Big-Hearted Lake: “Are you Dave and Dan? Did you drop something in the Lake?” The call came to the green canoe going through the historic lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. What Jake Cormier, the man asking the question, was holding up was a zip-locked plastic bag containing navigational charts on the back of which he had discovered a “detailed journal of an epic canoe trip along the coast of Superior starting May 25th from Thunder Bay.” Jake and his dog found the bag floating near the mouth of the Agawa River about a week earlier while on a camping trip to Lake Superior Provincial Park. When Jake originally found the bag, his first concern was that the paddlers were safe, since the final log entry was titled “The day from Hell.” He used social media, plus calls to park and law enforcement officials, to try to track the canoe duo down. Soon canoe-spotting notes came in and the likely canoeists named were David and Daniel Gardner, a father-son duo from Toronto on a 650-kilometre (400-mile) Big Lake adventure that started just days before David’s 65th birthday. The full story of how Jake, who works for Village Media, parent company of SooToday, and helpful Ontarians tracked down the fellows to return the journal of a once-in-a-life journey is detailed on SooToday. It’s a great story … with a happy ending.
It’s Good to be Queen: Kimberly Garcia, a senior next year at Hayward High School, joined royalty today, reports Kathy Hanson of the Sawyer County Record. Kimberly has been named this year’s Musky Festival Queen and was crowned at noon on the Sevenwinds Casino Main Stage. She also becomes Mini Musky Princess and will ride a float in the festival parade Sunday. Kimberly, whose family owns Main Street Tacos, works part-time as a hostess at El Tequila Mexican Restaurant and volunteers at the Salvation Army Thrift Store restocking, cleaning and organizing inventory. As queen, after a year of service and appearances, and completion of a second semester at an accredited higher education institution, Kimberly will be eligible for an academic scholarship. The 70th Musky Festival this weekend features tons of activities, including a carnival with rides, a performance by singer/songwriter Steve Berguhn of American Idol, plus the Planters’ Nutmobile (seen here). Find more on the Hayward Chamber of Commerce Facebook site, where you can also see the picture of a bear cub strolling downtown this week (maybe looking for a giant peanut?).
Beautiful Book Oasis : The Hancock Public Library, hosted in the Hancock, Michigan, high school, has made terrific progress since the Portage Lake District Library took over management six months ago, reports Graham Jaehnig for The Daily Mining Gazette. The number of patron visits has averaged 2,900 a month and the number of cardholders has increased by 65 percent. The library also has been able to take advantage of grants and donations, including a grant from Tom Suchenek and the Hancock Public School Foundation to buy this stack of American literature books and one from the Michigan Center for the Book that purchased 25 children's picture books. The library has expanded its hours for summer and will host a summer reading program. Through funding already established, the library should get $60,000 a year for operations. “There are a lot of positive things going on there,” School Board Trustee Mary Babcock told Graham. “The library is a shining light at the school, and I can’t believe it.”
Brilliant Bridge: This great photo comes to us from Nipigon, Ontario, where photographer Karen Ramsdale captured the new Nipigon Bridge at night, looking very schoonerlike, as she points out. Karen did a whole series on the bridge and the surrounding area during the night of the bright moon Sunday evening. Karen’s a brilliant all-around shooter, with memorable captures of natural landscapes and portraits of people (and pooches!). The Nipigon River Bridge opened in 2016 and just weeks later a heaving problem on the bridge cut off Canada’s east-west traffic for several hours, according to Matt Prokopchuk of the CBC. Now, however, the beautiful cable bridge has all four lanes accessible to traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway.
Fabulous Fountain: An 82-year-old fountain in Virginia, Minnesota’s Olcott Park recently flowed again thanks to about $1 million in donations. The stone fountain built in 1937 was shut off in 2013. “We had a lot of problems with the pool leaking,” Greg Gilness, with the Olcott Park Foundation restoration committee, told CeCe Gaines of CBS 3. “The mechanism was 1937 technology, the best they had back then, but after 80 years it started to fail.” On the Virginia Park and Recreation Facebook page, this note appeared this week: “Many people have been calling and asking when can I see the fountain working? The fountain is operational daily from 10 a.m until 11 p.m., the light show begins at 9 p.m., however, the darker it is, the better it looks! We hope you enjoy the fountain, and once again we would like to thank the Fountain Committee and all those who have worked so hard to make restoring the fountain a reality.” You can see what the night brings in these great night shots by photographer Paul Pluskwik.
On Eagle Wings: Earlier this month 85 children from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the Algoma region of Ontario got to see new views of the twin Sault Ste. Maries thanks to the annual Young Eagles Day hosted by the Soo Pilots Association EAA Chapter 1437. The planes took off from Sanderson Field Airport in Sault, Michigan, on June 8 with local pilots John Covert, Fred Schneider, Robert Schallip and Kathie Brosemer giving youngsters, 8 to 17, free aerial tours over the cities and the St. Marys River. “The weather was perfect,” Tom Brown, airport manager, says in a press release. “The pilots always enjoy spending the day with the kids.” Young Eagles Day is a tradition coordinated by the Experimental Aircraft Association to instill a love of aviation in a new generation of pilots. For many of the young “co-pilots” it was their first time in the air. “I was nervous, but when we started leaving the ground, I thought I was going to vomit because I have never been that high up,” Myaha Starnes told Bill Froehlich of 9&10News. “Then I got sort of distracted.” Myaha and her sister loved their flight and told Bill they may want to pursue careers in flying.
Green Marine: The Duluth Seaway Port Authority and its terminal operations on Rice’s Point ranked among the U.S. top 5 and international top 10 operations in the 2018 Green Marine evaluation. The voluntary environmental certification program accessed 42 North American port authorities in air emissions, community impacts, dry bulk handling and storage, environmental leadership, spill prevention, underwater noise and waste management with ratings of 1 to 5. Thunder Bay Port Authority and the Logistec Corporation Canada’s terminal in Thunder Bay also participated. Ship owners and shipyard operators also can be evaluated. Algoma Central, Canada Steamship Lines and Interlake Steamship Company were among those that opted in. “The Green Marine program helps guide and inspire those efforts (to minimize environmental impact), while also giving participants a tangible scoreboard for environmental stewardship,” Jeff Stollenwerk, Duluth Seaway Port Authority director of government and environmental affairs, said in a press release. You can view the full report with the ratings for each participant’s evaluation online.
Meanwhile, for boat watchers, we have a video interlude. Last week on an outing aboard the retired Coast Guard cutter Sundew, which was hosting U.S. Navy and Marine Corps veterans linked to the USS Duluth, our editor Konnie LeMay captured a “race” with the Paul R. Tregurtha under the Aerial Lift Bridge and into the harbor plus a little bonus video of the Presque Isle.
'Tis the Season: The food trucks are flocking. This is the time of year when food trucks get out in our Lake Superior cities to offer some tasty on-the-go fare. Travel Marquette did a roundup of five must-try trucks on its page. The international website Roaming Hunger also helps you find trucks and their schedules around the country. That site features, from our Up North neighborhood, Marquette in Michigan, Duluth and Bemidji in Minnesota, Ashland in Wisconsin, and Thunder Bay and a currently (maybe later?) non-functioning link for Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario. A few years ago, we did a roundup of food trucks around the Big Lake. (Note to astute readers – if you see any of these trucks that are no longer making the rounds or if there are new ones to add, please let us know or send a link for an update!)
Plugged In from Birth: The Electric Fetus started in Minneapolis in 1968 originally on the West Bank near the University of Minnesota campus – a vinyl-selling tribute to music-driven times. By 1987, it opened a store in Duluth that today remains a city focal point of musical knowledge and distribution as well as a vendor of urban chic clothing and lifestyle decor and gifts. In this week’s installment of our series on downtown Duluth businesses within the Superior Street construction zone, our Nik Wilson chats with Carrie Brown, store manager, about what the Electric Fetus brings to the downtown scene and why you should brave the roadwork for a visit.
Photo & graphic credits: SooToday; Sawyer County Record; Hayward Chamber of Commerce; Soo Pilots Association; Karen Ramsdale; Paul Pluskwik; Travel Marquette; Nik Wilson