Localized Wandering!

My Latest Packing Scheme

I must confess, I am still learning to pack as we wander around the country. I should be better at it, but I am still learning a thing or two along the way. Mostly, I have learned that ninety percent of packing is knowing what to carry and what to leave behind. Unfortunately, this is an acquired skill that only comes with experience and demands constant attention. This is particularly true when considering the stuff I must pack in my heart and mind for our wandering.

Here are a few things I have learned to leave behind; comparisons to places we have already visited, heavy expectations of places we have yet to travel, and preconceived ideas (prejudices) about people and places along the way. Here are a few things I have learned to pack; an enlarged sense of wonder, an eagerness for delight, and an open spirit ready to transform strangers into new friends. This localized wandering is a willingness to keep my heart and mind local when we enter a new place. Our second whole week in Michigan has given us ample opportunity for wonder, delight, and discovering new friends.

 

Munising Falls Trail

The week began with our last day in Munising. We did some sightseeing and walked the Munising Falls and Miner's Castle trails. We also made a scenic drive to a couple of overlooks of Lake Superior. Munising Falls is at the site of a former mill. It is also the location of the National Park Service Visitor Center for the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. There were three views, two upper and a lower. The short walk included a beautiful brook lined with wildflowers. We had previously seen Miner's Castle on the Boat Tour last week. But the land access offered a stunning perspective on the lake and Miner's Castle, a natural outcropping. It also had upper and lower viewing platforms. The path wound its way through a beautiful forest setting. The views invited wonder and awe, while the people along the trails were courteous and eager to share their impressions of the sights and sounds. Our scenic drive was, like others, not all that scenic except for the occasional glimpse of marsh and lake set among the forest. It was an excellent way to thank the Yoopers of the Upper Peninsula for sharing this magical place with these interlopers from the South.

 

Here are a few pictures from Munising Falls.

The Brook at Munising Falls

Munising Falls

 

These pictures are from Miner's Castle. 

 

Miner's Castle at Pictured Rocks

Lake Superior from Castle Rock Overlook

Looking across Lake Superior

Atop Castle Rock

Along the way to the Rock

Forest Light and Shadows

Saying goodbye to Lake Superior for this trip.

From Lake Superior Overlook

 

Sunday was a drive day. We headed out for Mackinaw City/Mackinac Island KOA. The drive took us along the scenic shore of Lake Michigan and then over the Mackinac Bridge into Mackinaw City. When I walked into the KOA office to register for the week, I felt we were coming home. We stay at a lot of KOAs because, in general, they are well-maintained and offer consistent, comfortable stays. After two years on the road, they have become the closest thing we have to a home base, and it felt good to be among somewhat familiar surroundings. This was an unexpected but welcome feeling for this wanderer.

Unlike many municipal and other public campgrounds, KOA folks are generally an agreeable bunch eager to help or swap a story or two. Most wave when they drive or walk by and often are curious about where we have been and where we are headed. While it may not be family, KOAs provide a homelike quality that keeps us coming back.

Downtown Mackinac Island

After a Chill and Chores day on Monday, we spent Tuesday on Mackinac Island. In seminary, I learned about shibboleths, secret words that are used to distinguish insiders from outsiders. The first words in Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island are pronounced the same. These hidden in-group cues are irritating. Like pronouncing Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, it feels exclusive and excluding. But I understand that Mackinaw and Mackinac are the same because they are the same word. Mackinaw is English, and Mackinac is French. The Island was called Mackinac by the French after the Odawa word Mishimikinaak, meaning Great Turtle from the Ojibwe creation myth about the Island. The French dropped the final consonant, and it was pronounced mak-i-naw. When the English built the city of the Southside of the Straits of Mackinac, they named it Mackinaw City, just as the French traders pronounced it. While the word may have been and may still be a shibboleth, it did not start out that way, so I could relax and distinguish between them.

Here are a few shots from our ferry ride to and carriage tour of Mackinac Island.

One of our Tour Drivers

Friendly Butterfly in the Butterfly House.

Mackinac Island Channel Lighthouse

From the top of Mackinac Island

Arch Rock

The Dark Knights

The Grand Hotel Barn

Royal

An Extraordinary Carriage

The Only Hearse on the Island that is still in Use

A RetiredFire Engine (They have modern emergency equipment now but they keep it hidden.)

The Grand Hotel

Bennie and Charlotte, our First Carriage Team.

The Mackinac Bridge

After 10,000 steps on Mackinac Island the previous day, Wednesday was a day for fewer steps but more sightseeing. We drove across the Mackinac Bridge to St. Ignace to walk the Ojibwe History Center. In the afternoon we re-crossed the bridge and toured the USCGC Mackinaw, a retired Great Lakes Ice Breaker and the McGulpin Lighthouse. St. Ignace is named for St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits who sent Fr. Marquette to New Orleans and then north into the Great Lakes as a missionary to the native people. Father Marquette began his work on the Island before moving it to the Upper Peninsula, founding St. Ignace Mission. After establishing the mission while traveling, he died. His body was returned to the mission, where he was buried in the churchyard. The Ojibwe had great respect for the Jesuits or Black Robes.

The Jesuits brought their faith but respected the local traditions of the people. The Center, operated by the Odawa People, tells the story of their journey from present-day Nova Scotia through the Great Lakes over the last several thousand years. They share stories and legends, beliefs, and practices of their people. They also speak of their interactions with the American Government, including broken treaties and attempted cultural genocide. It is the same story we have seen repeatedly in the last two years as we have traveled through the Southwest and the Midwest. The United States could not travel lightly. They carried their racism, desire for more land, and their way of life with them wherever they went. Then, they “gifted” the native populations with them and brought disease, poverty, and homelessness to these people. They have much to teach those of us willing to travel "locally" among them.

Here are a few pictures from the Ojibwe History Center.

Marquette's Grave

Fr. Marquette

Native Women Dance Wear

Birch Bark Walls

A Communion Wine vessel from the 1600s.

The Medicine Man with his pipe.

The Three Sisters (Corn, Beans, and Squash)

The Woman at work

A Lodge

The Lodge exterior

The Fisherman

The History Center Grounds

 

Here are a few pictures of the USCGC Mackinaw in Mackinaw Harbor.

Ward Room for Officers

Officer Quarteres

Officer's Mess

Enlisted Bunks

all their worldly Possession in one Drawr.

One of six 2,000 HP Engines that run the Generators that power the electric Motors

Enlisted Mess

The Galley

The Ship's Doctor

Executive Officer's Office

Communications

Captain's Quarters

A Model of the ship. It is wide and has engines in the Bow and the Stern.

The Wheel House

From the helm

Shoreline for powering the ship at the dock.

The Tow Winch and Cable.

The USCGC Mackinaw

At the end of another long day, here are a few pictures of the McGulpin Lighthouse not too far from our campground.

McGulpin Lighthouse

Quarters

The Wall Outside Fort Michilimackinac

For our last day of wandering in Mackinaw City, after a hearty breakfast at a restaurant (a rare treat for us), we spent the morning at Colonial Michilimackinac, a reconstructed fort on the shores of Lake Michigan near the Mackinac Bridge. It is also the longest continual archeological dig in the United States. History interpreters and excellent displays in the reconstructed buildings give a good foundation for understanding this unique and historic site.

Initially, the Straits of Mackinac was where the various tribes gathered for thousands of years to parley, exchange goods, and strengthen the ancient bonds the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa shared. It is where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan meet, making it a natural place for maintaining ties to people who had gone their separate ways centuries before.

The French fur traders heard of this gathering place and started showing up with trade goods to exchange with the Indians for pelts. This was part of the gift economy of the native cultures. They would gift the tribes with iron hatchets, ceremonial beads, and other goods out of respect for them. The Indians would gift them with beaver, muskrat, bear, and other pelts to offer their respect for their new friends. They did not sell or barter. There were no prices or quid pro quo interactions. The exchanges were based on giving and gaining honor for one another by showing respect with gifts.   (Read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer for an excellent description of this system.) The exchange would strengthen the bonds that held their cultures together. The French learned this system and wisely “localized” their wandering. Michilimackinac served the French very well and helped them extend New France all the way to New Orleans.

The British, however, did not understand or accept the gift economy. The British took over the forts and replaced the gifts with transactions that disrespected their Indian partners. They built walls and established a military presence to protect their interests. In doing so, they experienced the only attack ever made on the Fort in the 200 years it served as a trade center. They paid dearly for it in their lives as the Ojibwe killed or captured the British Soldiers and traders and left the French traders untouched. In time, the British came around and found allies with them during the American Revolution and War of 1812. Fort Michilimackinac withstood all this until the 1750s when the British moved the Fort, lock, stock, and barrel to the Island as a more secure location.

Cannon Guarding the Shoreline

Welcome to the Fort

Merchants Rented Quarters. Available by the Summer.

Trade Goods

Demonstration of What was Packed in the Bundles that came from Montreal.

St Anne's Church

The Confessional where the priest would spend the bulk of each day during his infrequent visits to the Island.

Native Village outside the walls.

Fortifications after the British Arrived.

The Parade Ground inside the walls

A Dig that started in 2007

 

The Commander's Quaters and Garden

The Commanders Bedroom

The Commanders Parlour

The Solidiers Latrine

The Officer's Latrine

The British Flag Before the annexation of Northern Ireland

An Interpreter dressed in worker's period clothing

A Merchants Living Quarters

Soldiers Living quarters, Four men to a Mattress in Two Shifts.

A Wealthy Merchant's Home

the Straits of Mackinac from Lake Huron

After lunch on the shores of Lake Huron at the foot of the Mackinac Bridge, we toured the nearby Old Mackinaw Point Lighthouse. The Straits between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas are dangerous waters. There are shifting shoals of sand and rocky shelves extending from the shorelines. It is also a bustling shipping lane serving Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay. Hundreds of ships sit on the bottom in and near the straits. The US Coast Guard built a lighthouse on McGulpin Point, but captains soon reported they could not see it from the East. Eventually, the Coast Guard built a lighthouse at Mackinaw Point and equipped it with a 4^th Order Fresnel Lens from France and a Foghorn. It was later fitted with a radio beacon and then an upgraded airhorn to extend its reach. The bridge has rendered the lighthouse unnecessary, but an LED light still functions. Like all the other, this lighthouse is automated, and the building has become a museum of the golden age of Great Lakes Shipping.

 

Here are a few shots from the Straits and the Lighthouse.

 

Lighthouse Quarters

Lighthouse Sitting Room

Interpreter in Period Uniform of a Keeper.

Old Mackinaw Point Lighthouse

Lighthouse and Foghorn Building

This Beacon can be seen 17 miles away.

Lighthouse is in Town and so it was considered a top Duty Post.

Model of a ship wreck before and after.

Lighthouse Kitchen

Parlour

As we prepare to leave Mackinaw City for Cedar, MI, and Leelanau Pines Campground, I am grateful for all the road has taught me. The quality of the lessons depended on my openness to growth and my attentiveness to the world around me. Here at the Straits, my commitment to localized wandering has opened my heart and mind to a clear perspective that what I know still needs a good polishing as we travel. I want to grow in my appreciation for wandering around in a locality, not importing ideas or anything else, and exporting a little wisdom along the way. I want to pay closer attention to my local area by allowing it to speak for itself in whatever dialect or voice it chooses. I want to be open to the ideas and insights from the locals and, when appropriate, add them to my own understanding of our world and the people who walk among us. In short, I aspire to be a good traveler among all the localities that surround my road ahead.

 

Travel well, my friends. The road awaits!

 

Bob

 

PS: You may want to turn down the volume before playing this video of the foghorn at the lighthouse.