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Travelers left their cars and ascended metal steps to one of the upper decks for the trip, which took about
half an hour.
There was always something thrilling about taking one of these huge, steel boats across the wind-whipped Straits to a strange, more primitive land to the north, which people just couldn’t get to all that easily. If the weather was nice, we stood on the open deck high above the water, feeling the boat slowly rise and fall as it pushed slowly through the swells. The waters in the straits are as likely to be rough and windy as calm and scenic. Some of the trips were beautiful; others were choppy, and a few induced uneasy feelings in
your stomach.
Once on shore again, now on Route 2 continuing northward, the next milestone was Castle Rock, a tourist attraction on the outskirts of St. Ignace where sightseers could climb a set of stairs to the top of a 200-foot lime- stone chimney, which had somehow been chiseled into its present form by Mother Nature, possibly in the form of glacial ice as it advanced and then receded. Sixteen miles north of St. Ignace, we turned east off Route 2 onto M-134, a dirt and gravel road lined by fir trees that led eastward along the southern shoreline of the eastern U. P. overlooking Lake Huron. When there was a clearing in the trees between the road and the shore, we could see
Mackinac Island in the misty distance across the water. Our destination was now close: 16 more miles. In our eagerness, this last, short segment of the trip seemed to take hours.
The small towns of Hessel and Cedarville serve the Les Cheneaux Islands. Hessel, which we passed first, was on the shore across from Marquette Island, the largest of the islands. Marquette Island had high ground on which huge mansions had been built and deep water for anchorage. These large homes surrounded the Les Cheneaux Club, an exclusive area that began to be developed around the turn of the 20th century. Its boating needs were met by Mertaugh’s Boat Works, which sold and serviced Chris Craft boats.
Cedarville, several miles east, was more utilitarian. It was where essential businesses were located near a large town dock. These included Hossack’s grocery store, an ice house, Hudson’s Hardware, and the Bon-Air, a unique establishment that had a liquor counter on one side; sold film, postcards, local crafts, magazines and tobacco in the middle; and on the other side had an ice cream parlor where we went to get Rocky Road ice cream as frequently as we could. Across the street from the dock was the Cedar Inn, a two-story hotel with a long front porch overlooking Cedarville Bay. Along with these businesses on the waterfront were bait and tackle shops,
Doctor’s Co.
Volume 73 • Number 3 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN 17