Les Cheneaux
By Helen Shoberg 484-2626 mink@cedarville.net

We've had quite a spell of hot, dry weather, much different weather than what we're used to here in the Eastern Upper Peninsula.

Last week, through my error, there was a mistake in the story about Laura Jean Taylor, who lives in Hong Kong, and who won the Design for Asia award from the Hong Kong Design Center for her Philips portable speaker design. Laura Jean is the granddaughter of the late Aldren and Jean Taylor of Cedarville and the daughter of Bruce and Susie Taylor, who reside in Arizona.

A strange phenomenon reportedly took place last week. According to various reports, bullheads were jumping all over Musky Bay about dusk one evening. Several of the longtime residents I spoke with said that bullheads don't jump, but others, who should know a bullhead when they see one, said it was true. Perhaps with the mayfly hatch, they were jumping to feed. Are there any expert opinions available out there among our readers?

A few days ago, I was surprised to see a woodpecker at the hummingbird feeder, when I suddenly realized that it was eating the ants that gather around the sweet sugar holes of the feeder. Since then, I've had a very busy woodpecker eating its fill of ants.

Kim Gay won the $100 Lions Club lottery Tuesday, June 12.

Bruce Patrick's story this week tells a story of Bob Hamel's tugboats:

"The tugboat Peerless burned beyond repair. From somewhere, Bob Hamel got another tug and named it the Allie Bee. He used this tug to tow timber in booms mostly, to Cheboygan from Les Cheneaux. On one occasion, he got a tow job to tow a boom of cedar posts from Search Bay to the Lower Peninsula.

"His crew placed the boom in a V shape off the shoreline and a crew of men and horses dragged all the posts into the boom. Then the full boom was closed at the shoreline, and a tow line was stretched to the Allie Bee, which was anchored out in the bay.

"Alan Jones was the engineer and he had to pump up an air tank immediately to begin. Well, this time the motor did not start. He had big storage batteries, but they did not start the diesel motor. So there he was, with a boom of logs partly hooked on. As things go, a storm came up from the southeast, blowing right into Search Bay and the anchor started to drag from beaching. What a mess! Jack Visnaw, who had a small inboard launch, which he had used to come to work on this job, got it going and got around Pt. Brulee and into Hessel, and found out about this mess.

"Bob found out that there was a man on Drummond Island who had a big diesel tug who could come to Search Bay and get Allie Bee's motor running. He said he would come as soon as possible to help. Bob had my father, Bruce K. Patrick, take him out to Search Bay to be there when this man came from Drummond.

"I went along with Dad and Bob when they went to Search Bay. The wind was very strong, and when we went around Pt. Brulee, waves were so high that when we would go down in the trough, one could not see land. I was scared, but we made it to Search Bay before the man from Drummond got there.

"This man's name was Seaman, and I will tell more about Seaman in another story of mine. Seaman had a diesel motor in his tug, which started with compressed air. When the engineer starts the motor with this compressed air, immediately he must pump up the compressed air tank so that it will be ready for the next starting when needed.

"Seaman had a big diesel motor, too, that could pump compressed air to Bob's boat. So Mr. Jones got it started.

"I don't know where these cedar posts were going that were in the boom, but probably to Cheboygan. There was a tremendous movement of timber logs and posts being moved in those days. This was a system used extensively way back in those old years with no trucks."