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

Mary Godfrey of Gladstone threads porcupine quills into a birch bark box Thursday, June 28, during the three-day quill box making session taught by Ron Paquin of Sault Ste. Marie, a Native American artist. Mrs. Godfrey took the class with her husband, Larry Godfrey.

The Star Spangled Banner still waves over the "land of the free and the home of the brave," and if we all stay vigilant, it will stay that way. The Fourth of July is the nation's day to celebrate that independence, and we do it with parades, flags waving, and rockets exploding. In spite of everything that happens, this is still a free country and a grand place to live.

It is nice to see so many summer faces around once more. The first of July seems to be the time everyone is finally here for the summer months. It was nice to greet Ken Horsburgh, along with many others, last week.

The Les Cheneaux Yacht Club is open for another season and the Ensign races have begun. It was quite a sight to see these sailboats with their spinnakers bellied out, sailing down Cedarville Channel last Saturday. They were racing around Big LaSalle Island and the wind was really blowing.

Traditional Native American artist Ron Paquin uses a delicate touch to secure porcupine quills to the top of a birch bark box. Mr. Paquin taught a threeday quill box making class in Cedarville June 27 through June 29, at the Les Cheneaux Maritime Museum. A second class will be offered in July. Mrs. Ralph Samples now owns his homestead. He and his brother built a lot of the summer cottages along the Snows Channel."

Weather has been cool, but comfortable. Perhaps too cool for swimming, but the breezes are welcome after the heat wave of late June.

A quill box class sponsored by the Historical Museum was enjoyed by several this past week. It was taught by Ron Paquin, a talented Native American craftsman from Sault Ste. Marie, and originally from St. Ignace. Students came from as far as Gladstone in the western U.P. and Gladwin in the Lower Peninsula to take part in this class. The end result was a lovely, little handmade quill box that one can be very proud to display as a bit of meticulous, fancy handwork.

Bruce Patrick's story this week is an amusing one about a couple of bachelors, Charlie and Pete, who worked together building houses and boathouses all around the Les Cheneaux area. In Bruce's words:

"Charlie built a two story house on Marquette Island, opposite Dollar Island. Finally, he could see a good opportunity to make moonshine. Some people invariably got intoxicated about every Saturday night, going to Cedarville to spend their paycheck on food and booze.

"Charlie saw that he could make moonshine right there on the island. So he set up a still. A next door neighbor to Charlie could not figure why his chickens came staggering home on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. The sheriff, Mike Rudd, went over on Saturday night and dumped a barrel of corn mash out of the upstairs window. The chickens would go over to Charlie's and eat the mash and really get drunk! The chickens would stagger home Sunday morning. Well, Mike stopped this before Charlie figured out what was wrong. Who would figure this could happen?

"Charlie also worked for my dad. He was very good with a broad axe. He could hew timbers so perfectly that one would think they had been fed through a planing mill. Charlie, one late winter, hewed all the timbers for a new scow for his pile driver. These timbers were so perfect.

"Charlie moved to one of Bob Hamel's lumber shacks at Duck Bay, where he lived until death.