Beaver Tales and Stowaways

Thursday, June 10

A woman at the Marina told us that even though the Historical Museum was closed we should knock if it looked like Anyone was inside. She even offered us her number to call if no one would let us in.  Turns out she was the chair of the board.  We took her at her word, and sure enough, we got a private showing of the museum.  https://www.beaverislandhistory.org/

This is a newly expanded museum in the Mormon Print shop on Main Street.  The centerpiece is this painting which was almost lost to time.  It had been in the Lincoln Park Post Office, and almost thrown away before someone recognized what it was and had it restored by the DIA and Cranbrook. The painting is by Michigan artist Zoltan Sepeshy, and funded by the WPA during the depression. (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/2019/12/28/zoltan-sepeshy-mural-beaver-island-cranbrook-detroit-restoration/2703333001/)

The museum also hosts hand-drawn sketches by Helen Collar with little biographies of the original Irish immigrants (and some of the Mormons as well) on the island. The Museum used to have copies but then the family donated the originals.

Stowaway

After a quick trip to the hardware store for some Loctite, we went back to the boat for lunch. We left Feather home alone for the trip to the museum, so I let her off the boat to take her for a constitutional. Before I could get the leash on her she was gone. I wasn’t too worried about it she doesn’t go far. Unfortunately the Beaver Island ferry dock wasn’t far.

I gave chase and Chuck wasn’t far behind with the leash, but before we could catch her, Feather had cleared the dock, walked along the rock breakwall of the Marina, then hopped from section to section of the Ferry’s seawall to the Ferry dock and onto the Beaver Islander.  Chuck ducked under the fence to get her with the help of a Ferry employee.

 Chuck joked that feather had been so disgusted by the rough crossing that she was done with this sailing stuff and decided to stowaway on the Beaver Islander back to the mainland without us.

Finally, after that adventure, we  got back to lunch.  As we were finishing up, for the third time on our trip, we unexpectedly met up with a friend.  A fellow kayaker and kayak builder, Michael, had seen my Facebook posts and realized that we were on Beaver Island at the same time. He tracked us down and said hello. He was crewing on a friend’s boat and they were headed in the opposite direction toward Holland.

Feather is a stinker but we love her.