For the second installment of ‘Falling Back in Love with America,’ the Hickmans visit the most isolated, permanently inhabited island on all five Great Lakes.
The world of turnpike tolls and paperwork, plastic-wrapped sandwiches and paper-jammed fax machines had never been the sort of world I’d ever cared for or fit well.
Seems way too condescending to me. Who made the ferry boat they rode on to get to the island? Some poor little guy had to bring his sandwich to work to brew the beer and make the tent and all of the little bits that make your adventure possible. Stop looking down at the people and jobs necessary to make a functioning society.
My husband and I cruised Lake Michigan in our sailboat and one of the spots we anchored at was Beaver Island. We heard the story of the Mormons settling there and the mystery of their sudden, never explained, total disappearance.
We enjoyed a delicious fundraising dinner at the church, and noticed the results of 400 people living on a minuscule island for 100 years. A lovely lady drove us on a sightseeing trip. When I noticed a man working on a beautiful canoe, I asked her if she knew him. She replied, "He's a newcomer, don't know him." I asked how long he had been there, and she replied, "fifteen years".
Thanks for your reportage, and for continuing to bring us along on the journey. Lots of people here clompin on you for 'romanticizing' the Island, its history and denizens, but I didn't read nostalgia as much as a sort of compassionate fascination. And I have, unfortunately, seen another option to "death or tourism', and that's when a critical mass of Wealth takes over (usually an island, for its isolation) and turns the whole place private. As the median age on Beaver is Old, the powers that be can just wait em out.
Either way, unless the residents go the way of Mackinac or Nantucket (God help us), it sounds to me like, as your concluding sentence stated, "This place won’t be the same in 20 years’ time—that’s for sure.” Yeah, sad -- but not in a nice fuzzy way...
By being restrictive, the residents are slowly killing the island. I feel for these 2. The cheapest way is, go to a blighted area of a population center and improve it. I know you want to live in nature but the reality is-you guys don’t really have the skills to be survivalists. And unless you have resources( you don’t) you actually need a paycheck. Try Waco- cheap, friendly people and job opportunities. Sometimes you have to change the dream. Yes, I know that is not this couples task for the FP. But it is where they will eventually end up.
There is. Tell the hipsters in Chicago that they're good eating and good for you and before you know it, there won't be an eel left in Lake Michigan. Same thing with the Zebra Mussel
An isolated island escape that has strict building codes? Something seems contradictory there. The authors are looking for some place they can live life as they choose without a lot of external restraints. Beaver Island evidently isn't it.
So the writer isn’t sure when to use “l” versus “me.” Who cares. That’s what editors are for. The ideas behind the writing are legit and his willingness to act according to his ideas are admirable. The fundamental reason for the bleak outlook on beaver is income inequality. In the long run It behooves the aristocracy to pull the bottom half up. In fact an existential behooving.
I knew a place like that once, Southport, NC. While not an island, it was at the end of a long two lane highway that just ended there. My uncle ran a fishing boat there after the war and my aunt soon joined him. They would say 'don't tell everyone upstate about this place'. Well people would say, we'll drive through there on the way to the beach...you don't. You drive to it and then backtrack to a way out. The little fishing town got discovered and then rediscovered some more. I discovered by the 1980s that it was no longer worth going to anymore. My aunt is buried there and that's it for me.
Romanizing some long lost idyllic American past is exactly the sort of politics republicans specialize in. As this story exemplifies the past is long gone so stop trying to revive it, it is an old myth…it wasn’t all that great to begin with, rather it was full of religious men who were megalomaniacs trying to control the people, especially women.
Does that not sound familiar? It should because it’s the oldest story ever told.
The story of King James of Beaver Island should be a cautionary tale, not a nostalgic one.
You mean like the “I” used instead of “me”? My mother drilled that one into me and I always wonder if no one else cares anymore…and I wish I didn’t care! She would take red pens to correct thank you cards she received!
The world of turnpike tolls and paperwork, plastic-wrapped sandwiches and paper-jammed fax machines had never been the sort of world I’d ever cared for or fit well.
Seems way too condescending to me. Who made the ferry boat they rode on to get to the island? Some poor little guy had to bring his sandwich to work to brew the beer and make the tent and all of the little bits that make your adventure possible. Stop looking down at the people and jobs necessary to make a functioning society.
My husband and I cruised Lake Michigan in our sailboat and one of the spots we anchored at was Beaver Island. We heard the story of the Mormons settling there and the mystery of their sudden, never explained, total disappearance.
We enjoyed a delicious fundraising dinner at the church, and noticed the results of 400 people living on a minuscule island for 100 years. A lovely lady drove us on a sightseeing trip. When I noticed a man working on a beautiful canoe, I asked her if she knew him. She replied, "He's a newcomer, don't know him." I asked how long he had been there, and she replied, "fifteen years".
Thanks for your reportage, and for continuing to bring us along on the journey. Lots of people here clompin on you for 'romanticizing' the Island, its history and denizens, but I didn't read nostalgia as much as a sort of compassionate fascination. And I have, unfortunately, seen another option to "death or tourism', and that's when a critical mass of Wealth takes over (usually an island, for its isolation) and turns the whole place private. As the median age on Beaver is Old, the powers that be can just wait em out.
Either way, unless the residents go the way of Mackinac or Nantucket (God help us), it sounds to me like, as your concluding sentence stated, "This place won’t be the same in 20 years’ time—that’s for sure.” Yeah, sad -- but not in a nice fuzzy way...
What beautiful, evocative writing! Thoroughly enjoyed this sojourn into bygone America.
Reuters: Fraudulent voter registrations in Pennsylvania:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pennsylvania-county-investigating-fraudulent-voter-applications-2024-10-25/
Have the Hickmans go to some DEI run city and romanticize Memphis, St. Louis, or similar.
By being restrictive, the residents are slowly killing the island. I feel for these 2. The cheapest way is, go to a blighted area of a population center and improve it. I know you want to live in nature but the reality is-you guys don’t really have the skills to be survivalists. And unless you have resources( you don’t) you actually need a paycheck. Try Waco- cheap, friendly people and job opportunities. Sometimes you have to change the dream. Yes, I know that is not this couples task for the FP. But it is where they will eventually end up.
Thanks again for a beautiful story. You’re both in my prayers.
Sad to hear about the fishing industry. Too bad there is no way to cull those invasive fish.
There is. Tell the hipsters in Chicago that they're good eating and good for you and before you know it, there won't be an eel left in Lake Michigan. Same thing with the Zebra Mussel
An isolated island escape that has strict building codes? Something seems contradictory there. The authors are looking for some place they can live life as they choose without a lot of external restraints. Beaver Island evidently isn't it.
So the writer isn’t sure when to use “l” versus “me.” Who cares. That’s what editors are for. The ideas behind the writing are legit and his willingness to act according to his ideas are admirable. The fundamental reason for the bleak outlook on beaver is income inequality. In the long run It behooves the aristocracy to pull the bottom half up. In fact an existential behooving.
I knew a place like that once, Southport, NC. While not an island, it was at the end of a long two lane highway that just ended there. My uncle ran a fishing boat there after the war and my aunt soon joined him. They would say 'don't tell everyone upstate about this place'. Well people would say, we'll drive through there on the way to the beach...you don't. You drive to it and then backtrack to a way out. The little fishing town got discovered and then rediscovered some more. I discovered by the 1980s that it was no longer worth going to anymore. My aunt is buried there and that's it for me.
Romanizing some long lost idyllic American past is exactly the sort of politics republicans specialize in. As this story exemplifies the past is long gone so stop trying to revive it, it is an old myth…it wasn’t all that great to begin with, rather it was full of religious men who were megalomaniacs trying to control the people, especially women.
Does that not sound familiar? It should because it’s the oldest story ever told.
The story of King James of Beaver Island should be a cautionary tale, not a nostalgic one.
A lot of us don't dream of living in a place so remote that a dozen eggs are $9 but maybe just remote enough that we can't hear people like KE.
Interesting article generally well written. Surprising that editors didn't catch several obvious mistakes.
Just gonna leave us hangin?
Oh you gotta pay for that!
I had a grammar professor in college who insisted, in storytelling and spoken language, that if the meaning is conveyed then it's right.
You mean like the “I” used instead of “me”? My mother drilled that one into me and I always wonder if no one else cares anymore…and I wish I didn’t care! She would take red pens to correct thank you cards she received!
If this writer had a theme song for his essays it would be “Lochloosa” by JJ Grey.
What a sad and limited view of life. The only alternative to fishing is tourism? Are you kidding!? Are computers not allowed on Beaver Island?
Right! What an idyllic setting for a server farm and a small nuclear reactor.