The Chippewa rowboat, a historic local boat owned by the Paul Brobst family of Hessel and Ohio, is shown here with family members and guests inside. According to a family account, Mr. Brobst's grandmother, "Gross" Meyer, as she was known, is seated at the back of the boat, surrounded by pillows, and steered the little vessel while Porter Johnson rowed around the Hessel Bay area. The other people in the boat are not identified. The Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville will host a workshop on constructing a model of this boat, based on plans drawn by the late Oliver Birge. The workshop is free, and will be August 20 through August 31. (Photograph courtesy of Les Cheneaux Historical Association) 115 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Saturday, August 6, 1892

Judge C.R. Brown of Marquette is in the city today.

Entertainment at Martel Hall tonight. Admission, 25¢, children, 15¢. See bills.

Will Bouchard has accepted a position at the Sherwood house. He is a first-class hotel man.

Anumber of boys, many of them old enough to know better, conducted themselves in a disgraceful manner during the entertainment at Orth's opera house last evening.

All who attempt the same tonight will be fired out of the building. Such conduct should not be tolerated by the management of the hall if they expect the public to patronize them.

On Wednesday morning last, fire broke out on the steamer Remora at 4 o'clock and she burned to the water's edge. The crew was discharged a week ago and she has been anchored in the bay since.

The only persons on board were Capt. Vosburgh and the watchman, who barely escaped with their lives, both being badly burned about the face and hands. The origin of the fire is unknown. The loss is $12,000; insurance, $5,000.

A peculiar accident, which will result in two fatalities, happened on Saturday last one mile west of McMillan. Two coaches of the passenger train which left here in the morning left the track and rolled over.

Mrs. Lyons and her son, who were picking berries along the track, were crushed below the cars, and will die. A number of passengers were injured, but none seriously. The coaches were wrecked.

J. Steinberg, a popular merchant and owner of the big new opera house in Traverse City, was in town the first of the week visiting his son, J.H. Steinberg.

Two St. Ignace boys walked up the railway track six miles to pick huckleberries on Tuesday, leaving at 6 a.m. After they had picked 10 quarts between them, they were startled by seeing a groundhog, which they mistook for a bear, and ran for their lives. They were so rattled that they lost their way and did not find the railway track again until nearly dark, when they struck out for home, arriving after 9 p.m., causing great relief to their anxious parents.

90 Years Ago

The St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, August 9, 1917

The war board for Mackinac county late yesterday afternoon completed the examination of those called in the first quota of 132 registered men.

While he will not be credited to Mackinac county's quota, to Fred Boucha will undoubtedly go the honor of being the first St. Ignace boy accepted in the draft for Uncle Sam's new army. Fred expressed no regret at being called on to fight for his country, in fact, was quite pleased that he would be given a chance to do his bit in defeating the war-mad kaiser and making the world a safe place to live in.

The Allies have come to a full agreement as to the remodeling of the map of Europe after the war. The Allies propose to restore Belgium, give the Alsace-Lorrain back to France, internationalize Constantinople, and lessen the governmental grip to Turkey. The Grecian boundary will be moved northward, while Greece will get some of the islands near her in the Mediterranean.

The Wing garage has sold twenty cars so far this season - thirteen Fords and seven Overlands. The six cars received last week were sold to Ed. Rutherford, Willis Taylor, Eugene Brown, Emil Johnson, Ed. Reavie, and Raymond Halberg.

50 Years Ago

The Republican-News

& St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, August 8, 1957

Manager Kenneth "Red" Smith has guided the Saints to another baseball title in the Eastern Upper Peninsula Baseball league. Last Sunday, his charges cinched the flag by defeating second-place Drummond Island-DeTour by a score of 2-0.

Father Marquette Day in St. Ignace will feature the sixth annual pageant and field Mass, representing the landing and first Mass of Father Marquette on the shore. The pageant will begin at 10:30 a.m., with the landing of Father Marquette on the shore of Moran Bay, where he is thought to have landed in 1671.

Fred Knorr, owner of the Detroit Tigers baseball club, and his general manager, John Fetzger, spent a few days in the Straits area during the past week to "get away from the city" for awhile.

East of Cedarville and four miles west of DeTour, the Michigan State Highway department has erected a roadside park.

Services Sunday will mark the close of the week-long celebration for the 50th anniversary of the founding of Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace. The first services of the church were held by the Rev. Wyman in 1904. Also in 1904, Dr. P.O. Bersell conducted services.

35 Years Ago

The Republican-News

& St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, August 10, 1972

The 15th annual Mackinac Bridge walk is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. on Labor Day morning from the fare plaza and end 4.5 miles across the Straits in Mackinaw City. Also, during the afternoons of the Labor Day weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, St. Ignace will be the scene of "The Black Gown Tree" dramatic musical presentation based on the life and explorations of Pere Marquette.

The November general election will see Bernard Paquin (D), opposing Arthur Kaminsky (R) for the office of County Clerk.

City police on Thursday, August 3, arrested and returned to a Canadian prison an escapee who had fled Canada and eluded the Border Patrol on the 27th of July. He was apprehended behind the Mobil station near the Nicolet Lounge after he was seen rifling various parked cars.

Captain Richard Thibault docked his Inland Seas research ship, from University of Michigan, in St. Ignace early this week and expects to be in the Straits area with a class aboard for at least another week. His wife, Ellen, and son, Peter, of Grand Haven, are visiting his parents, the Alfred Thibaults, while the ship is in the vicinity.

Mary and Beth Shoberg, daughters of the Conrad Shobergs of Islington Road, Cedarville, recently returned from a week in Manhattan as the guest of their brother, Dick. They were interviewed and photographed at New York's NBC studio, where Dick is cast in the daytime TV serial "Somerset."

Advertisement - St. Ignace Theatre features Clint Eastwood as Detective Harry Callahan in the new movie "Dirty Harry." You don't assign him to murder cases. You just turn him loose.

Brevort column - As in most small tourist towns, everyone in Brevort has had their noses to the grindstone. All too soon, there will be a nip in the air and we'll be able to shoot a cannon down US-2, and not hit a thing.

15 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Thursday, August 6, 1992

For the first time since its completion in 1943, the Cut River Bridge, west of Brevort, is closed for extensive renovations.

A new ordinance that provides a split between the city and property owners for St. Ignace sidewalk repairs finally has been adopted.

Sharon McLean, a 1990 graduate of LaSalle High School in St. Ignace, was chosen as one of the top 15 "Models of the Year" at the International Models Expo in Rochester.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The St. Ignace News is seeking original prints or reprints of old photographs depicting areas in the Eastern Upper Peninsula to be scanned into the archives and for the Looking Back column. Photographs to be loaned or donated to the Michilimackinac Historical Society can also be dropped off at The St. Ignace News.