Looking Back
Compiled by Ryan Schlehuber

115 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Saturday, June 25, 1892

Grand Hotel opens its doors July 1st.

W.E. McAdams is opening a fine store on the Island.

Anthony Bros. have arrived at the Island for the season.

The telegraph cable between St. Ignace and the Island is out of repair and the messages are now sent over by the str. Chas. West.

90 Years Ago The St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, June 28, 1917

The entertainment for the Red Cross drive, ordered by President Wilson, given in the Astor House Thursday evening, was a great success in every way.

A German spy scare gripped Mackinaw City Monday evening when the authorities at that village arrested and searched two men, who gave their names as Torsten Pauli of Stockholm and Gustaf Lysander of Trelleborg, Sweden, says the Petoskey News. It was rumored on the car ferry on the trip over from St. Ignace that two German spies were aboard and would be placed under arrest when the boat landed. The passengers kept close account of affairs and as the ship was warped to the dock, deputies came aboard and placed the men under arrest.

They were taken to the depot and searched. Their baggage was also searched. On them, it is reported, were found maps and drawings of car ferries and boats at Mackinaw City, St. Ignace, and Mackinac Island. They carried passports which appeared to be official and O.K. Officers at Mackinaw City wired to Grand Rapids that it might not be a bad thing to search the men again upon their arrival in that city and to get in touch with the state and war departments in Washington on the matter.

The two men were allowed to proceed to Grand Rapids Monday night. They had visited Petoskey last Saturday afternoon and evening.

The Manitou was in port Tuesday, the first trip of the season, having a larger passenger list than on the first trip a year ago.

Ed. Shamey of the firm of Shamey Bros. is busy getting his store in readiness for the summer business.

Herbert Brunham and family of Chicago arrived Saturday and are occupying the Weiss cottage at the Annex, which they have lately purchased.

50 Years Ago

The Republican-News & St. Ignace Enterprise Thursday, June 27, 1957

James Bond left Saturday for Camp Santa Maria at Gaylord, where he will spend a month at camp.

Mr. and Mrs. D.H. Brodeur and Mrs. Raymond O'Brien left Thursday for a shopping trip to Detroit. The Brodeurs will operate the Leather Corral in the Orpheum theatre building.

Prime Minister Nobuskuke Kishi of Japan spoke to Dr. Frank Buchman and the Moral Re-Armament Assembly of Nations at Mackinac Island last Friday morning by long-distance telephone from Blair House in Washington. Among those listening were 100 leaders of the 4,300,000-strong Japanese Youth Federation - the Seinendan - who are attending the assembly with 38 other nationalities.

The body of a Pte. Aux Pins man was found washed up on the shore of Bois Blanc Island near Vosper Bay last Wednesday afternoon by Sidney Anderson of Bois Blanc. The man had been missing since April 6, when he had started for home from Mackinac Island in his outboard motorboat. Prior search had found the gasoline tank and two oars from the man's boat, and his cap.

Another milestone in Straits of Mackinac crossings will be reached during the 1957 summer tourist season. It will be the recording of the crossing of the 11th million vehicle since the ferrying of cars over this five-mile stretch of water separating Michigan's two peninsulas was started back in 1916. By the time the gigantic bridge now being built to link Upper and Lower Michigan is completed next November, the total crossings during that 42-year period will approximate 11.5 million.

35 Years Ago

The Republican-News

& St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, June 29, 1972

Dr. Ralph Sommer, the Island's dentist for 30 years, died June 24 in his St. Augustine, Florida, winter home.

The quarterly meeting of the Michigan Association of Hospital Authorities, hosted by Board Chairman Peter J. Della- Moretta and Administrator John Tobin, was held Wednesday, June 21, at the Mackinac Straits Hospital. The meeting, which was planned to coincide with the Convention of the Michigan Hospital Association, which was held on Mackinac Island, was attended by local board and staff members and their wives as well as representatives of Hospital Authorities from other parts of the state.

15 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Thursday, June 25, 1992

Cottagers who lease land from the Mackinac Island State Park Commission asked the Commission to preserve the present lease structure during a two-day hearing on the matter, June 12 and 13. The State Park leases more than 30 land parcels, mostly on the Island's east and west bluffs, to cottage owners for between $25 and $150 per year. The lease rates, these critics contend, should be commensurate with what the lease holders would otherwise pay in property taxes.

A new turnstile gate with an overhead arch of black wrought iron put the finishing touches on the fence enclosing the Benjamin Blacksmith Shop on historic Market Street.

The Ozro Smith home in Harrisonville was sold at an auction Saturday, June 20.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The St. Ignace News is seeking original prints or reprints of old photographs depicting areas in the Eastern Upper Peninsula to be scanned into the archives and for the Looking Back column. Photographs to be loaned or donated to the Michilimackinac Historical Society can also be dropped off at The St. Ignace News.