Voyageurs Come Ashore at St. Ignace

In period dress, the Saginaw Voyageurs arrive at Kiwanis Park in St. Ignace Saturday evening, August 4. Pictured (at the left of the boat, from front) are Ron Hyde of Freeland and Dan Kowitz of Millington; (at right, from front) Tom Nolan of Bay City, Joe Turner of Saginaw (in shadow), Terry Bauer of Frankenmuth (hidden), and Steve Fisher of Bridgeport; (far right) Brad Mrozinski of Saginaw. Not pictured are steersman Charles Hoover of Saginaw, bowman Chuck Beach, and crew organizer Bob Thaler. At the back of the boat is the French Marine flag of 1750.

The Saginaw Voyageurs, a reenactment group from the Castle Museum of Saginaw County Historical Society, landed on the beach at Kiwanis Park in St. Ignace Saturday, August 4, in a 34- foot fiberglass canoe. They gave a demonstration of the life of voyageurs to a small crowd that gathered. The stop was one of eight destinations the group visited, finishing Fort Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City Sunday, August 5.

The 16-person group began its trip along the "voyageur highway" on Lake Michigan from Fayette State Historic Park in the Garden Peninsula in Big Bay de Noc, about 120 road miles west of St. Ignace.

From there, the group made its way east, stopping at the Portage Bay launch site, Manistique, Seul Choix Point Lighthouse, Point Patterson, Naubinway, Epoufette, Hiawatha National Forest's Lake Michigan Campground, near the Sand Dunes, then to St. Ignace, where the voyageurs spent the night before heading to Fort Michilimackinac.

The group paddled roughly 136 miles on the trip.

The Saginaw Voyageurs have been making annual trips along the Great Lakes since 1986, having paddled from Mackinac Island to Saginaw in 1990, Traverse City to Mackinac Island in 1995, Sault Ste. Marie to the Island in 1996, Garden Peninsula to St. Ignace in 1997, and from the Island to Saginaw in 1998.

While in St. Ignace, the group camped at the Marquette Mission Park and Museum of Ojibwa Culture, near where Father Marquette landed in 1670.

The appearances offer spectators a better understanding of the historical Great Lakes fur trade, the life of the voyageurs, and the role Saginaw played as the fur trade center for central lower Michigan.

The canoe the men used is a reproduction of the Montreal, or master canoe ("Canoe du Maitre"), serving as a "semitruck" to haul up to two tons of cargo on rivers and small lakes. It is made of fiberglass and is five feet wide, 34 feet long, and requires 16 men to paddle. Original canoes made with birch bark.