
ST. IGNACE
To the southwest of Mackinac Island are the straits of Mackinac, and more directly to the west, across a seven-mile ribbon of blue water, is St. Ignace, the present county seat and the center of so much historic
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pathos in connection with the heroie work and death of Father Mar- quette.
Marquette came here from the head of Lake Superior in June, 1671, with a party of Hurons and founded the St. Ignace mission. On De- cember 8, 1672, Joliet arrived; May 17, 1673, Marquette and Joliet started with five men in search of the Mississippi. Marquette never re- turned alive. La Salle and Hennepin, with the "Griffin," the first sailing vessel on the lakes, reached St. Ignace August 27, 1679. In 1701 Cadillac established Detroit and St. Ignace was abandoned, the Jesuits leaving in 1705. Father Maret returned in 1712 and the garrison two years later. Charlevoix, in June, 1721, spoke of St. Ignace as much de- clined. Shortly afterwards the fort was transferred to where Mackinac City now stands. From that time the place was a fishing village of little consequence until the advent of the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad (now the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic) ; then (1882) it took on new life and was made the county seat instead of Mackinac Island.
According to the census of 1910, the city of St. Ignace has a popula- tion of 2,118. It was incorporated as a village by the board of super- visors of the county February 23, 1882, and as a city, by legislative en- actment, in 1883. It has good schools, cement walks, well graded streets, fire department, and a municipal water and electric lighting plant. In other words, it is old, but modern.
As stated, St. Ignace is in close communication with her sister city across the waterway, and both are justly proud of the huge car ferries, St. Ignace and Ste. Marie, which make from four to eight trips daily, guarantee direct connections with the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic line, and perhaps furnish the most perfeet service of the kind in the northwest. A third, and the largest boat (capacity twenty-five freight), will be completed by the Toledo Ship Building Company in the fall of 1911. These huge boats and ice breakers will accommodate from ten to eighteen freight cars, as well as transfer passengers, and the great ferries which the Russian government has in service on the Baltic Sea and Lake Baikal and which have been exploited as the most powerful ice breakers in the world, are said by experts to be, if anything, their in- feriors. In this connection it is a matter of history, which has not been sufficiently emphasized, that Frank Kirby, of Detroit, who designed the "St. Ignace" and "Ste. Marie." also furnished the Russian engineers with their working plans for the Baltic Sea and Lake Baikal wonders. He submitted bids and plans for building them, but although they were formally rejected they were informally adopted.
In a more extended sense St. Ignace has connection with the north and west and Sault Ste. Marie, through the Duluth, South Shore & At- lantic and the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie, the junction point being Trout Lake. Half a dozen steamer lines place her in touch with Duluth, Green Bay, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Toledo and Cleveland. During the summer the Detroit & Mackinac Railroad (Tur-
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tle route) which has its northern terminus at Cheboygan is connected with St. Ignace by a double daily steamer service operated by the Island Transportation Company. This is especially convenient for tourists coming from the south who wish to include all the resort points of the region, especially its beautiful islands.
TOURIST'S ATTRACTIONS
As a summer resort St. Ignace is known all over the Upper Penin- sula. Within easy walking or driving distance is Graham's Point, from which the place is often called Point St. Ignace. Here is obtained a view of the straits, with the boats passing constantly up and down. The
HOME OF CHIEF SCO-BO-GO-NO-WIS, ST. IGNACE [Built by French Settlers In 1721 for a School]
walk is a mile in length and is much admired, bordered with pretty cot- tages, and little parks and evergreen groves gradually descending to the beach.
Gib-Wa-Wean Lookout, an Indian burying ground, and the cave also are in the direction of Graham's point, and are reached by turning to the right from the road, about opposite the old Furnace. From the "Lookout" is beheld a magnificent view of the straits from the heights above and west of the point. The cave is in the side of the hill, suf- ficiently large to hold three or four persons.
Sco-bo-go-no-wis Heights is an abrupt eminence reached by a pleas- ant walk through the city, attaining an elevation of about one hundred feet, crowned with evergreen trees. Cheechock Park lies in the same direction, on the north bluff ; it is a level timbered plateau half a mile wide and three-quarters long; and from both of these eminences charm-
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ing views of the bay and of the north end of Mackinac Island are ob- tainable; also of St. Martin's Islands, lying northward out in the lake.
Old French Fort, on the elevation in the rear (westward) of Mar- quette's grave, was palisaded and surrounded with a trench, the out- lines of which are still visible and helped to verify the site of the grave. The Ottawas had a village on the hill. Cadillac, who commanded the fort in 1695, thus described it : "There is a fine fort of pickets and sixty houses that form a street in a straight line. The villages of the savages, in which there are six or seven thousand souls, are about a pistol-shot distant from ours."
Cheechock Lake, about two miles distant, is a very pretty inland lake; pleasure boats are kept upon it for hire, and there are bass and pickerel fishing, and duck hunting in season.
The Boulevard is a beautiful drive which follows the western beach from the "Point" along the shore of West Moran bay, affording an ex- cellent view of the straits. At Point la Barbe the cable that crosses the straits reaches the land on this side. Across on the other side may be seen MeGulpin's Point, and Cross village in the distance. Here, too, are a number of small islands, that seem to be gradually increasing in size, showing up more and more above the surface of the water. These are Green Island Shoals, where excellent bass fishing is found, and the Island of Ste. Helene, upon which is a lighthouse. A short distance from this point the boulevard proper ends, and, leaving the shore, turns across the portage and brings the visitor back to the city, after a charm- ing drive of seven miles.
HAUNTS OF THE SPORTSMEN
When it comes to the sportsmen's life, St. Ignace can satisfy its fondest desires. Cheechock lake is visited for its bass and pickerel; it is less than two miles away. Three miles west is Green Island Shoals, Gallagher lake, Hay lake, and still farther away Brevort lake, yield their fine black bass, pike, perch and muscallonge. The last is about three miles from Allenville, a station on the Duluth, South Shore & At- lantie line.
As for hunting in the fall, there are partridge shooting and duck hunting, and by going out into the woods around Brevort, or to Les Cheneanx region, or northward, the lively deer may be pursued. Veni- son is no particular luxury in these parts during the hunting season, and after the summer season is closed two classes of visitors remain, the hay fever people and the hunters. The former only leave when cold weather has returned at their homes; the latter stay out their own sea- son until late in the fall. One of the busiest periods of the year is the shipping time of the hunting season. when hundreds of deer are sent south.
The term Les Cheneaux, strictly means "The Channels, " but serves to indicate a picturesque group of islands that are situated in the north- ern part of Lake Huron ; Hessel, the first point, being about fifteen miles
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distant from St. Ignace. The name has colloquialized into "The Snows." Bass, pike, pickerel, perch and muscallonge are found in abundance in the pure waters. On the mainland are trout streams that are filled with the speckled beauties. During the hunting season the waters are alive with ducks, while in the woods near by deer hunters find plenty of game.
At Hessel. the channels begin. Next is the Club House, maintained by an association of Pennsylvania sportsmen; they have an hotel and numerous cottages. Opposite the hotel, in a field, stands a large rock that is said by the Indians to have been used by Father Marquette as a pulpit. Along through the various channels the steamer winds its way until Cedarville is reached, and beyond that soon come again the open waters of Lake Huron.
A day's visit to Les Cheneaux may be made, giving a stay of some four hours, which may be spent in fishing. St. Ignace is reached again at night in time for supper. The largest island of the group is the Grand La Salle.
FATHER MARQUETTE MEMORIALS
Historically, of course, the grave of Marquette is the most attractive spot at St. Ignace, or in the entire region of the Upper Peninsula. An extract is therefore here given from an attractive souvenir published by the mayor and city council of St. Ignace, and written by Fred C. Lee, a well known newspaper man, describing the discovery of the good father's rude burial place, over which now stands an appropriate monu- ment :
"To Marquette's fame Is added a love, a veneration born of his name. To our shores flock rich and poor, commingling, To see his grave, o'er which memory, lingering, Casta many a spell. ยท Lowly, saintly priest, we honor God in thee! Above thy grave shines the star, Immortality! " -From an Ode to Marquette's Grave, dedicated to the people of St. Ignace by Rev. Father Keul.
Father Marquette, the founder of St. Ignace, born at Laon, France, in 1637, died at the mouth of the river bearing bis name, near Ludington, May 18, 1675. He was returning to St. Ignace from his second journey of exploration to the Mississippi, attended only by two Indians, who buried him on the spot where he died. The winter of 1676 found some Kiskakon Indians, who had been instructed in the Christian faith by Father Marquette, hunting in the vicinity of his resting place. As they were returning to St. Ignace in the spring, they determined to carry the remains with them. Father Dablon, the Jesuit Superior at Sault Ste. Marie, thus wrote his ac- count in the Jesuit "Relations. "
They accordingly repaired to the spot and, deliberating together, resolved to act with their Father as they usually do with those they respect; they accordingly opened the grave, unrolled the body and, though the flesh and intestines were all dried up, they .found it whole without the skin being in any way injured. This did not prevent their dissecting it according to custom; they washed the bones and dried them in the sun, then putting them neatly in a box of birch bark, they set out to bear them to the house of St. Ignatius.
Vol. 1-21
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SPORT AND RECREATION IN MACKINAC COUNTY
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The convoy consisted of nearly thirty canoes in excellent order including even a good number of Iroquois who had joined our Algonquins to honor the ceremony. As they approached our house Father Nouvel, who is Superior, went to meet them with Father Pierson, accompanied by all the French and Indians of the place, and having caused the convoy to stop, made the ordinary interrogations to verify the fact that the body which they bore was really Father Marquette's. Then before landing be intoned the De Profundis in sight of thirty canoes still on the water, and all the people on the shores; after this the body was carried to the church, observing all that the ritual prescribes for such ceremonies. The body remained exposed under a pall all that day, which was Pentecost Monday, 8th of June, 1677. The next day, when all the funeral honors had been paid, it was deposited, continues Father Dablon, in a little vaalt in the middle of the church, where the bones of Mar- quette repose, as the "'Angel Guardian of our Ottawa Mission. "
The mission at St. Ignace was abandoned in 1705, the priests first burning the church to prevent its desecration; and from that time till 1878 Marquette's grave remained in obscurity, notwithstanding repeated efforts to discover it. In 1821, Father Richard, the renowned priest and legislator of Michigan, made active search for it. A tradition existed amongst the Indians that the site of the old church was on the shore of the bay, and a large cross was even known to have stood about the present spot. Tradition said it marked the site of the original chapel and the grave of the great missionary priest.
Now as to the discovery. It was made through the instrumentality of the late Very Rev. Father Jacker, stationed here in 1878, who had been enthusiastic in the search. On May 4th of that year some men who were occupied clearing ground aronnd where the monument now stands found a rude foundation and, immediately adjoining, traces of a larger building divided Into three compartments, having each a fireplace (the first had none), one looking like a forge. The whole plan looked like a Jesuit mission: church, with sacristy, house, and workshop. Excavating in the first foundation, a hollow was found and at the western end of it were some pieces of birch bark, one large and strong piece, particularly, scorched on the upper surface and resting on three decayed sticks. Here were found a number of pieces of bone, parts of the human frame, such as the skull, hands or feet, and spine. An examination of them made by experts proved them to be hnman, very old, and acted upon by intense heat.
Now, remembering the French fort back of this spot, thus spoken of by Charle- voix in 1721 :- The fort is preserved, and the house of the missionaries (he does not allude to the church because that was burned in 1705), there can be no doubt that the true site was discovered. Moreover, the measurements made after the dis- covery in 1878 correspond exactly from the waterline of the bay with those given in the Jesuit "Relations." The discovery caused much excitement. In 1882 the monument was erected; in 1898 the city purchased the site in front, removed a building, and laid out the neat park now existing. The relics that were discovered are now in the keeping of Marquette College, Milwaukee. That more of the remains were not discovered is accounted for by Shea, the historian, that the tomb had been rifled, evidently by some medicine man, who wished the bones of the great priest as a magical power, Such as were found were entrusted to the Milwaukee in- stitution to ensure their preservation, as shown by letters from Father Jncker, who then had their custody, to the rector and faculty of the college in August, 1882.
A point of interest in the city may conveniently be included here. It is the old oil painting in St. Ignatius' church. This picture is celebrated: first, as being as- sociated in the mindy of the people with Father Marquette himself; second, because of the interesting traditions connected with it. It represents "St. Ignatius re- nouneing the world"; and it is claimed to have been a present to the early mission by Marquette himself. When the first church was destroyed and the mission deserted in 1705, the Indians took the painting away to Detroit nnd preserved it faithfully until the mission was restored many years later on, The story is fanciful; yet that the picture is of venerable origin, and of great merit, is admitted by competent artists who have examined it. The church is left open in the daytime; visitors are requested to conduct themselves with propriety and to refrain from entering the sanctuary.
OLD AND MODERN ST. IGNACE
Among the first settlers of St. Ignace who came prior to 1824 may be mentioned John Graham (Irish), Francois Perault, Mitchell Jean-
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drean, Mitchell Amnault, Louis Charbonneau, J. B. Lajeunesse, Louis Martin, Francois Trucket, Charles Cettandre, Francois De Levere, Louis Grondin, Peter Grondin, Mr. Hobb ( American) and Isaac Blanchette (American), all but the two specified being French. It is said the first American settlers at St. Ignace were Messrs. Hobb, Puffer and Rousey, soldiers of the Revolution. John Graham, the first Irishman, came in 1818. and Francois De Levere was the first to die in the little settlement.
Modern St. Ignace dates from about the early eighties. Martel Fur- nace started up in 1881, and the ore pier was completed the following year, and this was the period when the community commeneed to erect its distriet school buildings. Soon after the incorporation of the village, St. Ignace became a port of entry.
St. Ignace offers good school facilities, both public and parochial. In the latter class is the Ursuline Convent of Our Lady of the Straits, founded about 1896 by a band of Sisters from the mother house at Chatham. Ontario. It is located on a commanding site of same twenty acres in the southern part of the city, is conducted by eight or ten Ursu- line sisters under a mother superior and is attended. on an average, by fifty young ladies.
There are five houses of worship in the place, but, as the Catholics were the pioneers, so they are still the strongest. St. Ignatius church is the pioneer. The old church of logs, in which so long hung the fa- mous oil painting referred to above, was built in 1837, and was replaced by the present brick edifice in 1904. Among its sacred vessels is treas- ured the original chalice of Marquette.
St. Ignace has two newspapers-the Republican-News, founded in 1879, and the Enterprise, established in 1894. It possesses a national bank, stores commensurate with its needs, and such industries as a saw- mill, two small shingle-mills, a fishing fleet (largely "musquito") and a considerable transfer freight business. The last, in connection with the railroad ferries, warehouses and docks, employs about one hundred men, and disburses some $5,000 monthly.
The fishing interests of the place which, with those of Mackinac Island, were formerly of such magnitude, have greatly declined, so that there is now but one large dealer at St. Ignace (Chambers Brothers).
Besides the points in Mackinac county already mentioned, Naubin- way is a little hamlet of about 150 people (incorporated as a village in 1887), being located near Lake Michigan forty miles northwest of St. Ignace, and twenty miles south of Newberry, Luce county, which is its nearest banking point.
THE "SOO" OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Sault Ste. Marie, on the American side of the international boundary, is the most interesting municipal figure in the Upper Peninsula; for here, added to all the picturesque and historie charms of Mackinac Island and St. Ignace, are the mighty evidences and obstacles of nature fully overcome by the engineering genins of man. The primitive past
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BIRDSEYE VIEW OF THE SOO IN 1911
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and the diversified present are both blended in the region of "the Soo," with the soft charms and the rugged grandeurs of nature. When, in the summer of 1641, Fathers Raymbault and Jogues planted the eross of their faith on the banks of the seething St. Mary's, in the presence of some two thousand Hurons and Chippewas (most of them curious vis- itors), the first white men had visited the site of the Soo and the soil of Michigan. Then came Menard in 1660 and Allouez, in 1665, but they little more than tonched at the old abandoned mission on the banks of the St. Mary's. In 1668 Father Marquette was selected for the post and, with the help of some French traders, who had established themselves at this point where the waters of Lake Superior cast themselves down their steep rocky bed into the narrow inlet of Lake Huron. he erected a stockaded house and chapel. Its site was probably the present govern- ment park, not far from the great plant of the Michigan Lake Superior Power Company.
Marquette was followed by Father Dablon in 1669, who describes the St. Mary's river as it is today: "What is commonly called the Sault is not properly a Sault, or a very high waterfall, but a very violent cur- rent of waters from Lake Superior, which, finding themselves checked by a great number of rocks that dispute their passage, form a dangerous cascade of half a league in width, all these waters descending and plung- ing headlong together, as if down a flight of stairs over the rocks which bar the whole river. It is three leagues below Lake Superior and twelve leagues above the Lake of the Hurons, this entire extent making a beau- tiful river, ent up by many islands, which divide it and increase its width in some places so that the eye cannot reach across, It flows very gently through ahnost its entire course, being difficult of passage only at the Sault.
"It is at the foot of these rapids and even amid these boiling waters that extensive fishing is carried on from spring until winter of a kind of fish found usually only in Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It is called in the native language Attieameg and in ours 'white fish,' becanse, in truth, it is very white; and it is most excellent, so that it furnishes food. almost by itself. to the greater part of all these people."
The present-day tourist and sportsman fishes for amusement in these same rapids, and in the calmer waters of the river near the Lake Su- perior entrance the white fisherman who is out for business will some- times net 2,000 pounds of trout and white fish at one haul. Shooting the rapids is also a favorite sport of sight-seers, and it is certainly ex- hilarating-far more so than "shooting the shoots" in the city parks. The Indian pilots are the only men who dare risk the responsibility of a canoe-load of people, but in their skilled hands the boat finds its way among the swift currents and eddies, past dangerous and hidden rocks to the smooth and placid St. Mary's river below the rapids. The In- dians have been doing this work of piloting for many years, and the occupation has descended from father to son for generations. The Red Men of the present do most of their fishing in the rapids during the
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spring months, and their piloting later in the season. The descendants of the Indians whom Marquette met have acquired great skill in hand- ling their dip nets, working as they do in such turbulent waters and un- stable canoes. The occupation has become with them both a means of sustenance and livelihood.
The practical visitor is able to fully account for the tumbling, vio- lent waters of St. Mary's River, when he remembers that about 5,000,000 cubic feet of water per minute are pouring down a ragged sandstone ledge, which pitches twenty feet in three-quarters of a mile; that the stream, which is also about half a mile wide, is the only natural outlet for a vast body of water thirty thousand miles in area and, in places, nine hundred feet deep.
In 1670 Father Dablon made his way to Michilimackinac, and there- after that region became the most important center of missionary work. In 1706 the Jesuit fathers withdrew from the Sault region, and as a missionary field it was practically deserted until 1834.
FIRST AMERICAN LOCK
In the meantime the Northwest Fur Company had taken the first step to circumvent St. Mary's rapids in the cause of trade and com- merce. In 1797-8 it built a lock on the Canadian side of the river, 38 feet long and 8 feet 9 inches wide, with a lift of 9 feet and a draft of 21% feet. A tow path was made along the shore for oxen to track the bateaux and canoes through the upper part of the rapids. The lock, ex- cepting its timber floor and miter sills, was destroyed in 1814 by United States troops from Mackinae Island under command of Major Holmes. The remains of this first lock ever constructed on the American conti- nent are within a stone's throw of the present Canadian lock and on the grounds of the Lake Superior Power Company.
FORT BRADY OF TODAY
The United States government took its stand as the protector of the great gateway of marine commerce in 1822, since which time, with only two interruptions, Fort Brady has been garrisoned by her regular soldiers, The old fort occupied what is now the site of the federal building and for years was protected against Indian attack by a high stockade. In the canal park, between the federal building and the river, is preserved the very ravine crossed by General Cass when he pulled down the last British flag on the soil of the United States.
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