Working Man's Fishing Fleet

The working man's fishing fleet.  This describes it perfectly.  The Daily Globe article from June 1950 brought back a lot of memories for me and hopefully will for some of you.

I helped my grandparents maintain their fleet from the mid 60's to the mid 70's.  In the spring we cleaned, painted and inspected the boats before pushing them into the channel.  These were hand-made open wooden boats, so they need a lot of maintenance. They must be seaworthy and safe for guests.  The hand-made oars must be sturdy and without flaws...as they may be needed by a stranded fisherman with motor trouble.  In the summer we continued the inspections and bailed the water that collected with every rainstorm.  We pulled the bow of the boat on top of the dock which caused the water to pool up in the back near the transom.  This made it easier to bail the water with our coffee cans.  In the fall we pulled them out of the water for winter storage.  We used a small dozer to pull them from the water into the storage area...as these were not flimsy craft.  They had a 'deep-v' configuration with a giant hand tooled oak keel running the length.  They were 16 feet long (not the 14 foot described in the Globe article).  They had oak ribs...bent in an improvised steam chamber, oak running boards and gunwales.  When the boat was in the water, I could stand on the gunwale and the boat would barely list.  The design was of the type of fishing boat used in the Gulf of Bothnia off the coasts of Sweden and Finland.

As a kid I felt kind of proud to help with the operations at the Agate Shop.  Now I feel fortunate I had such life experiences and can share.  As many will reflect...our lives are full of routine experiences that don't take on significance until years later.

We have looked at the attached summertime photo in other posts.  It is one of my favorites.

Cribs

It's a bit distorted, but this is a great photograph.  I don't know the year depicted here, I suspect sometime in the early to mid 40's. Look at the trees, it is summertime...my favorite season.  I have been told the 'cribs' that framed the entrance to the channel only lasted a couple of years, but I think the construction of these piers represented a pinnacle in the Point's history. The property was developed with the lake in mind.  The homes, the barns, the carpenter shop, the blacksmith shop and other buildings were built and families were flourishing.  The docks, the boathouses and the boats were built and ready to go.  So what about access to the big lake.  Sometimes the channel was not ready and available for them...just as it is sometimes not available today.  Discussions about keeping the channel gravel free and open were probably not much different than the discussions we have today...what can be done, who's gonna do it?  The obvious decision for them was to build structures that prevented channel closure...thus the rock filled wooden piers or 'cribs'.  I am told the 'cribs' worked quite well until the lake eventually removed them.  I guess it took a couple of years. They were never rebuilt...maybe out of respect for the power of the lake?  

Jump ahead 20 years.  My first memory of my grandfather, Stanley Oman, was his advocacy for a harbor at the Point.  He talked all the time about a breakwater, wider channel, improved boat landing and more dock space.  I have no doubts why he was such a strong advocate.  It was because he made it happen at an earlier time and he knew that with better engineering it could be made permanent.  Sadly he never lived long enough to see his dream come true, but some of us still believe we will be running our boats through a channel protected by a breakwater.  Those 'cribs' are stuck in my mind too.       

Focused Fisherman

The late 19th and early 20th century brought immigrant settlers to the Point.  They arrived with skills to make a living off the land and water.  Amongst many skills and trades, they were fishermen, hunters, farmers, carpenters, loggers, miners and teachers.  We know they worked long hours in tough and treacherous conditions.  From their results (as are expressed in historical articles like the one below) it seems they were immediately proficient and prolific.  It fills us with pride to read about a record setting harvest or catch, but we know the harvests and catches weren't always bumper.  For those of us who spent a lot of time with our pioneer grandparents, we know they experienced the abundance and poverty of nature.

We get gifts from our parents and grandparents.  As for a gift from my grandfather Stanley Oman?  I know I learned how to drive goals, objectives, expectations and results from him, long before it was vogue in my boardroom discussions.  I am thankful for the things he taught me.
   
So I attached this Ironwood Daily Globe article from 1952.  I love these historical pieces my brother finds in the Globe.  The attention grabber for me is the photograph. Look at the focus in their eyes and their faces.  This is a team with their 'game faces' on!  Consider what the reporter experienced that day...the temperature, the smells, the sounds.  I am going to be that reporter this summer when I ask my uncle Eric about that November day on the lake.
  

The Beginning

This day "the ninth day of July in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and four" is the beginning of a new life for Erick and Beata Oman and family.  Life in the new world.  Three hundred dollars for those raw and remote 12.6 acres was a risk we can only imagine.  However, it seems the Omans owned a vision of the future for this beautiful and rugged coast with its unpredictable climate.

This year on the 4th of July, we will celebrate the 110th anniversary of that vision and bear witness to it's progress and fruits.

I am proud to be a part of this epic history.    

Snowy Winter at LGP

These photos were taken in late December of 2013. The fresh Scandinavian blue of the Oman's place looks beautiful against all that snow!

Pier at LGP? from Ironwood's The Daily Globe...Now and Then

ERIC  CADEAU, left, a planner with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, discusses plans for Oman's Creek boat landing improvements with the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday.

Ralph Ansami/Daily Globe

BESSEMER - After more than 40 years of seeking a solution to keeping the Oman's Creek boat landing from frequently washing shut, it appears some action is on the horizon.

It might not be the near horizon, but the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners learned Wednesday that the Department of Natural Resources at least has the Lake Superior site on its radar.

Eric Cadeau, a planner with the MDNR, said a long-term plan alternative is to construct a 120- to 160-foot long groin into Lake Superior that would cut down on the erosion that frequently blocks the creek. The erosion requires dredging to open the creek mouth.

Cadeau noted a Northwest Design Group study was commissioned by the DNR in 2010. It recommended seven alternatives, with the priority being converting the boat landing to a carry-in canoe type of site.

That suggestion was met with considerable public opposition at a meeting at Gogebic Community College, where small boat operators urged to keep the site open to small vessels so local anglers and tourists can fish out of Little Girl's Point.

The second alternative listed in the study is to construct a groin. The cost was estimated at $750,000 to $1.4 million.

A groin is a shore-perpendicular structure that extends into a lake. Its function is to interrupt or slow movement of sediment along the shoreline. Groins are especially well suited to areas where the sediment in the near shore consists of sand, as the groin can create a beach.

The goal is to make improvements so erosion from the east to west that blocks the creek can be lessened and the DNR will not have to dredge as often, if at all.

Cadeau said Michigan Waterways funding is limited and while he applied for a Great Lakes Fisheries Trust Fund grant for the project, it went to Lake Michigan instead.

He said federal and state funding might be available for a project.

Cadeau said $43,000 to be used for engineering is being held by the DNR as a potential match for a grant.

Cadeau said it would take about a year to design the project, then grant money would be sought for construction.

In the meantime, the DNR will continue to dredge the creek, where erosion is taking a toll on the shoreline and the small parking lot.

The DNR will continue its partnership with the county, which previously dredged the creek.

A fishing pier?

The planned Little Girl's Point groin could be used as a fishing pier.

County commissioner Leroy Kangas, of Ironwood Township, said fishermen were generally pleased with the DNR's dredging efforts last summer, although it could have been done more frequently.

Cadeau said the MDNR will again stock brown trout in the creek.

Cadeau said there has been some reluctance to stock the fish because when the creek mouth washes shut, the planted brown trout are trapped in a small area of the creek, where predators can feast on them.

Bill Doan, the DNR employee who oversees the Oman's Creek boat landing, praised Cadeau for his work on the project and his "thinking out of the box."

"Out of the box"...eh?  

Vision from Thursday June 17, 1948  Oscar Flink