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| Lake Charlevoix Historical Images |
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Historical Images of Lake Charlevoix. (click on any image for a full sized view)
#15. The first Ironton ferry, laid up for the winter on the shore of the narrows. It was 18’ by 24’, capable of carrying one wagon and a team of horses. A hand-powered windlass operated by the captain with the help of his passengers held a half-inch cable, visible here, that guided the craft. In 1886 the county bought the ferry and operated it toll free until 1949.
#16. Today’s ferry was built in 1926. It is one of the few of its type left in the United States. People have long come from all over just for the experience of riding the ferry.
#17. Sam Alexander worked on the ferry from 1890 to 1941. On December 5, 1936, in hundreds of newspapers around the world, readers learned through Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” about the man who had traveled 15,000 miles while never being further than 1000 feet from his own home. By the time Sam retired, it was estimated he had traveled the distance around the globe on nothing more than the little Ironton ferry.
#18. The view up the South Arm to the north. In the foreground is Holy Island just south of the Ironton narrows, once the intended seat of Mormon rule in northern Michigan during the reign of King James Strang on Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan. But Strang’s assassination in 1856 brought an end to Mormon influence and the island never became what he wished it to be.
#19. At the bottom of the lake’s South Arm was the town of South Arm, on the west end of the causeway that connected to East Jordan. Schooners like this one taking on a load of lumber were a common sight on Lake Charlevoix for decades.
#20. The City of Boyne, left, and the Hum, right, were two of the most popular small passenger vessels that ran between East Jordan, Boyne City, and Charlevoix in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Here they are seen loaded with passengers at the East Jordan waterfront.
#21. During the years before the lumber industry collapsed around 1915, the transportation of area lumber up the lake and out through Charlevoix was a daily occurrence. This “lumber hooker” was built in 1888 and sailed as the Three Brothers from 1902 to 1911, at 162 feet the largest of the fleet of the White brothers, lumber kings of Boyne City. She passed through Charlevoix scores of times on her route between Buffalo and Chicago, usually with an enormous load of hardwood and hemlock.
Two months after this photo was taken, she hit a gale south of Charlevoix and her hull planking began to separate. Taking on water rapidly, she headed for South Manitou Island where she hit the beach so hard she split in two. Her lumber was scattered all over the island’s beaches. Lake Michigan ripped her remains to pieces.
#22. Roy Brady, renowned racing boat builder shown here with his wife, built this boat in Charlevoix. On August 7, 1927 he entered Miss Charlevoix in a five-mile event on Lake Charlevoix. The first 2.5 miles were covered in just under 2 minutes, 20 seconds for an average 64.5 miles per hour, a world record. On September 2, Brady went from a standing start to the mile mark in 68 seconds, a state record. The Charlevoix Courier said, “ . . . very few boats in the entire world . . . can show her a clean pair of heels.”
#23. Built originally as a three-master in 1889, the 172-foot Keuka (pronounced Kyoo-ka) was a lumber barge until the logging industry died. She was converted to a floating dance hall and casino, known as a “blind pig” during Prohibition, the scene of many wild parties and one near-fatal shooting that took her off the waters in late 1931. She was being towed up Lake Charlevoix on August 14, 1932 when she mysteriously sank half a mile off Charlevoix’s Ferry Beach with her masts sticking above the waterline. Rumors flew that local “Carrie Nations” had taken an ax to her, or the Feds were closing in so the owners scuttled her. The probable reason was old age. Her masts created a navigational hazard, so a Charlevoix shipyard owner had to dive down and dynamite them off. Her skeleton is currently a favorite haunt of scuba divers on Lake Charlevoix.
#24. The 191-foot Sylvia was considered to be the most beautiful yacht ever to grace the waters of Charlevoix. She was in town, her home port, from 1930 to 1942. The Sylvia was owned by Logan Thompson, founder of Champion paper in Hamilton, Ohio north of Cincinnati, and a member of Charlevoix’s Belvedere Club resort. She and all others of her kind were confiscated by the government for duty in World War II. Here the Sylvia is shown taking her farewell trip down Lake Charlevoix on May 3, 1942, never to return.
#25. The Hennepin was one of many lake freighters that delivered coal to the rural electric plant at Advance near Boyne City beginning in the late 1950s. Eight to thirteen times a year they passed through Charlevoix, often scraping the bottoms of the two channels from the weight of their gargantuan loads. The Advance plant closed in the late 1990s, so their likes may never be seen on Lake Charlevoix again.
#26. Dave Eckinger, fisherman and ice harvester, enjoys a sail with his wife and three friends on frozen Lake Charlevoix, February, 1916. Iceboating was once one of the most popular winter sports. Charlevoix boasted one of the finest racing fleets in the state. Under ideal conditions an iceboat could easily beat an automobile down Lake Charlevoix. A fifteen m.p.h. wind could send one flying up to ninety m.p.h. The trip to Boyne City from Charlevoix took less than ten minutes.
#27. Charlevoix’s Chicago Club resort had one of the finest 6-meter racing fleets in the country, and held racing regattas frequently on Lake Charlevoix.
#28. Lake Michigan (foreground), Charlevoix and Round Lake, and Lake Charlevoix with its South Arm branching off to the right, in the 1960s.
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