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Drummond Island Memories
by
Anne Westlund
The first visit to an island with Peapod, my West Wight Potter 15, was to Drummond Island, the
extreme end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I’d been there before by sea kayak and sailboat, but not
solo and not in Peapod.
This particular trip was the first “extended cruise” and lasted for two weeks. I had moved to DeTour
Village, a mile from Drummond Island by ferry. I was employed part time and had decided to take
some time off to sail. Summers are short and lovely as far north as 46 degrees N. Latitude. The
launch ramp in DeTour Village was about two blocks from my little house so I was able to launch
Peapod, leave the trailer and car at home, and no worries.
Sailing across to the 53 island that lay north of Drummond Island’s north shore was beckoning and
inviting, and mysterious. They are mostly owned by the State of Michigan and only a few have
cottages. The area has a long history with Native Americans and the earliest explorers from Europe.
De Tour, the turn, was named for the passage to the upper lake or lower lakes – Superior or Huron
and Michigan, Erie and Ontario. Voyageurs passed and named Pipe Island, just north of town, for the
Pipe stop prior to entering large Lake Huron’s waters. They would have their pipe smoke, or take
time to camp and clean up for the stop in the twin Sault Ste Marie settlements some 43 miles north up
the St. Mary’s River. The paddlers and passengers needed to stop at a safe place well protected
from the area’s variable weather.
The three Great Lakes and the North Channel toward Ontario flip the weather around in
extraordinary fashion making paddling canoes interesting challenges. Later in the history of the
region, came the small and then increasingly larger ore carriers called boats locally. Ore boats are up
to 1000 ft. long.
There used to be many small ore boats and in the early 1970’s you could see as many as one every
five minutes pass by DeTour Village. Today, 2009, you will often see none. Another day there will be
an ore boat after another, and again, another. There are far fewer as the size of the boat’s carrying
capacity has grown with the extraordinary length.
The size of the boats is governed by the Soo Locks where boats are raised and lowered the 21 ft. up
to and down from Lake Superior at the rapids (sault) at the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
and Ontario. The ore boats pose one of the problems with the DeTour Passage.
When you come along in a small boat like Peapod you have lots of time to look around and great
maneuverability. The ore boats are restricted to 6 knots in the St. Mary’s River. That means that
when you see a freighter on the horizon you have 20 minutes before it is right at you, right there with
its 30 to 40 foot high sides and its rivets the size of your fist!
That is a faster speed by twice than the normal cruising speed for a small sailboat. You have to give
those huge boats a good separation distance and plan to be out of their way. They can throw bow
waves! And you don’t want to be close to one unless it is tied up to a dock! That’s how I found out the
size of the rivets. I kayaked close up to one that was tied up for the winter at InterLake’s dock north of
DeTour one spring.
Then there is the ferry. There are actually two ferries. They cross the DeTour Passage every hour,
one way and then the other. When there is a lot of traffic for the Island, two ferries will run, and often
“wild” or off scheduled runs. These ferries move right along and do unexpected things. They leave
Drummond Island and turn around, then run toward DeTour Village. At the Village ferry dock they turn
around again so you can drive off the ferry! Sometimes they go more northerly or southerly
depending on ore boats or wind or wave actions.
Once safely across the passage I headed north toward Harbor Island for my two week cruise. The
eight miles passed quickly. It was a delightful summer sail with wind about 8 knots from the
southwest. I went into both harbors at the island, checking things out. I’d been there before on our 33
ft. Pearson but this experience was so different.
On such a small sailboat that can go in shallow waters it is a more intimate experience giving a
person a more detailed vision of what’s there. The plants can be identified midst the greens of
shorelines. The trees move from a mass of colors to individual aspens, maples, cedars, oaks, pines
and fir trees. Sedges and grasses, wildflowers, birds and sand as well as rocks are up close and
personal, familiar and different.
I stopped often to nose Peapod up into the sandy places to get out and explore. Aware of being solo,
I put the anchor in the sand for security. Otherwise it could be a long time before being found on an
isolated beach! Almost all the small islands here are uninhabited and Harbor Island is a place where
you can visit but not stay unless aboard a boat at anchor. Rules and regulations have kept it 99%
pristine.
Once upon a time there was a farm on the island and a house near the mouth of the harbor. Years
ago it was moved across the ice to the north side of Grace Island where it was restored, added onto,
and made into a beautiful summer cottage. The couple who used to live in the house on Harbor
Island years ago had a sign showing a wood fairy kneeling on a “looking glass rock” staring into the
water and the words, “Keep my waters clean!” The folks used the lake water for drinking water! The
sign was there in 1971 and gone when I went back in 1976. So was the house!
I found a great place near the tight, narrow entrance to the larger harbor on the east side to drop the
stern anchor and set a bow anchor on land. That way I could pull my boat into shore or out away from
shore.
At night being off the land keeps the night critters off the boat, critters like mice, rats, raccoons and
the like. I don’t know if there are rats. I do know there are raccoons. In the daytime I could pull the
boat ashore for toileting in the woods, taking a soapy bath with a bucket or go hike the shoreline. I
like the feeling of the boat at anchor so being tethered to shore is okay but at night I want to float.
One of the awakenings was to find Peapod aground one day. I was sitting in the cockpit reading
when the boat stopped moving. I became aware that we were bottomed out. The water level had
dropped about ten inches! There’s no tide so what was happening? The passage of a 1000 ft. ore
boat moves the water around eight miles away! The water level drops when the boat goes through
the passage and rises to level itself again. I was surprised. It was an interesting find and one that was
often repeated. The lowering of the lake effect does not seem to extend the 25 miles to Pilot Cove on
the east end of Drummond Island. I’m not sure where it fades away but it is interesting.
A few years later I was exploring around Drummond Island and the many islands north of the big
island. I heard a story from some reliable folks about the finding of two bodies, a man and a woman,
when a bulldozer turned the soil on the south side of Grace Island for a house foundation. Another
cottage was to be built when the bodies were turned up.
All work stopped and the authorities were called. An examination showed them to be dressed in
clothing from the late 1800’s. An anthropologist from Sault Ste. Marie was called in for help.
Meantime one of the old settlers on Drummond Island died in his old age. The graves were covered
over and not mentioned until the old timer was buried.
When the old timer’s funeral was over, the “boys” took their father’s body from the coffin. They
loaded him in his pick-up truck and took him to deer camp! The old timer spent several hours at deer
camp and was then taken back to the coffin. The coffin was put into the ground and “dad” went to his
eternal rest. Following the old timer’s funeral the graves were opened again on Grace Island and the
bodies remains removed to another spot away from the new house foundations and reentered into
the ground. Legends, no, truth, yes.
Recently a friend of mine (who is a doctor) was at the ferry when she was called to help an elderly
woman. A man was slumped over in the car his wife was driving. The doctor checked the man for
breathing and pulse and started CPR. She called out to the ferry attendant to call 911, threw her cell
phone to him, did CPR, and told him to take the ferry to DeTour ASAP. She continued the CPR when
the ferry started to move.
She asked Pete, the captain on duty, who was driving the ferry and he said Joe meaning the
deckhand. She knew Joe (the deckhand) did not have the qualifications to drive the ferry. She said
Joe is right behind you! Who is driving the ferry? Joe said Joe and Pete said Joe and she was
confused. It turned out that one of the off duty captains also named Joe was on the ferry in his car,
had jumped to the 911 job and was piloting the ferry to DeTour!
Confusion reigned and CPR continued. The ferry docked and the ambulance met the ferry at the
dock. A transfer of the downed man was made and the wife drove up to Sault Ste. Marie herself. The
poor old man was dead.
So, these are a few of the Drummond Island memories. There will be more. And more about sailing
the area another time.
Anne Westlund
