The Great Outdoors: The History of Recreation in Marquette County Special Exhibit
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Bicycling | Birding | Cross Country Skiing | Dog Sled | Downhill Skiing | Guts Frisbee | Ice Skating | Luge | Paddling | Rock & Ice Climbing | Running | Scuba Diving | Ski Jumping | Snowshoe | Trails | Wildlife Photography
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Paddling has long been a necessary way to travel; as well as an enjoyable pastime. As summer camps grew at the turn of the century, canoeing fit the character-building goals. By the 1920s, millions of children attended summer camp and learned to canoe.
Canoeing
The automobile helped fuel the canoeing trend. Soft topped cars might sport a canoe emerging through the window. The bicycle, motorcar and outboard motor all made canoeing more accessible. Recreational canoeing reached a peak in the 1920s. Following World War II, the aluminum Grumman canoes were popular for many years.
Robert Belanger: Building His First Canoe at 14 Years Old
Robert and Sue Belanger
Sue Belanger grew up canoeing and camping around the UP with her family in the 1960s and 70s. Her dad, Robert, also from Marquette taught her to canoe: When we were camping, we'd go to these camp grounds and they were always on a lake. I grew up in a canoe. My dad was an avid canoe person and he just taught us all how to canoe. And from a very young age, we were all canoeing. Sue Belanger
Much later, Sue got certified as a kayak instructor from Sam Crowley and served as a guide with Great Northern Adventures, run by Ra Trost. Sue led groups at Fayette, Pictured Rocks and other areas around the UP. Sue says that Marquette County is often overlooked.
Robert Belanger remembers swimming in the Chocolay River near his home in Harvey, ski jumping off nearby hills, trapping muskrat and beaver before and after school. He built his first canoe when he was about 14 years old based on a plan in Boy’s Life magazine. It was made with orange crates, covered in cloth, and painted to make it waterproof. He successfully used his canoe for several years.
Both Sue and Robert recalled a canoe trip together:
I remember going camping with him, just he and I went camping one time on a lake. Oh, I don't know, by Christmas [MI]. There was an island out in that lake and I don't know if he knew people or what, but we went camping. We canoed out to that island. We stayed for a couple of nights and just ate fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and caught fish and just camped out. It was one of the best memories I have of being a teenager and just being in the outdoors and my dad fishing and canoeing. Sue Belanger
Sue Belanger grew up canoeing and camping around the UP with her family in the 1960s and 70s. Her dad, Robert, also from Marquette taught her to canoe: When we were camping, we'd go to these camp grounds and they were always on a lake. I grew up in a canoe. My dad was an avid canoe person and he just taught us all how to canoe. And from a very young age, we were all canoeing. Sue Belanger
Much later, Sue got certified as a kayak instructor from Sam Crowley and served as a guide with Great Northern Adventures, run by Ra Trost. Sue led groups at Fayette, Pictured Rocks and other areas around the UP. Sue says that Marquette County is often overlooked.
Robert Belanger remembers swimming in the Chocolay River near his home in Harvey, ski jumping off nearby hills, trapping muskrat and beaver before and after school. He built his first canoe when he was about 14 years old based on a plan in Boy’s Life magazine. It was made with orange crates, covered in cloth, and painted to make it waterproof. He successfully used his canoe for several years.
Both Sue and Robert recalled a canoe trip together:
I remember going camping with him, just he and I went camping one time on a lake. Oh, I don't know, by Christmas [MI]. There was an island out in that lake and I don't know if he knew people or what, but we went camping. We canoed out to that island. We stayed for a couple of nights and just ate fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and caught fish and just camped out. It was one of the best memories I have of being a teenager and just being in the outdoors and my dad fishing and canoeing. Sue Belanger
Robert Belanger. Photo courtesy Sue Belanger.
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Sue Belanger speaking on: Canoeing with Her Dad
Sue and Robert Belanger. Photo courtesy Sue Belanger.
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Paddlers at Kechuwa Camp, Michigamme, in the early 1900s.
Kayaking
Sam Crowley
Sam grew up in the Chicago suburbs but left his job as a computer engineer to be a kayak instructor and massage therapist. He was introduced to kayaking in the Bayfield, Wisconsin area in 1991, and soon enjoyed an overnight kayak trip to the Apostle Islands. He began guiding tours with Northern Water Adventures out of Munising in 1996 and moved to Marquette the following year.
He enjoys long trips on his kayak, usually solo. For about a decade now he has taken trips every summer around Ireland, Europe and other parts of the world. The variable conditions around Marquette as well as world class instruction here have prepared him for these challenging trips. Many factors in the area make this a wonderful place for kayaking.
According to Sam, Marquette has many favorable qualities for paddling. It has quick and easy access to the water. You can drive 5 minutes, park your car right next to the water, and launch your kayak. There are public shorelines for you to get out, have a picnic or even camp. The Marquette area also boasts the beauty of Lake Superior and a wilderness type setting.
Sam grew up in the Chicago suburbs but left his job as a computer engineer to be a kayak instructor and massage therapist. He was introduced to kayaking in the Bayfield, Wisconsin area in 1991, and soon enjoyed an overnight kayak trip to the Apostle Islands. He began guiding tours with Northern Water Adventures out of Munising in 1996 and moved to Marquette the following year.
He enjoys long trips on his kayak, usually solo. For about a decade now he has taken trips every summer around Ireland, Europe and other parts of the world. The variable conditions around Marquette as well as world class instruction here have prepared him for these challenging trips. Many factors in the area make this a wonderful place for kayaking.
According to Sam, Marquette has many favorable qualities for paddling. It has quick and easy access to the water. You can drive 5 minutes, park your car right next to the water, and launch your kayak. There are public shorelines for you to get out, have a picnic or even camp. The Marquette area also boasts the beauty of Lake Superior and a wilderness type setting.
You've got all those moods. You've got those quiet moods—all that beauty. It's hard to believe this body of water is so calm right now. And then you have the mood where it's just spittin' at you. There's wind and there’s waves and everything else. And you've got everything in between. And you've got bald eagles flying out there and everything… you've got a loon that's off fishing over here. It's just absolutely incredible. And you can do that all, within, for me it's a five minute drive.
It’s very rare for a city, even for a city like Marquette of 25,000 [currently just under 21,000] people to have access to those type of places and wilderness so immediate outside the door. That was amazing to me. Paddling around Presque Isle with the cliffs, all the basalt that’s a billion years old I’ve heard. It’s like, holy smokes, it’s incredible. Sam Crowley
It’s very rare for a city, even for a city like Marquette of 25,000 [currently just under 21,000] people to have access to those type of places and wilderness so immediate outside the door. That was amazing to me. Paddling around Presque Isle with the cliffs, all the basalt that’s a billion years old I’ve heard. It’s like, holy smokes, it’s incredible. Sam Crowley
Sunset at Middle Bay with Mike Stoolmiller. Photo courtesy of Nancy Uschold
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Sam Crowley in rough water, Middle Bay. Photo courtesy of Nancy Uschold
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Sam has had the opportunity to learn from world class instructors here in Marquette and in the Midwest. Variations in paddling conditions on Lake Superior have led to preparation for kayaking around the world. He was able to take classes with both the British Canoe Union and the American Canoe Association.
Some of the local instructors who helped Sam get started include James Loveridge who ran Quick Stop Bike Shop (it sold kayaks at the time) and Stew Joseph who operated Paddler’s Choice in Harvey: Stew paddled around Lake Superior, I want to say in the early nineties, maybe late eighties. And he’s just very gun ho, very excited instructor, retailer. Sam Crowley
Down Wind Sports also played an important role in selling kayaks and getting demos and instruction to kayakers. Instructor Gail Green led an expedition to Lake Baikal in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The following year she led a group which circumnavigated Lake Superior.
Sam has taken long paddling trips for several weeks, including around Ireland. His years of training and experiences around Marquette have prepared him for these trips. I feel pretty confident in going places now. Because initially you're going to these places and going, what are the waves going to do? Oh! That's just like Middle Bay, or wow, that's just like over at McCarty's Cove, or that's like Middle Island Point. So you're looking at these different spots and you're seeing them replicated around the world and you're seeing that behavior of the wind, the waves, the water, it's the same. Sam Crowley
Some of the local instructors who helped Sam get started include James Loveridge who ran Quick Stop Bike Shop (it sold kayaks at the time) and Stew Joseph who operated Paddler’s Choice in Harvey: Stew paddled around Lake Superior, I want to say in the early nineties, maybe late eighties. And he’s just very gun ho, very excited instructor, retailer. Sam Crowley
Down Wind Sports also played an important role in selling kayaks and getting demos and instruction to kayakers. Instructor Gail Green led an expedition to Lake Baikal in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The following year she led a group which circumnavigated Lake Superior.
Sam has taken long paddling trips for several weeks, including around Ireland. His years of training and experiences around Marquette have prepared him for these trips. I feel pretty confident in going places now. Because initially you're going to these places and going, what are the waves going to do? Oh! That's just like Middle Bay, or wow, that's just like over at McCarty's Cove, or that's like Middle Island Point. So you're looking at these different spots and you're seeing them replicated around the world and you're seeing that behavior of the wind, the waves, the water, it's the same. Sam Crowley
Sam Crowley in Ireland, photo by Stew Joseph
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Sam Crowley exploring spring ice, 2013. Photo courtesy of Nancy Uschold
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Marquette’s “world class conditions” have helped Sam advance his skills. Other serious kayakers are also learning from these conditions. The Gale Storm Gathering is one of three white water symposiums which has been gathering in Munising for several years. Recently the symposium was held in Marquette. It is an opportunity for people to learn to paddle in more advanced conditions on the Great Lakes and the oceans.
In the past, kayakers were typically an outdoor person who was physically fit and did a variety of outdoor activities. Today’s kayakers are typically the general public. People use the inexpensive, recreational kayaks at camp or on inland lakes, rivers or reservoirs. While Lake Superior can be safe, today more and more people venture out on Lake Superior without the proper gear or training.
Out at Pictured Rocks the law enforcement Rangers are actually stopping people and taking them off the water and taking them back to shore because of the danger that they represent. They dealt with some very serious accidents over there, you know over 40 accidents in a summer. Boats, either the Coast Guard, Alger County Sheriff, or the boat that the Park Service owns at Pictured Rocks, going out and having to pull people out of the water and their boat and it was primarily recreational kayaks. Sam Crowley
In the past, kayakers were typically an outdoor person who was physically fit and did a variety of outdoor activities. Today’s kayakers are typically the general public. People use the inexpensive, recreational kayaks at camp or on inland lakes, rivers or reservoirs. While Lake Superior can be safe, today more and more people venture out on Lake Superior without the proper gear or training.
Out at Pictured Rocks the law enforcement Rangers are actually stopping people and taking them off the water and taking them back to shore because of the danger that they represent. They dealt with some very serious accidents over there, you know over 40 accidents in a summer. Boats, either the Coast Guard, Alger County Sheriff, or the boat that the Park Service owns at Pictured Rocks, going out and having to pull people out of the water and their boat and it was primarily recreational kayaks. Sam Crowley
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Nancy Uschold
Nancy grew up in a suburb near Buffalo, New York. While living in Grand Rapids, she came to work at Bay Cliff Health Camp as a physical therapist in 1988 and moved to Marquette a few years later. Her first summer she saw kayakers at Pictured Rocks (which may have been Carl Hanson’s guided tours). She had grown up canoeing in the Adirondacks with her family and loved being on the water.
She bought a used sea kayak through the Action Shopper after researching what she needed at Down Wind Sports in 1993. A few years later she bought her second kayak which she still uses today. Nancy took some classes locally then trained with the American Canoe Association and their adaptive paddling program. Nancy continued to work at Bay Cliff and helped develop their paddling program for people with disabilities in the 1990s.
The one thing you do need, is to be comfortable with the water. So I would say that’s the biggest barrier I’ve encountered, is people that have a fear of the water. Nancy Uschold
On display in this exhibit is Nancy’s first kayak (manufactured in 1991). Today it is one of the kayaks used at Bay Cliff. All kayakers should have contact with their feet on the posts, at the knees, their seat and their back. Foam pads have been taped to the sides of this kayak help with fit and a foam roll supports the knees. These simple modifications can help a disabled paddler, and they are also important for anyone paddling for an extended time.
Accessibility
Kayaking can be accessible for many people with disabilities. Sometimes adaptations are made to the kayak to improve fit. According to Nancy Uschold, the American Canoe Association is currently focusing on people with vision and hearing impairments. These paddlers may not need equipment modification but may need more instruction modification.
Dean Juntanen is from the Ontonagon area. He does sea kayaking, white water kayaking, and Class 2 kayaking throughout the UP even though he is paralyzed from the chest down. Over the last 20 years he has been kayaking around Lake Superior. So you know for him, that boat was his way to get back into the wilderness, which he loved before he had his injury. Nancy Uschold
The Hiawatha Water Trail has been a big success for paddling. This includes maps with access points and identifying campsites. However, there are still challenges with the trail: Especially between Marquette and Big Bay and between Marquette and Munising, there’s not a lot of campsites that are there. There’s public land, but a lot of it is MDOT land, pull-outs, that are great - lots of day stops, and bathroom breaks, but not necessarily camping. Nancy Uschold
Nancy predicts someday there will be guided kayak tours out of Marquette: People have tried several times to do some kayak guided paddling in Marquette, and for some reason it hasn’t quite taken off and I’m not sure why. And I think mostly because Pictured Rocks is kind of looming, it casts a shadow on Marquette, I mean everyone raves about paddling in Pictured Rocks so that’s where they want to go. But paddling in Marquette is pretty spectacular too. Nancy Uschold
Nancy Uschold speaks on: Accessibility and Adaptations in Kayaking
She is speaking about Dean Juntunen, from the Ontonagon area, who has done white water and Class 2 kayaking throughout the UP for the last 20 years. He is paralyzed from the chest down.
She is speaking about Dean Juntunen, from the Ontonagon area, who has done white water and Class 2 kayaking throughout the UP for the last 20 years. He is paralyzed from the chest down.
Below are short videos of Nancy's kayak in the exhibit and the equipment that is essential safety gear for paddling on big water: a life vest, a skirt, a hand pump, a paddle float and a wet suit. A helmet is needed in white water conditions. Not shown: Instruction.
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Marquette has some wonderful areas to sea kayak:
The shoreline between Big Bay and Marquette, per say, is not one of the most talked about shorelines on the lake, but I kayaked around Lake Superior, in 2002, and I went counterclockwise, so my last day of paddling was from Big Bay to Marquette, and I had done that paddle several times before. But I saw it with new eyes after I had traveled the whole rest of the lake. In my eyes, how I saw it, was like: we have a little bit of every part of Lake Superior right in this 25 miles of shoreline.
We’ve got some of the sandstone cliffs, you know they’re not exactly the same as the sandstone you see in the Apostle Islands or in Pictured Rocks, but it’s sandstone cliffs, and some of the carving that comes with it, and some of the just amazing colors and shapes and designs in some of that sandstone. There’s these granite islands, and these granite outcroppings, which is more reminiscent of what you see on the Canadian north shore, of Lake Superior, there’s these stretches of sandy beaches, We’ve got these beautiful pebble beaches, and cobble beaches, which are kind of more reminiscent of what you see on the north shore.
So I just paddled through it and say: wow this is like my whole trip in review [laughs], because I would see these different parts and it would remind me of other parts on the lake that I had been to. Nancy Uschold
If you ever kayak between Marquette and Big Bay--Pictured Rocks has got nothing over that. It's just absolutely gorgeous. Sue Belanger
Sam Crowley on World Class Paddling Conditions:
Thank you to all who contributed photographs to be used in this exhibit. Historic photographs are from the J.M. Longyear Research Library at the MRHC.