Post # 95 April 25, 2024

 Quote for the day: "The misunderstanding runs very deep, as deep as the name itself: Great Lakes. In no conventional sense are these lakes, ... they are something else, something separate and unique and wonderful." William Ashworth. The Late Great Lakes. 1987.

News and Views has a complete list of the 2024 Michigan Notable Books

Reviews

Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and the Ships on the Great Lakes 1817 - 1940 by George D. Jepson.

First of all I must tip my hat to the publisher. From page layout and design including the prolific use and presentation of old photographs, maps, the reproduction of countless paintings and draftsmen's outboard profiles and deck plans of various Great Lake vessels this book is a gorgeous piece of work. And the lively narrative chronicling the history and development of wooden vessels that turned the Great Lakes into a vast and important commercial highway compliments if not inspired this superb example of book production.

The author credits the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 for the boom in schooner production throughout the Great Lakes which in turn spurred lakeside villages to become port towns. Before railroads reached the Midwest schooners literally peopled the Great Lakes territories and states with immigrants then shipped all manner of goods and products to and from the new or growing communities. The author describes schooners as"... the eighteen-wheelers of their day." The author vividly describes both what makes a schooner a schooner and life abroad a commercial Great Lakes schooner.  Subsequent chapters recount the development of steam-powered commercial carriers and the introduction late in the 1800s of wooden bulk carriers that reached the extraordinary length of 300 feet. There is a lengthy chapter on the Truscott Boat Manufacturing Company of Grand Rapids and later St Joseph.  It was the first major manufacturer of wooden pleasure boats. It sold a wide variety of pleasure craft from 16' to more than 50' throughout the country. The book closes with a surprising chapter on Dan Seavey a Great Lakes pirate and a last chapter covers the memorable life and exploits of  a Great Lakes sailor who died in in 2018 at the age 103.

There is not a boring page in the book. The author brings sailing on the Great Lakes alive with countess human interest stories that compliment his historical narrative. And scattered throughout the book are stand alone essays and historical excerpts such as the account by Charles Dicken's sailing on Lake Erie 1842, or the detailed loss of a schooner and the archeological diver who dove its remains, There is a historical account of the remarkable voyage of the first recreational powerboat on Lake Superior, and many more arresting stories. Any reader fascinated by the Great Lakes or even mildly interested in its maritime history will lose themselves in this wonderful book. 

Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and Ships on the Great Lakes, 1817 - 1940 by George D. Jepson. Sheridan House, 2023,178p., $45.

The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? by Dave Dempsey

This simple idea for a book on the Great Lakes is fun to read, filled with surprising information, and debunks often widely held beliefs about the lakes that simply aren't true. The book's simple format begins with a statement such as on page one that reads, "The Great Lakes have tides" The author researches the statement then labels it Fact or Fake. But it is the author's summation of the research that makes the book so interesting.

 

In the above statement about tides the author reveals the lakes rise and fall to the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun a measly 2 inches. But of special interest is that high water levels occasionally occur when high winds pile up water on one side of the lake as high as 22 feet and then the wave surges back across the lake. They can cause fatalities and are are called seiches. There is also an event called meteotsunamis in which storms cause atmospheric pressure changes that can cause waves up to 20 feet high. In 1929 a meteotsunamis killed ten in Grand Haven and  in 2003 seven  were killed in Berrien County. Who would have guessed Michigan could be hit by a tsunamis? Then there is the absolutely stunning facts such as a drop of water in Lake Superior takes 202.7 years to reach the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand my favorite bit of nonsense concerning the Great Lakes are the websites with pictures of whales in Lakes Superior and Michigan. Supposedly there is even a Whale Watching station on Beaver Island. Every now and then I go to the websites just for a laugh and am surprised anyone would have taken whale watching on the Great Lakes as a fact. 

If you want to know if the Great Lakes shelter a fish that is bigger than the average man or woman, whether some Great Lakes fish are on Prozac, or if the Great Lakes contain the loneliest place in North America you will have to pick up this entertaining and painlessly readable book. 

The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? by Dave Dempsey. Mission Point Press, 2023, 133p., $16.95.

The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River by Thomas A. Buhr.

Jumping to conclusions has landed me in hot water more than once. This time it was a first, the cold waters of the Au Sable. I was sure this book was a history of fishing the world famous trophy waters of the Au Sable stretching roughly from Mio to Lake Huron. Nope. There's a lot about fishing here, but the essence of this fine book is an in-depth local history of the Au Sable Valley area from prehistoric times to the present. The book covers a lot of ground and is full of arresting historical detail, and a great example of local history at its best.

The narrative begins with the first people to arrive in the area who hunted the large game there, including wooly mammoths, as the last ice age receded. It concludes in the present century and the concerted environmental efforts to improve the health of the river and creation of new trout fly-fishing lures to land the wily 20+ inch lunkers of the Big Water. In between the first and last chapter the history of the area unfolds highlighted by the excellent use of primary source material to help bring historical events fully alive and tell great stories that reaffirm the uniqueness of the area. Such as the story of the first survey team to penetrate the area in which trees were so thick they had difficulty finding their way and ran up against an half-a-mile-wide wind wall of downed white pine that defied crossing. A rescue party was dispatched to find the group. Or, the story of the CCC camps in the 1920s that reforested the lumbered our area and included young Joe Lewis. Known as a promising fighter the camp organized a fight that drew hundreds. Joe was knocked out. There is the famous fly fisherman who tied his own flies with Model T coil wire.  There's the case of conspicuous consumption in an 1874 account of a fishing trip to the Au Sable in which 120 pounds of Grayling where killed and salted one day and 120 addition pounds the next.  Grayling were gone from the river in a decade. Lastly, in 1927 a 75-car KKK caravan toured the Au Sable Valley and national forest. And these are only a sampling.

The mix of a fine narrative that consistently holds your attention and is filled with attention grabbing facts and stories is a great formula for telling the generally unknown local history of  one of Michigan's famous natural attracts. This book is a prefect example that good history is good storytelling. 

The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River by Thomas A. Buhr. Mission Point Press, 2023, 291p., $16.95.

Killer Women of Michigan by Tobin T. Buhk

With the exception of the first chapter the author proves to have an extraordinary eye for sifting through countless cases of women who were convicted of murder from the post-Civil War years to the 1990s and unearthing singularly interesting killers and cases. Throughout the book the author focuses on why the women committed or was an accomplice to murder. The victims usually were husbands, lovers, children or step children. The first chapter covers the 34 women who served life sentences from 1866 to 1925 which corresponds to the period when women serving life imprisonment did so in the Detroit House of Correction. Each of their stories is covered in a paragraph or two. The following chapters focus on in-depth descriptions of the killer or killers and why the murder and convictions was of special interest.

The accounts that really grabbed my attention were the ones that bordered on the weird. Like the woman who was convicted of killing her three children and was sent to Jackson State Prison where she became a housekeeper for the wardens and cared for their children. Then there was the cop who put a sheet over his head and played the ghost of the murdered husband. When the "ghost" accused the wife of his murder she confessed. And finally there was the woman who strangled her husband, dragged the body to a bed and went for a walk. When she returned she worked a crossword puzzle and fell asleep. Awaking she cut up her late husband, and loaded him piece by piece into the back seat of her car. She wanted to bury him in Kentucky but the car broke down in Toledo and the mechanic couldn't fix what he found in the back seat. Back in Michigan she observed that killing her man proved to be "the best medicine for her recurring migraines."

Each reader will surely find their own favorites among the weird, tragic, surprising, sad, and unusual but always interesting accounts of Michigan's real femme fatales.

Killer Women of Michigan by Tobin T. Buhk. History Press, 2024, 173p., $24.95.