Director's Monthly Report: May 19, 2000
some things that have happened since the last meeting

 1) Newsletter Response
This year I took it upon myself to send out 1700 Newsletters instead of the usual 500. The cost for printing and postage for these extra 1200 Newsletters was $1452. Of the first 255 memberships to come in (through June 15th), 83 were from people who had not previously been members. The revenue from these memberships was $3305.

2) Paul Connors Speaks
Paul Connors is set to address the Charlevoix Historical Society on July 11th.  His talk is sure to be interesting since he knows more than any other single person about Beaver Island's history.
(The CHS has been moving forward recently at a faster pace than us.  For example, as of the middle of May they had received $42,500 in grants so far this year. The only thing they envy us for is our publishing program.)
We might want to encourage attendance at this event in Charlevoix. We will announce it in the Beacon, and put up some signs. We could also give round-trip boat tickets to people on the Island who would like to attend.  I'm sure the CHS would arrange to give our group a free tour of their Harsha House museum.

3) The Saturday Night Concert
I met with Linda Wearn on June 4th to discuss the Saturday evening concert. She assured me that her Ceili group can hold the attention of the Saturday Night audience. They will do a teaching seminar on Saturday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., and then start again at 8:00.  In the evening they would like us to arrange three local acts to sandwich between their sets.  Barry has agreed to do one.
In exchange, they want transportation for the group (including one van), lodging for some of the group, and possibly an honorarium for Brian, who will provide the music.  The lodging requirements are for two couples (including Brian and Una), one single man, and three women for Saturday night; possibly some on them will come early and need lodging for Friday evening as well.

4) Two Requests
At the last meeting it seemed those members who were there were close to a consensus on two matters: a compromise solution for the South Wall, and sanctioning Robert Cole to continue the Oral History project that was in place ten years ago.  Since we did not have a quorum, I mailed a "ballot" form to each Board member, and asked them to vote and return it.  At this point, none have been returned. This means that either a mailed ballot from the Director is not a proper procedure, or the Board simply does not feel that either of these proposals requires a decision quickly.
On May 26 we received a letter from Bill Palladino about the South Wall. In it he denied that he had ever implied that preserving the South Wall would be a very expensive proposition, and indicated that ever if it were, he felt that this would be the way to proceed. He believes that protected exposed logs look better, are more authentic, and will last longer than logs covered with siding. He supplied some invoices from his work preserving the Bluebird B & B.  I pointed out that the only Mormon log cabins still standing are those in which the logs were sided over, and, as far as authenticity, the drawing the Strangites profess to be of Strang's home (which may very well be of the Print Shop) shows the logs covered with vertical board siding.
I spoke with Bob Tambellini about our grant, and he implied that transferring it to a modified program was not a problem. Perhaps we should rechink the logs now, even if we later decide to recover them with siding.  As it is, the visqueen and tarp put up by Mike Barrett are not doing much to keep the weather out of the museum.
Robert Cole is still interested in reinstituting our Oral History project, so much so that he has mentioned the possibility of selling some land he owns in order to fund it himself. Laurie Sommers supports his project and has offered to help him find a grant.  If this becomes his independent project (of which the chances are less than 50/50, I would think), if he publishes This Was The Life on his own, it would be both good and bad for us.  The good side is that the same objective would be accomplished, of capturing the memories of our eldest generation, but we would not have to put thought or effort into it. The bad side is that the community might perceive us as not being as organized and as capable as we should be, and we might lose much of the potential revenue that would come from a book.

5) Ray Cull exhibit in the Marine Museum
John Cull, seaman, videographer, BIHS member, and the son of Ray Cull, has promised to bring us materials for a Ray Cull display in a month or so, for us to use as part of the "Beaver Island's Captains" exhibit at the Marine Museum. These materials will include a model of the ship on which Ray spent much of his career.  I told him that the Captains' Committee (Rollie Cull, Barry Pischner, and Jim Willis) would meet with him when he brings us these materials, and that together they could decide how and exactly where to display them.

6) The Allers' Band goes to Mystic
We supplied a copy of our photo of the Allers' Band to Louisa Alger Watrous of the Mystic Seaport sea music chantey group, to be used as part of their performance. They will give us credit for the use of this picture.

7) Reprinting Volume II
We have well over 500 copies of Volumes 1, 3, and 4, each (and almost 500 copies of the good-selling Child of the Sea), but we are down to 67 copies of Volume 2.  This should get us through this year, and maybe next, but we should probably reprint this volume next spring.  We received a bid of $1,264 for 500 copies, which, at a little over $2.50 each, is a good price for a low number of copies. 
This price is to reprint the book as it is.  But perhaps we would want to revise it (which will increase the cost.)  There has been some criticism of it as possibly having been rushed into print. Determining whether or not to change the text of this volume depends on the standards we set for this ongoing series.  So far, the series has tended to define itself as each new book appears.  We have come to expect that each new volume will have one or two articles on the Mormon period, two on natural history, one or two about individuals who lived interesting lives here, a few on our nautical and fishing history, and a few on unusual topics about our past.
Do we need to charge our Publishing Committee to put some thought into creating a mission statement for our publishing program? Should it decide whether or not Volume 2 should be revised to meet these standards before being reprinted in the spring? 

8) Beaver Head Light
The YETP administrators have applied for and received a Grant from the State Historic Preservation Office to create plans for the restoration of the buildings at Beaver Head Light.  This grant requires that they come up with at least a 25% match to demonstrate that the Beaver Island community supports this program; the higher the percentage, the larger the grant will be. This is really the kind of project that the Preservation Association of Beaver Island might be expected to take on, and yet it also falls within our mandate.
The Lighthouse administrators have said, "Preserving the unique buildings on this site for the enjoyment and educational benefits of future generations is a very worthy goal."  They ask us to "spread the word and direct Donors and Friends of Beaver Head Light to the Michigan Works! Division of the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District."

9) The Jeanie Johnston
We have not had a response to our letters from the Jeanie Johnston project since early last fall, and they also do not answer their phone.  Consequently I feel that chances are good that something has happened to this project, although there's a posting on the internet that indicates the ship may have just been launched.
From the internet I got a phone number for the Jeanie Johnston, New York office and spoke with them. They said the boat has been launched but has not yet left Ireland (as of 6-5), so they are running behind schedule.  Consequently they have tightened up their itinerary.  They hope to leave the Great Lakes by late September.  They are going to stay in America for a second year, but it will be spent in the south, in Georgia and Florida. They may yet arrange to stop by briefly on their way out, in September; they certainly won't stop on their way in.
Finally ((6-9) I got an email from the Irish director. He said that they are so far behind that they have decided the ship will come to the Great Lakes in the summer of 2001, and will stop at Beaver Island. There is plenty of time to plan for this, starting in the fall.

10) Floyd Sult's Offer
Floyd Sult of Hemet California was one of the names on the list of property owners to which we mailed 1200 Newsletters. He wrote back to say that he was worried about government shenanigans depriving him of his social security benefits. He urged us to get involved in investigating this travesty of political corruption, and then said that since he did not think he would get back to Michigan and was tired of paying property taxes to "those robbers," he would be glad to give us his property.
He owns lot #224 in the Port of St. James, across the street and east of John Robert's home south of the Donegal Bay Road.  I wrote to him and informed him that property values had been rising in this subdivision, and his lot might be worth $4500 today.  I said that if he wanted to give it to us, we would be glad to accept it. But if he had made this offer without knowing of its worth, we would also be glad to sell or auction it for a percentage of the yield. Over twenty years ago Morty Brous gave a lot to the BIHS, which was raffled off; Joddy Crosswhite won it, and built his home on it.  Perhaps we could do this once again.
It was tempting to just take the lot, but this did not seem fair and I was afraid that to act unfairly might eventually cost us more than we might gain.

11) Ancient Bones
Last fall when Bud Martin was putting in a septic system for Terry Saxton, he unearthed some old bones. Mike Russell collected them and sent them off to the state forensic lab for analysis.  The report came back that they were almost 400 years old, which meant they were in all likelihood of Native American origin.
On May 20th Tootsie Keshik, who is descended from Chief Peaine, brought them back to Beaver Island.  The Amik Circle Society, which was established to protect Native American landscape artifacts in 1990, held a meeting to plan for their reinterrment. It was decided that the bones should be buried at the Stone Circle below the bluff on the west side, on property the Grand Traverse Bay is in the process of purchasing.  On Sunday morning, May 21st a fitting ceremony was conducted by members of the ACS as the bones were put to rest.
The Amik Circle Society has been carrying on its self-imposed job without much help. It might be fitting for the Beaver Island Historical Society to pass a resolution of support for them, since what they do actually falls within the broad scope of our mission. 

12) Michigan Humanities Council Grant to John Leben
On June 1st the Michigan Humanities Council awarded the Beaver Island Historical Society a grant of $5,000 towards Phase I of the making on the video The King of Beaver Island. As per our agreement with John Leben, 10% of these funds will be ours.  He said that he believes they will give another $15,000 for Phase II and III of this project, and th at the Frey Foundation will also award a grant.

13) Fish For All exhibit opens in Lansing
On June 11th the exhibit on the history of Lake Michigan commercial fishing will open at the Michigan State University Museum in East Lansing. This exhibit, produced by the Great Lakes Center for Maritime Studies at Western Michigan University, will be there until late August, when it leaves for a tour of Door County.

14) Making Signs
I spoke with Bob Hudgins about making our historic signs.  He said he can do this. After he's had a chance to examine the Bicentennial signs he'll give me a price on duplicating them.

15) Museum Week Support
At this point we have received almost $2,000 in cash donations, plus the Boat Company has agreed to provide tickets.  Here is the list of donors:
Charlevoix State Bank      $25
Bluebird Bed and Breakfast     $25
Montaage       $50
Daddy Frank's        $50
The Sommer Place       $50
Old Rectory      $250
Pat McKeown Ford     $150
Jude Martin      $100
Kathy Maudrie      $25
Pinky Harmon       $50
Out On A Limb      $25
B. I. Golf Course    $100
McDonough's Market     $200
Dalwhinne      $200
John Haggard     $250 $1550

Gillespie Enterprises    $250
Roy Ellsworth      $100
Beaver Boat-Tique      $30
Beaver Island Boat Shop      $20 $1950

B. I. Boat Company     tickets

16) Rob Gehl Arrives
Rob Gehl arrived on 6-12 and began working on 6-15.  On 6-19 I ordered a Yamaha CD writer ($250), 25 blank CDs ($25), and CD label-making software ($30.)

17) Open House
Open House was held on 6-18. It seemed to be a moderate success, with perhaps 50 people at the Print Shop and 30 at the Marine Museum..

18) Phil Gregg
Phil Gregg has finished and submitted his article, Beaver Tails, cont., for Volume 5 of The Journal of Beaver Island History.

19) Siscoe Memorial
Gene Siscoe recently discovered that his ancestors played a role in Beaver Island's history (George Siscoe lived where the riding stable is now, on the Donegal Bay Road.)   He would like to commemorate this fact with a plaque, and has offered to contribute $200 plus the cost of a simple brass plate plaque bearing the following inscription:
From the Descendants of     
George H Siscoe   
in memory of    
Levi Emmet Siscoe (1903-1985)   
Leonard Lemont Siscoe (1905-1982)   
Louis Herbert Siscoe (1909-1992)    
His cousin had queried us previously for information, and we introduced her to him; he had known she existed.

20) The Rudder
We have had an old rudder at the Heritage Park for some time.  Last summer we moved it inside the barn, where it continues to get in the way.  Vince Pickhardt thinks it would be a good exhibit for the outside of the Marine Museum. I am going to try to get it down there.  Vince said he will design a cradle and give us an estimate for mounting it and preserving it.


Director's Monthly Report: May 19, 2000
some things that have happened since the last meeting

 1) The South Wall
  A few days after our last meeting, Karl Heller looked at the south wall of the Print Shop and gave me his opinion.  He said that he would not bother replacing the bottom log, that there wasn't enough rot in it to warrant that.  But if we would want him to do it, he thought he could replace the log with a large, one-piece hand-hewn cedar log for about $1,000.
 I spoke with Cathryn Atchison at the Charlevoix County Community Foundation about our changed plans.  She understood just what we were considering, and asked me several questions, such as what we planned to do with the siding boards purchased from Bob Graves (I told her we had not made a decision on whether to return them, keep them for future expansion, or resell them.)  She said that the Beaver Island Enrichment Committee would have to consider the question of whether or not to transfer all or part of the grant that was previously awarded to us to the revised project, if in fact we decide to modify our program. So far, the majority of people to whom I've spoken seems to be in favor of keeping the logs exposed.
 Here is a rough estimate of costs for a revised project (bold indicates done):
  purchase of wide boards  $440
  labor to strip siding    $500
  finish stripping gable   $300
  chink all logs     $750
  seal all logs    $500
  add cove, window, and corner trim  $300
  replace vented skirting  $200
  reroute power and phone lines  $100
  clean up     $200
         $3,300
  add new bottom log   $1,000
         $4,300
 Mike Barrett has left the Island, so any work we want to do (such as chinking, sealing, and trimming the logs) will have to be done by someone else. 
 I asked Vince Pickhardt to consider doing this work.  He looked over the project and is preparing an estimate, but thought that, upon close inspection, the logs were rougher than we realized, and felt it would be better to cover them with siding.  But if we did, he advised letting the wall breathe by not installing tyvek.

 2) Archival Gift from Paul Connors
  On 4-30 Paul Connors presented the BIHS with three boxes containing microfilm copies of old newspaper records from such cities as Manistique, Escanaba, and Charlevoix.  Not only is this information valuable in and of itself, but it points out that there may be many other sources of information about Beaver Island's past that we have not yet mined.
 Paul also said that he felt we ought to consider the possibility of purchasing some or all of the Cull property next to the Print Shop Museum; we don't need it now, but we may need the extra space in the future, and it may no longer be available.
 He has offered to speak to the Charlevoix Historical Society, and they will schedule him for this summer. As soon as a date is set, I'll put up posters around town; it would be nice to make a strong showing at this event.

 3) Mailings
  Working with Barbara Varnum Schwartzfisher, a letter to 100 businesses, 76 on the Island and 24 off, was printed on high-quality stationery, each one individually addressed and signed by our President, and mailed, asking for donations for Museum Week.  So far there has not been any response to this mailing (except for a check for $50 from the Charlevoix State Bank.)
 During the first week of May, 500 Spring Newsletters were mailed out to members and friends, containing requests for membership dues.  Response to the new membership form has been very encouraging, with more new members, plenty of repeats, and generally higher membership categories, as well as $800 in donations to the Endowment Fund.
 We finally got a revised list of the Beaver Island property owners, with their addresses: 1885 names. There were so many names that I did not recognize, names I felt belonged to people who were not aware of the Historical Society, that I authorized the printing of another 700 Newsletters; this allows us to hit 1200 names from this list.

 4) Antje Price and Museum Week
  I have accepted Antje Price's offer to speak about Protar during Museum Week, telling her that we would have to work out some way to amplify her voice. If we are ever to have a presentation on his life and its meaning (and we should; he was an important part of our heritage), this year, the 75th anniversary of his death, is probably the time.
 
 5) Saturday Night Concert
  Linda Wearn suggests we advertise the Saturday Night Concert as a "Hooley," which means a little bit of everything.  I asked Edward Palmer if he would take part, but he declined to get involved. On the other hand, Barry Pischner said he would be glad to take part.
 The 5-person group Tanglemere has expressed a strong interest in appearing during Museum Week.  I have asked them to send us a demo CD.  Murphy, Paige, and Smith, with Tommy O'Haloran, would also like to be part of this, but if the merchants don't want it, there is probably nothing we can do to bring either of these two bands to Beaver Island.

 6) Squaw Island Tragedy, Part II
  Acting on a suggestion by Alvin LaFreniere to contact Lynn Egbert for information about an Air National Guard plane that went down in either 1958 or 1959, I asked him if he could find out about the pilot who made it to the Squaw Island Lighthouse, where he survived for a week before leaving a note saying he was going to walk across the ice to Beaver Island and promptly disappeared.  Mr. Egbert said he would investigate.

 7) Funding for Signs and Oral History projects
  It has become apparent that our signs project is not as inexpensive as we first assumed, and that we could easily spend $5,000 to install 35 signs of various sizes in town and around the Island. To really do this project right, we will first have to plan it in detail, get the permits and easements required, and then determine how to proceed. Of course, the method of procedure will inevitably involve expense, so we also will have to determine how to raise the funds for this.
 Robert Cole would like to continue the Oral History project that had a brief run ten years ago. He may make a presentation to the Board at the next meeting.
 I mentioned these two projects to Barbara Varnum Schwartzfisher, and she thought she might be able to apply for grants for them.  (The MHC, which she suggested, has a deadline of 9-1.) We have ordered and are waiting for a Directory of Michigan Foundations.

 8) Representation at Civic Events
  On May 9th a group of Beaver Islanders representing the Township Boards, the Boat Company, the Preservation Association, and the Chamber of Commerce attended a reception in Lansing to thank the people who have been so much help to us. We were conspicuous by our absence (B. J. Wykopf did not invite us.)  There was talk about the Bisbee Endowment to the BIHS, and a few words about our intentions, but we should have been in attendance to demonstrate that we too are trying to accomplish things that will help the entire community, things which will require broad-based support.

 9) Board Openings
  Doug Tilley asked me if there might be an opening on the Board and how he might go about applying for a seat if one comes available.  He asked if we had a nominating committee.  I told him that three positions would expire at the end of the summer and new candidates would be nominated and voted on at the Annual Meeting.  I told him that I thought we wanted Board members who would not only come to meetings but take an active role by serving on one or more of our project committees. He said he was more than willing.

 10) Ken Bruland's Friends
  BIHS member, kayak instructor, and former anthropologist Ken Bruland told me that he has two friends who he might be able to convince to give us some consulting time. One is involved with the restoration of historic buildings for the National Park Service, and lives in Indiana; the other is an expert at designing aquatic displays, has headed up some impressive programs, lives in Chicago, and is highly regarded for her expertise in museum traffic flow, varieties of exhibits now possible, and other related matters. Both of these people want to come to Beaver Island for a vacation of a few days, and Ken thought he might get them to give us some of their time.  Particularly if we would pay their boat passage and possibly arrange for lodging.  I told him the first request would be no problem to meet, but the second might be difficult unless one of our Board members or friends could put them up.
 We are probably approaching a time when we need a policy to cover this situation. There are other people whose expertise would help us (such as Mike Chiappara, a Nautical Museum expert and professor at Western Michigan University) if we could get them here.

 11) John Runberg's Artifacts
  John Runberg has offered us some historic artifacts, which are currently stored in the old barn towards the rear of the lot to his north. This lot has been sold to Madonna McCafferty, and Danny McCafferty intends to build her a house there soon.  Danny has given us until the end of June to accept these gifts and remove them from the barn.

 12) Birdhouses
  Rich Gillespie gave me a birdhouse to show to merchants to gauge the retail price.  Not all of the store owners are here, but I was able to show it to a few.  Their guess was that it should retail in the $15 -- $20 range.  I checked the internet for prices as well, and there is quite a range, from $6 to $75 for comparable models.  Most birdhouses seem to be fancier, frequently involving a painted exterior, composite materials, and cute little touches, such as dormers or painted windows. One birdhouse quite a bit like Rich's was for sale at $14.95 retail, including mounting brackets, screws instead of nails, and an instruction book. 
 Whatever we make from the sale of these birdhouses will constitute our Grant from the Hunting Foundation. We can't lose, even if we can only sell them for what they cost.  One thing we should not do is set the price higher than is typical for the market in an attempt to maximize our "take" from this Grant, because even though most people would probably go along with it, we could wind up leaving a bad taste in their mouth from a high price, which could affect us adversely for years to come.
 One problem will be the logistics of having to store and display several models --both for us, and for any stores that handle them.

 13) The Outdoor Displays at the Marine Museum
  Vince Pickhardt is working to prepare a proposal for the continuation of this project, and said it was likely to take him a month or more to complete.
 Barry Pischner offered to help restore the Kahlenberg engine that was in the Bob S.

 14) Robert's Rules of Order
  As directed, I purchased a copy of Robert's Rules of Order and will have it at the meeting.  It was suggested that after each meeting a different Board member take it home and read it; this way, eventually we will all become familiar with it.

 15) Members whose Term will expire this year
  The three members whose terms will expire this year are: Ernie Martin; Paul Nelson (replaced by Roland Cull); and Phil Lange (replaced by Ann Broder.)

 16) Rob Gehl
  Of the two pay methods suggested by the Board (of $7/hr or $6.25/hr plus lodging) Rob has chosen the former, and will provide his own lodging. He expects to arrive about June 7th. For the first two weeks he is here I would like to have him help me a) create some new displays for the Museums; b) clean up the grounds of the Print Shop; and c) organize and consolidate the interior of the Heritage Park.
 Then we could have him begin to preserve our artifacts on CDs.  To do so, we'll have to purchase a CD writer, which typically costs between $350 and $400. And there are other procedural considerations involving how we expand our archive index. For example, we could add a "thumbnail" graphic to each listing. Or we might purchase a second, dedicated large hard drive as in-house archive storage; 25 GB currently costs around $250.

Director's Monthly Report: April 17, 2000
some things that have happened since the last meeting

1) The Leadership Conference
On Saturday. April 8, Vice-president Harmon and I attended the Leadership Conference presented by Ann Glendon to 30 members of various Boards of Beaver Island's community organizations. John McNeil was also there but represented another organization.
The primary emphasis was on how Beaver Island's various organizations, which all have many common goals, can go farther if they work together.  There can be a sharing of resources and an avoiding of the duplication of effort.
Before the meeting got underway, Ann Glendon made some preliminary remarks about the necessity of every organization to have an ongoing Nominating Committee to examine its Board, determine the Board's strengths and weaknesses, and search out candidates who have abilities that the Board requires. This Committee should also conduct an orientation of incoming Board members.
In addition, there should be a Trusteeship Committee, she said, to evaluate the Board, identify and nurture potential future Board members, work with a Development Committee on Board stewardship issues, set education and training goals for the Board, and assist in planning the annual Board retreat, she said.  She distributed a flyer detailing the societal and legal duties of the Board that listed minimum Board responsibilities in several areas, and additional ways in which its members might perform their duties.

2) Conversations with Barbara and Vince
After the last meeting I told Barbara Varnum Schwartzfisher that although the Board had not voted on the possibility of assigning her the task of applying for various grants in exchange for a percentage of received funds, they were very excited about this possibility. As was I; it would be nice to be able to turn over the results of planning to an entity that would then seek to raise the funds a particular project requires. If the planning is done by people who know they will then have to turn their efforts to raising money, their efforts to plan a project are hindered. But if they know that their work will end with the creation of just the plan, they will make better progress.
At meetings a year and a half ago there would sometimes be a mention of the Bob S and the need for it to be roofed.  But all work on this was suspended seven years ago, and we don't have a specific agenda for starting in again. Yet much of the planning for this project has been done. Consequently I spoke with Vince Pickhardt, and asked him if he would be willing to update our plans for the restoration and preservation of the Bob S, create a list of goals for restoring and preserving the Gertrude K, consider the pile-driver, think about mounting the Bob S's Kahlenberg engine at the Marine Museum, and investigate what other artifacts we should have to demonstrate the fishing life. He said he would, but he won't do this for free.
Then I met again with Barbara. She saw the Bob S when she was growing up, and knew Bob Sellman, who just passed away.  She said she would be glad to raise funds by applying for grants for this project, and possibly for others, for 10% of funds received through her efforts.
She made other suggestions as well, such as:
a) We should court volunteer help. If we have a project for which volunteer help would be beneficial (such as building open roofs over the two boats), we should identify who we think could do this job, interest them in the project before we ask for help, and then establish a policy of some kind of public recognition afterwards, such as a dinner; and
b) We should make a greater effort to get the school kids involved.  For example, we could offer "junior memberships" for $5, give the junior members something to do at Museum Week, and get the different teachers to compete to get the highest percentage of their students enrolled.

3) The South Wall
Mike Barrett stapled visqueen and a tarp (which we salvaged from the beach) over the Print Shop's south wall to protect it while we decide what to do. His bill for the work he has done so far was $500. We have a stack of wide pine boards at the Print Shop, for which we will soon get a bill from Bob Graves.
If we want to give this wall an authentic log cabin look, we may have to take out the existing lower log and add, not just one log, but three or four logs in order to have the wall reach the ground. To do this we might first pour a continuous footing below grade, on which the lower log will rest. Then we would have to build a soaking trough and soak the lower log in a good preservative, rotating it periodically. Then we could complete this wall.
I have asked Karl Heller to look at the bottom of this wall and give us some input about what to do. Perhaps we could get a few logs from John Haggard.
Until the logs are in, we should not attempt to rechink the wall because the log work might jostle the wall enough to knock out the chinking. Richie told me that Bill Palladino had guessed that the adding of preservative to the wall and the rechinking of the logs might cost around $1,000.  We should rechink the inside of the second floor logs as well.

4) Some pictures arrive
Louis Duffy (whose grandfather came here and whose father was born here) sent us a picture of Norman Gallagher and his brother Eddy Duffy on the steps of the Shamrock, taken around 1940.
Judith Allers Schlaack sent us several pictures that had belonged to Julius Allers, her father, including of the Silver Star, Sanford, and Elsie J.
Jerry LaFreniere donated another 13 small pictures.

5) The Oral History project
Almost ten years ago the Library sponsored an Oral History project.  Shirley conducted some interviews, and Robert Cole was hired to conduct others.  Sue Howard transcribed the tapes, and the transcriptions were given to the Library. The Library kept them for six or seven years and then sent them to the Print Shop.  I haven't found them yet, but Mike Moore said he thought they were in the attic.
Robert Cole has given me his copies of about eight transcripts to copy Also in his material are some other things, such as cost records, some correspondence, and general guidelines.  Two of the interviews, with Margaret Cole Mulligan and John Gallagher, are so interesting that they deserve to be published in Volume V. Robert agreed, and said he would review the tapes again to make sure the transcripts are exactly right.

6) The Protar Barn
Bud Rousch asked me if he could take some of the boards from the Protar barn to use for wainscoting in his bathroom.  After checking with Alvin, I told him to go ahead, and that he had better hurry because any day now Rich Gillespie would be knocking it down.
After Bud had taken his boards, I asked him if there was much of value left.  He said nothing still there was any good, and the boards he had taken were marginal.
Joyce Bartels contacted me to say that she hopes we will take care of this problem before the summer people arrive.

7) The Martin Reunion
This June the Martin Family is going to have a reunion on Beaver Island. Mary Jane Martin asked me if we could put up a sign commemorating these very early settlers at Martin's Point. I told her I would speak to the Board about it, and asked her to suggest wording.  She said that she would.

8) The kids from Beaver Head
The history teacher from the alternative school at the Beaver Head Lighthouse asked me if we had any hands-on projects his students could out with.  I met with them, showed them through both Museums, and the teacher and I discussed some options.  If we decided to dig out the shipwreck at Little Sand Bay, for example, and transport it to the Marine Museum, we could get some degree of grunt work from these kids.

9) Music options
We have been offered the Ceili Dancers, or at least 8 to 10 of them, for our Saturday Night concert, but they want something from us, boat tickets, some lodging, and some kind of honorarium.  Kitty Heinzeman will not be able to come, but Linda Wearn assures me that those who can come have organized the dances for other events. Brian Bonner will bring his sound system. 
Murphy, Paige, and Smith have also indicated a willingness to return, but we will have to commit ourselves to them soon if we want them.
Paul Connors has agreed to make a presentation about the Island's history on Friday evening. He has signed a contract with Wayne State University Press to publish his book, which will take about a year. We should be able to buy a quantity at a good price.  Perhaps we could offer our members a discount on this book next summer.

10) The Strang Video
John Leben has received some encouraging news about funding from the Frey Foundation and the Michigan Endowment for the Arts. He will be glad to talk about this project on the Wednesday evening of Museum Week.

11) A visit from Kate Denton
Kate Denton, a graduate student at U-W@Milwaukee, flew to Beaver Island on 4-11 to study our archives, on which she is writing a paper. She has become a member.


Director's Monthly Report: March 30, 2000
some things that have happened since the last meeting

1) The Grand Rapids Museum -- a mind-opening visit
On Friday, March 3rd, my wife and I drove to Grand Rapids to look at the Native American exhibit that Frank Ettawageshik helped design. To say the least, we were very impressed.
This exhibit starts with a dark entry into a curved hallway that is revealed, after ten feet, to circle a small, circular theater (perhaps 20' in diameter) on which a film loop continuously gives a brief introduction/history on a screen that measures about 4' high and 6' wide As we approached it we could hear Native American chanting before we could see the screen, which was very alluring.
The primary motif of this first loop was an aerial flight down the Grand River, focusing on Native American sites.  The voice-overs are done by Native American speakers.  As one walks on this circular path, there are illuminated panels to the left showing Native American art, each comparing traditional with contemporary styles, and the back of the seating on the right.  After navigating 3/4ths of a circle one comes to a short hallway into the main exhibit area.  This is composed of four rectangular areas and one more circular area.  Each of the rectangular areas has indented rooms on all sides, each containing independent display areas showing Native American jewelry, basket weaving, employment, military service, families, historic artifacts, and other aspects of Native American life. The circular area is another small theater, this one featuring four touch-screen TVs linked to video loops.
Throughout the exhibit there are perhaps fifteen small nooks, each featuring two single-seat benches and a touch-screen TV. Each monitor has a menu listing five selections, which can be activated by touch. Some of these menus are repeated elsewhere. Sample topics include politics, family life, religion, pow wows, reservation life, arts and crafts, laws, and casinos. The material in the exhibits is so dense that one needs to sit down in a nook from time to time to digest it, so these nooks were in frequent use.  All in all, we spent two hours in this exhibit and did little more than scratch the surface.
This entire exhibit was a multi-million-dollar project that took four years to put together.  It is certainly beyond our ability to duplicate it. Yet I felt inspired by what I saw to set my goals higher, not just for our Native American exhibit but for each of our main topics.  I was surprised by the general advanced museum technology that I observed, and intend to beg in visiting other museums as frequently as possible.

2) Applying for Grants
This spring we received two grants for a total of $5,200.  After a few years of receiving no grants, this is definitely a step in the right direction.  No doubt the Leben video project will bring us more grant money as our 10% share of the funds he receives.
There has been a lot of talk about applying for grants at the Annual Meeting and elsewhere, but we have only a vague idea of why and how.
The "why" is that we have several stalled projects and planned future projects that will require funding from external sources: 1) the Print Shop addition; 2) outdoor displays at the Heritage Park; 3) the Bob S and the Gertrude K; 4) indoor displays at the Marine Museum; 5) signs; 6) work at the Protar Home; and 7) Museum Week.  Further, the Print Shop Addition project could be divided into its components for fund raising; we might apply for particular grants for the Native American Room, for example, or for other particular areas, such as upgrading the storage facilities, the display booths, or the computer and related equipment. In addition, in the past grants were sought for publishing projects, and we might want to try this again.
Clearly, before we apply for any grant, we have to analyze our anticipated costs for the project that we are asking for funding for.  Estimating costs requires that we establish detailed programs.  For example, if we want to apply for a grant to restore the Gertrude K, we have to know what our ultimate goal is.  Do we want to mount it on stone cribbing? Do we want to roof it?  Do we want to build a ramp to let people on it? Do we want to restore the engine? Do we want to rig it out the way it was when it was in use?  Do we want an operational net lifter?
The further one examines the Gertrude K, the more details emerge.  Soon any one person would be swamped by the details of one project, and we have so many projects. Perhaps the only way to move forward is to create a committee for each project that would be charged only with determining exactly what its goals should be.  (Note: The Beaver Island Property Owners' Association has six active committees, which were named with their chairpersons identified in their recent Newsletter.)  Performing the work itself would be beyond the scope of  these committees.  The work will have to be hired out.
Suppose we formed a committee to determine a program for finishing the Bob S, and this committee creates a detailed list of what has to be done.  To establish the cost, we might use a combination of bids and common sense. Once we have an idea of the cost, we can attempt to obtain the necessary funds through a combination of a) fund raising projects, b) donations, and grants.
How do we begin to apply for grants? How do we find out what grants might be available?  One method might be to retain one or more experienced grant writers, who would take a percentage of the grant for their efforts. Two such people here on the Island are Barbara Varnum Schwartzfisher and Mike Barrett. I have spoken to each of them, and each would be willing to help us apply for grants --but not as volunteers. This is understandable, because applying for a grant can be a lengthy and exhausting process.  Each of these people would commit to this project for a percentage (probably eight to ten) of received funds.  (Former Island dentist Dr. Norton has formed a company to do this, but he charges thousands of dollars up front as well as a percentage.)

3) Shipwreck at Little Sand Bay
Last summer we discovered that the 100'-foot-long keel and the ribs on one side from an old ship had surfaced near the north end of Little Sand Bay. Some of it was on shore, and the rest of it was in very shallow water. This spring the entire skeleton is out of the water.
People have called me to warn that scavengers and souvenier-takers will soon descend on this wreck like a pack of crows. We should take steps to prevent its destruction, and should investigate the possibility of excavating and preserving it.  At the very least we should erect a sign at the site, which is on public land, proclaiming that it is under the protection of the State and should not be disturbed.
If we could get permission to preserve this, we could solicit the help of marine archaeologists. A university group might come to the Island, build a waterproof fence around the wreck, install sump pumps, hand dig out the sand, lift the wreck onto a barge, clean it, apply preservative, and reinstall it at the Marine Museum.
As the water level continues to drop, other interesting artifacts here and in the bays and reefs of this archipelago, might also become exposed. Whatever we do with this one might set a precedent for how we respond in the future.

4) Rob Gehl -- intern
There has been very little interaction between us and CMU about an intern, except for the phone calls from Rob Gehl.  On 3-12 he was on the Island and we had a chance to talk face to face.
He explained to me that CMU has just started a Museum Studies program, and its students are required to serve an internship in a museum such as ours.  But at present there are only a few students in this field, and many museums soliciting them.  He is studying history (possibly with a minor in Museum Studies), and has the option of taking a course for credit that would put him at our disposal.  We would coordinate his tasks with his professor, and then issue a report.  He would be expected to spend three or four weeks here as the minimum requirement for earning 3 or 4 hours of credit. He would like to take this course.
During the summer he has to also earn money for his college expenses next fall. I explained that we would be willing to provide lodging (possibly by renting a cot for him in the CMU dormitory for $80/week.) He can not afford to spend much time on the Island without pay. He and I discussed three options:
a) He would be here just long enough to fulfill the course requirement; or
b) He would work for us full-time all summer if we paid him $6.50 an hour, out of which he would take care of his own lodging costs; or
c) He would work for us part-time all summer at a lower rate and also work part-time for someone else at a higher rate.  Specifically, we talked about him working a construction job for 24 hours a week at $8 to $10 an hour, and working for us 24 hours a week in exchange for lodging. To this end I spoke with John Works Jr., whom I had heard was in need of help.  John said he was very interested, but would not commit himself to this until he can meet and talk with Rob Gehl.

We developed the idea that there were a number of institutions who might provide us with a knowledgable inter.  I phoned the U-M, and they were not involved in this.  WMU and EMU do not have anything like a Museum Studies program.  I spoke again with Dr. Lyn Fauver at CMU, who told me that he is sending out some interns, some of whom have more museum experience and education than Rob Gehl (who is ourse from Dr. Fauver), but there are far more institutions looking for interns than students interested in interning. He said Laura Quackenbush at the Leelanau Museum, for example, has been very frustrated over her inability to find an intern. He added that we have to court potential interns by doing such things as offering to pay them and providing housing.
He assured me we would be on his list for next year, and told me how to improve our chances, but warned me that this was unlikely to ever be free.

5) Beaver Island Leadership Retreat
John McNeil has suggested that the BIHS be represented at the Second Annual Beaver Island Leadership Retreat on April 8th, sponsored by the Rural Health Center, BICS, and PABI. Anne Glendon has arranged for this opportunity to be available to us at no cost.
The purpose of this all-day inter-agency conference is to allow the boards of the Island's various organizations to discuss and coordinate their priorities and agendas with each oth er. The need for partnership and cooperation in tackling our community's needs has never been higher, and the organizers of this event hope that at least two members of the BIHS Board, plus the Director, can be in attendance.
Our Board is asked to prepare a list of our priorities for this meeting.

6) Music music music
We received a phone call from Mike and Theresa Irish, musicians who are interested in performing on Beaver Island. They indicated a willingness to negotiate their rate to make it affordable. They sent a CD for us to listen to; I gave it to Ernie, and asked him to pass it on to another Board member when he was finished. They are very professional, each singing and playing one or another stringed instrument; their field is broader than folk music, reminiscent of the Canadian duo, "Ian & Sylvia."
Folksinger Griz Prusik has also contacted us about performing here.  His program apparently draws on both his Native American and Irish heritage.  He has four CDs out, and lives in St. Helen.  I asked him to send a promotional sample of his music.
Gerard Smith has also told me that Murphy Paige and Smith would like to return, but we would have to let him know soon because they are gaining in popularity and picking up more bookings.  (Tommy O'Halloran was the Grand Marshall in Detroit's St. Patrick's Day parade.)
Linda Wearn told me that the Ceili Dancers that were here last summer might return, but that there would probably be fewer of them and they would not be able to provide all of their own music. She asked me if we would pay their boat fares.

7) Heritage Tourism
Don Cole gave us a copy of an article he saw in the Naples (Florida) Daily News about the rise of the heritage tourism business.  This is a growing field that provides funds to those communities who are prepared to take advantage of it.
Heritage Tourism is defined as "traveling to experience the places, artifacts, and activities that authentically represent the stories and peoples of the past."  Many state and national organizations, such as the Travel Industry Association of America, are making funds available to enhance offerings in this field, which already ranks second (behind only shopping) in highest activity combined among all travelers in the United States.
The growth of this field provides additional motivation to make our new addition as interesting as possible, of course, but it also requires us to reexamine our mandate. Do we want to go after this revenue? How important might these funds be to us?

8) The Sign Project
Rich Gillespie suggested some changes to the texts for the first round of our proposed signs; a copy of the new text is attached.  He also raised the question of the routing expense. He thinks he might get Bob Graves to donate some of the materials, but a pantograph style router guide is needed, and someone will actually have to spend a few hours routing and painting each sign.

9) The Re-siding Project
  We have been preparing to start re-siding the Print Shop's south wall. One of the unresolved questions has been: what size boards?  Three options presented themselves: 1) to go with "store bought" 1 x 12s, kiln dried and 16' in length; 2) to go with kiln-dried 1 x 16 pine boards from a downstate sawmill, which are limited to 12' in length; or 3) to buy 16' 1 x 16s from Bob Graves, send them across to be kiln dried, and then bring them back to be installed. We decided on the latter option, primarily because the motif we establish will also be used on the new addition, and we will want that to look as authentic as possible.  The extra shipping involved with having these boards dried should not cost more than $200, and will be worth it because it will minimize the pulling and gaps in the finished wall. We will cut battens to be an exact match of those that are now on the wall, and cut them out of less expe nsive boards. If we get good weather, this project could start before the end of March.

Update:  The project has now begun.  Mike Barrett took off most of the old siding, revealing the outer surface of the hand-hewn logs. We had been worried that the east edge of the lower log was punky.  It turns out that the east edge is not bad, but there is some severe rot near the middle. Because the lower log is supported by three concrete footings and the rot is not directly above any of them, we would not have to do anything to replace all or part of this lower log at this time.  However, now is by far the easiest time at which to take some action.
We could cut out just the rotten section of the lower log, patch in a comparable piece of a log, and support it with its own footing.
Mike obtained siding boards from Bob Graves that have been air drying for a number of years. They are 20'-long 1" pine boards, ranging in width between 11" and 17", with seven of them being 16" or greater.  By alternating the sizes we can produce the same pattern that was used on the original siding (which was installed with old square nails.)

10) Progress on Volume 5
This is the way Volume V is shaping up:
A) The Mormon Period
 1) The Five Wives of James Jesse Strang Vickie Speek
 2) Warren Post  Jerry Gorden
 B) Nautical History
 3) The Vernon Henry Hill
 4) Skillagalee  Robert Grunst
 5) Beaver Tales, continued  Phil Gregg
 6) The Squaw Island Tragedy (reprinted from Lighthouse Digest)
 C) Natural History
 7) Beaver Island's Loons  Jacque LaFreniere
 D) Native American Lore
 8) The Life of Keewaydinoquay Ann Filemyr
 E) Island Life
  9) The Lumber Company Railroad Don Monteith
10) Mrs. Redding Mary Francis Fenton
11) The Ice Walkers  Paul Connors
12) Beaver Island and the Celtic Spirit Jim Norgaard
 My feeling is that very few of these articles are sufficiently polished for us to commit to a publication date that would see the finished books here in early July.  While this is not out of the question, a better approach would be to not set a publication date for the time being.
Ideally we should have more submitted articles to pick and choose from, so we can give some design to the book.  Perhaps I'll prepare a draft of the submitted articles that we can all read. Then we could discuss what we feel are the shortcomings of such a manuscript, and target sources and options for obtaining the articles that we feel Volume 5 should include.
 The procedure should be that after I feel that we have a publishable manuscript, I will turn it over to the Publishing Committee. This committee will read it and solicit outside opinions from their friends and associates.  The Publishing Committee will then make a recommendation to the Board, which might be a) to publish it as it is; b) to send it back to me for certain specific changes; or c) to table it until certain conditions are met.

11) An example of the perils of undocumented relics
Joyce Bartels sent a photocopy of an article from the Lansing State Journal that she thought the Board should see. It concerns some materials provided to the Grand Blan c Heritage Association by Marian Anderson, who then wanted them back. The GBHA claimed they had been given to them, not loaned, and they did not have t give them back.  Mrs. Anderson signed a release when she left the materials with the GBHA, but she claimed that she had not read it and was not told that it provided for the transfer of ownership to the GBHA. After meeting with their attorneys, the GBHA decided to return the items to Mrs. Anderson.

12) Mackinac Island records
St. Anne's Church on Mackinac Island has records that go back to its inception in 1670. Formerly it made these records available, but as they became more and more deteriorated they began to worry, and then, in 1996, they stopped granting access.  Now they have placed 200 years of descriptions of baptisms, weddings and funerals, and other events from life there on a CD, which is available for purchase at $20.  We have ordered one of the 1,000 copies they are placing for sale, because during the early 1800s Beaver Island was a kind of appendage to Mackinac Island.


Director's Monthly Report: February 24, 1999
some things that have happened since the last meeting

1) A Grant from the Hunting Foundation
On Friday, February 18, Rich Gillespie told me that his friend Al Hunting had decided to bestow a grant from the Hunting Foundation on the Beaver Island Historical Society.  He had very specific ideas on how these funds should be plowed through our community to expand them before reaching their ultimate destination in our account. His plan is for his donation to be matched to double it, and then be invested in birdhouses, which we will then sell in a special fund-raising drive to almost double it again.
Mr. Hunting presented us with a check for $3,000.  He said there were no stipulations as to its ultimate use, but I asked John to deposit it in our Building Account because it was this need for funds that first caught Mr. Hunting's attention.
The procedure should be that we solicit matching funds in order to fulfill the terms for receiving this donation. Then we should find a local source for bird and bat houses, and begin to have them built for us to sell as matching funds arrive. Mr. Hunting provided a book he obtained from the University of Minnesota on "one-board birdhouses," and suggested we try to obtain four or five different models. Checking wholesale prices on the internet indicates that we might have to pay about $12 each for birdhouses that will retail at $25 each.
We have to decide how we will sell these.  We could put them in local stores, but we would have to relinquish part of the profits. We could sell them through the Print Shop and retain the entire price. Selling them here might draw other people to us.   In the spring Newsletter we can ask our members to buy at least one. We don't have to sell them all in one year, of course. If these numbers hold and we eventually sell them all, not only will the Island's birds be helped, but we could receive as much as $12,000 from this project.

2) Progress on the Strang Video
Recently John Leben received a grant of $2,000 from the Crooked Tree Arts Council   This money will become available on or before June 1.
In addition, Mr. Leben has applied for grants from the National Endowment and the Frey Foundation. He has queried the following organizations to see if they would be receptive to receiving a full grant proposal: The Ford Foundation; The Daimler/Chrysler Corporation Fund ($50,000); The Nathan Cummings Foundation ($40,000); The Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs ($60,000); The Petoskey-Harbor Springs Community Foundat ion ($15,000); and the Michigan Council for the Humanities ($12,000).
I have a video clip showing a little over two minutes of the reenactment of the shooting.  I also have the hour-and-a-half video, Mysterious Islands of the Great Lakes, in which Phil Gregg has a brief speaking part.  Please pick up these videos at the Print Shop for your own viewing.

3) Ray Cull memorial donations
Donations in memorium of Ray Cull were received after his funeral totaling $665.  These moneys were deposited in the building fund but earmarked exclusively for work at the Marine Museum on the Captains exhibit. We wrote a "thank you" letter to each donor.

4) A voice of opposition
We had a note from Norma Jean Herzman in Oregon City, Oregon, in which she says, "I am praying that this video will not be another hatchet job on the entire group. When I read that VanNoord and his book will be part of it, I shudder." She goes on to claim that VanNoord's book contains "much that is rubbish."
She is descended from the Wright family, whose two daughters became wives of Strang. She said she has been researching this period for over twenty years.  She also takes exception to the Helen Collar portraits being represented as the Island's first settlers without any Mormon representation.  I let her know that I would be willing to keep her informed and listen to any arguments she would care to make.
Vickie Speek said she has been in correspondence with Ms. Herzman for some time, and "I never know what she'll come up with next."

5) Progress on Volume 5
Articles and revised drafts continue to arrive for Volume 5. Here is a likely, or at least possible, layout, with articles we have received in bold:
on the Mormon era
The Five Wives of James Jesse Strang Vickie Speek
Warren Post on Beaver Island Jerry Gordon
maritime history
The Ice Walkers  Paul Connors
Skillagalee  Robert Grunst
The Vernon Henry Hill
The Fish Wars  Dan VandenHeede
Beaver Tales, continued  Phil Gregg
natural history
Beaver Island's Loons  Jacque LaFreniere
Coming to terms with the Cormorants  Douglas Peterson
Island personalities
Elizabeth Whitney Williams Kate Dudding
Mrs. Redding Mary Francis Fenton
Kewaydinoquay  Ann Filmyr
general
The Celtic Spirit on Beaver Island Jim Norgaard
Also, we have the right to reprint the story of the Squaw Island Tragedy, which appeared in the Lighthouse Digest. Other writers are working on their articles as well, such as Tootsie Keshik, George Anthony, Bob Banville, and Don Monteith, but there has not been enough communication for me to feel confident that any of them will be finished in time for inclusion.

6) Museum Week
I spoke with John Feigan, telling him we would like to avail ourselves of his of fer to give a tour of and lecture on the history of the Brothers' Place.
Marilyn Clark asked about having a slot for PABI once again. I told her it would be nice if she could present the history of the Dockside Market.  She also said that she had spoken with Melvin Napont about speaking about the Native American experience here, and would be willing to help him organize his thoughts and prepare if we were interested.
Antje Price offered to speak about Protar, but will only do it in an evening time slot. I have agreed to let John Leben have the Wednesday evening time slot to talk about the making of the Strang Video, so there are only three others available.. Antje also said that in her opinion, we should do away with the afternoon time slots because of their poor attendance and problems with too much light. 
My feeling is that there is light in the evening also, and that we should simply advertise the afternoon presentations better. She concedes that Jim Gillingham's show on reptiles is always well-attended, as is Jayne Bailey's, despite her keeping the same topic every year. We have been offered an afternoon presentation on Native American basket weaving styles by the Charlevoix Historical Society, so if we have Jayne speak again, and have the pet show on Saturday, there are only two more slots to fill.
In terms of the three evening slots, Antje is a candidate, as is Kate Dudding, who would tell the story of Elizabeth Whitney Williams. Kate might also take an afternoon slot. She doesn't have that much new material to present, but she is an excellent storyteller who might be popular enough to bring a few of her fans here.  Storytelling is an increasingly popular art, and in the future we might want to have a storytelling night in which a group of storytellers take turns at the mike --we could create their stories from our oral history tapes.
In the evening I would like to have Paul Connors speak; he is the most-informed person about Beaver Island's history that I ever met, and a wonderful storyteller to boot. It would be nice to devote an evening to Native American history. We also might consider having a "natural history" day, combining Jim Gillingham's afternoon show with an evening show on birds, perhaps having both Jacque LaFreniere (loons) and Doug Peterson (cormorants) talk.
So a provisional scheme might be like this:

Monday Tuesday    Wednesday      Thursday Friday Saturday
Jayne Bailey   Basketweaving     Jerry Gordon      Reptiles            The Brothers   Pet Show
Porch Music Native America   Strang Video Birds           Paul Connors  Concert

I contacted the agent for the Irish band, "Leahy," after several Islanders told me they knew and loved this Canadian family group.  But the agent, William Morris in L.A., said their minimum price was $25,000.  This might be negotiable, but even so, they are probably beyond our ability to procure.

7) The Bob S hits the big time
We recently received a request to supply a quarter-page black-and-white photo of the Bob S to Houghton Mifflin for inclusion in a new dictionary on regional English to illustrate the term, "fish tug."  We will take a new picture of our boat for this book in two weeks.

8) The Steering Committee
A number of interesting people have offered to serve on the steering committee for the design of the Print Shop Addition. Long-time member Professor Seamus Metress, of Toledo's "Great Lakes Irish Studies," has agreed to help us with our Irish heritage display. Antje Price would be honored to supply input on the new Protar Room.  Jerry Gordon would like to advise us about presenting the Mormon Era. Laurie Sommers has offered to help us with musical and cultural history.  Frank Ettawageshik would like to help with our Native American display. And Paul Connors has agreed to help with the overall design as well.
Frank Ettawageshik has been coming to Beaver Island for some time, and we know him in this context, but he has done many other things.  For example, he spent four years as the head consultant for a multi-million-dollar Native American exhibit for the Grand Rapids Museum.  He has already made several suggestions for a general exhibit approach, specific ideas for exhibits (such as to have a video for each topic that can be shown in each room on a touch-screen set-up) obtaining assistance from various museum outreach programs (such as from the Smithsonian and the Institute for Museum and Library Services), getting on the circuit for traveling exhibits, and strategies for grants, donations (he thought we should try to find primary sponsors for each room in the addition), and other sources of funding.

9) High Island on TV
An English television producer wants to do a show on High Island.  She is already producing a show on British TV set on an isolated island in the Hebrides group off the coast of Scotland, in which a small group of people who don't know each other are placed together in seclusion, where they have to fend for themselves.  Everything they do is filmed, and the cameras quickly become so ubiquitous that they go unnoticed, and the people begin to let down their guard.  This show is fairly popular in England, and the producers have been queried by an American network about doing a similar show here. At this moment both High Island and Hog Island are strong contenders for the site.

10) The Newsletter
About February 15th we sent out 480 copies of our first Winter Newsletter.  The cost for doing this was $125 for copy toner, $20 for laser toner, $25 for paper, and $160 for stamps, for a total of about $330, which is 70 cents each..

11) Signs
I've prepared drafts of the text for 11 possible historic signs, and am circulating them to the Board for suggestions.


Director's Monthly Report: January 27, 1999
some things that have happened since the last meeting

1) A Note on Membership Policy:  The Charlevoix Historical Society's Newsletter revealed them to have a policy which we might want to adopt.  If a member does not pay their dues, they assume it's an oversight and keep him on their roll for up to two years before declaring him to be a non-member.  "It is our policy if, after two fiscal years, a membership has not been renewed, we will assume that the membership is meant to lapse, and all mailings will cease. But we have also discovered that this is often unintentional, and upon notification, a membership is re-established with all good graces. All those with two-year lapses will be notified under separate cover and asked if they wish to continue."
This seems like a good policy, and we might want to adopt it.

2) The new Kitchen Addition to the Mormon Print Shop museum
Even though the current Kitchen Addition is by no means fully utilized, structural problems, a crowded office, and our desire to display a more multi-faceted of Beaver Island's past have led us to start planning for an expanded replacement to this hundred-year-old room.
The question is, how do we go about it?
We feel that many of the current areas are cramped, such as
a) the Native American room;
b) the Mormon room; and
c) the music history area.
In addition, the d) "Then & Now" section should be expanded to include more of the  Island than just St. James, and the e) Protar area could benefit from some reorganization. 
The f) agriculture display might benefit from being moved to Heritage Park, but, in kind of a trade-off of space, the logging exhibit should probably come here from the Marine Museum; or perhaps that too should go to the Heritage Park.
The upstairs of the Print Shop is simply unorganized.  This exhibit of g) aspects of ordinary life might have enough space --it's hard to say. The idea here is to capture some sample room displays from bygone eras to demonstrate the nature of ordinary life.
Another aspect of our history centers around the h) Irish migration, which is currently reflected by the Helen Collar portraits.
Also, there are some areas that we have never addressed, such as
i) natural history;
j) religious history;
k) political history;
l) Beaver Island's women; and
m) others.
To design the floor plan for the new addition, we have to know what we hope to display in each area and how much space it will take.  We have to be sure that our list of topics is complete, or we have to provide for areas in which the themes of exhibits and the exhibits themselves can be changed.
One way in which to proceed might be to form a committee consisting of a few generalists and some people with specific information on and concern for these various particular areas of interest.  The generalists might include Laurie Dickens, Paul Connors (although he might very well play a role in specific areas, as well), June Bunin, Marie Powers, and others.  Specifics might include Frank Ettawageshik, Jerry Gordon, Vickie Speek, Laurie Sommers, Phil Gregg, Antje Price, Joyce Bartels, Seamus Metress, members of the CMU staff, and others.
How would such a committee operate?  Obviously, its members have schedules of their own and are scattered far and wide, so that anything more than an annual meeting (perhaps the afternoon of the Annual Meeting) would be too difficult to attend. But through the exchange of information, the needed results might be achieved. The Director could be the hub of this network, sharing general information in a monthly mini-newsletter as well as asking and answering questions of each of them individually.  Eighteen months of this interchange should be enough to generate a reasonable estimate of the space needed for the New Museum, so that a definitive recommendation could be made to the 2001 Annual Meeting.
Consequently I have started asking these people if they would serve on a steering committee to direct the design of the new addition. So far, Antje Price, Paul Connors, and Laurie Sommers have indicated a willingness to help.

3) Boat Company ticket prices: John McNeil and I met twice with Jerry Pease of the Boat Company and asked him if it would be willing to pay more than $1.50 for a $3.00 ticket.  He agreed that from this point forward it would pay $2.00 for the adult tickets.  Since we sell them over 1500 each year, this is a boost to our revenue of at least $750.
In a meeting with Bob Hudgins present, the Boat Company asked if we could keep the Marine Museum open until 5:00 p.m.. John thought he would be able to do this.  The final problem we addressed was the Sunday schedule. Last year Floss Frank, a long-time Sunday volunteer, had asked to have the hours changed from 12:00-3:00 to 1:00-3:00 so she could call her daughters.  The Board considered this but never acted on it, and yet Floss thought they had, so we had a continuous problem. Next summer John will have a volunteer at the museums from 12:00-3:00, and Jim Willis and Paul Nelson, the Sunday drivers, will be allowed to take their passengers into the museums without a volunteer being present, when the situation arises. Both men were long-time Board members who have the Historical Society's best interest at heart

4) Pictures from Hugh VanOrden:  In response to our request, we recently rece ived copies of 31 photographs taken in the early 1950s by Hugh VanOrden. His note said, "My brother and I built on the east side of the Power House in 1950.  We made the foundation for 2 Caterpillar V-8 engines. We stopped when the generator was in her home. We bought lumber from Gus Mielke's saw mill.  Two men hauled the gravel with horses from the north end of the Island.  Gus told me he stayed with his daughter in Muskegon one winter and got so lonely he would walk out to the beach and squint over the ice, hoping he'd see a reflection of his home."

5) Charles Stewart Mott Foundation:  We received a donation of $30 from Gay Works, along with a form to fill out for having the Mott Foundation triple it.  We filled out the form and sent it in.  I understand Gay works for this foundation now. Perhaps other opportunities for grants or donations from them will be forthcoming.

6) Request for Donations sign: After many requests by Rich Gillespie and other Board members, a "thermometer" in the shape of a Lighthouse has appeared on the Print Shop.

7) "Mysteries of the Great Lakes" is released: The book and video produced by Lynx Productions of Toronto, Canada has been released. Phil Gregg appears briefly in the video, and Beaver, High, and Garden are mentioned in the book. We have been asked to sell both the book and the video in the Print Shop next summer.

8) Bill Paladino's Fresnel fragments:  One evening at dinner at the Old Rectory, Bill Paladino showed me some Fresnel lens fragments he had found in a field on the Rectory property.  I contacted Al Gademsky in Cincinnati, who contacted Paladino, who mailed the fragments to Cincinnati.  Al Gademsky sent back a lengthy analysis, in which he reasoned that the fragments were in fact from a Fresnel lens, but of too small an order.  The inside radius was 130mm; the smallest lighthouse lens, a 6th order, measured 150mm, and both of Beaver Island's Fresnel lenses were 4th order, measuring 250mm.  In addition, Gademsky pointed out that the lighthouse lenses have a slightly greenish tint, whereas these fragments are clear. Plus, the fragments are cast in one piece, whereas "lighthouse" lenses were constructed with individual prisms that were supported, in frames, in tiers.
Gademsky sent up some color illustrations to support his deductions.

9) Museum Week Schedule: A rough outline of the activities for Museum Week is starting to take shape:
Monday:
Tuesday: Island topics: Paul Connors, Antje Price
Wednesday: Mormon history; John Leben will present his video in the evening
Thursday: Natural History
Friday: Native American history, including Karen Lewis from Charlevoix in the afternoon on Native/American basket weaving traditions
Saturday: Irish Music concert
We should have plenty of presenters from among the authors for Volume V

I have queried Kitty Heinzeman about her Ceili Dancers returning and I have asked the William Morris agency about the possibility of getting the Canadian dance and music group "Leahy," whose videos sometimes appear on BS as fillers.

10) Volume V:  Progress continues on the fifth volume of The Journal of Beaver Island History. Revised articles from Robert Grunst, Henry Hill, and Paul Connors are now in hand.  I have been in correspondence with Ann Filmyr about her article on Keewaydinoquay and with Jerry Gordon about his article on the Mormon elder, Warren Post.  In addition, Jim Norgard has offered an article on "Beaver Island and the Celtic Spirit."

11) The Strang Video:  After gaining the approval of a majority of Board members, and finding out that Roger VanNord has joined the group of supporting scholars, I have written a letter to John Leben stating that the Beaver Island Historical Society supports this project and will sponsor it.  I have also offered to post regular updates about the progress of the project on our net site, including an interactive page so various Strang scholars can exchange information.

12) Rob Gehl:  The two men at CMU with whom I have spoken, Lynn Fauver and Match Hall, have essentially decided that Rob Gehl will be our intern.  They are willing to make us a regular assignment, but they also would like to see the intern paid some minimal wage. I spoke with Mr. Gehl about this, and he too would appreciate some income, although this is not a demand. He said that if we pay him something, he'll take care of his own lodging.

13) Mary Rose: Mary Rose Farrington (sp?), the Director of the Youth Employment and Training program at the Beaver Head Light, has sent me an application for a DEQ "Shoreline Heritage" grant which might bring us some funds with which to start work again on some of our boat restoration projects.

14) Charlevoix Community Foundation Grant: I have begun to finalize the paperwork needed to obtain our grant.  This $2200 will go directly to the contractor we choose, but we needed competitive bids.  Two contractors have submitted bids, and I have been working with Mike Barrett to establish the details of the program so we can designate him.  I feel that with him we will get the same quality of work that we received last summer from him, and we'll be able to control the project. He has been working with Bob Graves to get us the ultra-wide and long boards that we will need to match what we will take down (which we will store in the attic of the Heritage Park Barn.)

Director's Monthly Report: December 16, 1999
some things that have happened since the last meeting

This has been a quiet period, with a few sales and a little correspondence.  But there are a few things to report:

1) Foundation Grant: The Charlevoix County Community Foundation grant committee met last week and completed its review of grant applications.  They considered our requ est, and decided to approve it.  There is a limitation, though. Because they also approved other Island requests, and because their "Island Heritage Enrichment" fund was limited, they scaled back everyone's request. We have been awarded $2,200 (of our $3,800 request.)
We have to submit two written contractor's bids showing that this work will cost at least $3,800. I am asking Martin and Gillespie to provide those bids.

2) Leben Productions video:  John Leben has continued to move forward on his King Strang project.  He got the Holland Community layers to stage a reenactment of Strang's assassination. They have an actor with a prominent forehead and a red beard who Leben thinks is a dead ringer for Strang.  He is using this footage as part of his fund raising materials.
Leben also met with the program managers of seven independent PBS stations.  He and his partner made a presentation about this video, and was persuasive enough to convince each of them to both write a letter of support and make a $300 donation.  While this is only $2,100 that he has raised so far, it enables him to tell other people and institutions to whom he is applying for funding that all of Michigan's independent BS stations support this project.

3) Volume 5: Interest in Volume 5 continues to mount. Kate Dudding submitted her story about the life of Elizabeth Whitney Williams, but it lacks adequate meat. She and I are discussing ways to improve it.
The Wisconsin Marine Historical Society provided us with two additional photos of the Vernon and some other material from their archives to use with Henry Hill's article.
Dr. Douglas Larche has agreed to provide us with his analysis of why Strang succeeded.  I have seen a draft of this article, and it is of interest because it places him in a different context. 
Dr. Douglas Peterson has offered to submit an article on the cormorants. While his research is ongoing, he will state the controversy, the arguments on both sides, and describe the way the biologists are seeking to resolve this question.
I spoke with George Anthony. He has promised to supply us with an article culled from his speech here a few years ago and from his ongoing research.  He told me that he will have the time this winter to work on this because he will be laid off in early January..
A professor at Antioch College, Ann Fillmyr, the head of their Intercultural Studies program, will provide us with an article about the life of Keewaydinoquay, whom she knew for over twenty years.
Tootsie Keshick said she would put an article together for us on Chief Peaine, her ancestor, from the work she has been doing to create a book about this early Native American leader.
Kathy Firestone's book on Beaver Island has bogged down, but she has offered to summarize some of what she has learned about Island mentality in an article for us.
Mary Francis Fenton has promised to prepare an article on Mrs. Redding for us.
Phil Gregg thinks he'll be able to finish the continuation of his Beaver Tales that he originally had intended to finish for inclusion in Volume 4.

It now looks like the book might include these articles:
2 on the Mormon period
3 on natural history
3 on Native Americans
3 on nautical history
2 on transportation
2 on historic figures
others on various other subjects, such as the ice walkers, Mrs. Redding, Elizabeth Whitney Williams, and the nature of Islandness.

4) The Charlevoix Sentinel:  Some of you may know that the Charlevoix Library has put on its internet site copies of Rose Nettleton's abstracts from the old Charlevoix Sentinel, a newspaper begun in 1869 which overlapped the Courier early in this century before folding. They are equipped with a search engine, so one can enter any topic and a list of dates in which it is to be found will pop up.  For example, Beaver Island contains multiple references in about twenty different years.  These abstracts are interesting, but there is other material in the Sentinel that Rose Nettleton did not include.  Last summer Joyce Bartels' presentation on one particular year demonstrated the amount of references there might be.
The Charlevoix Library has the complete records of the Sentinel on something like microfiche. It has a machine for reading these, which is equipped with a printer. I think it would be a good idea to go through these records thoroughly and make copies of any mention of Beaver Island or people connected with Beaver Island. I would like to do this, even though it could take more than a day and will produce a splitting headache.  There's no telling how long this material will be so readily available.

5) Pictures: Hugh VanOrder recently sent us fifteen pictures he took when he was here in 1952 to work on the construction of the power company building.  We will scan them, print out paper copies, and return the originals. Every time we do this right, it will be easier to convince the many other people who have comparable pictures to trust us to make copies.

6) A new book: In the summer of 1998, a camera team visited us from Lynx roductions in Toronto to shoot footage for their video, Mysterious Islands: Forgotten Tales of the Great Lakes. That video, and the companion book, have now been published, and we will be able to sell them in the Museum.  I believe hil Gregg is featured in the video.

Director's Monthly Report: September 23, 1999
some things that have happened since the last meeting

1) Laurie Dickens. On Friday, Sept. 10th, Laurie Dickens arrived on Beaver Island to spend the weekend.  She works at the Michigan History Museum, is working on a PhD at MSU, and was assigned to be our consultant by the Michigan Museum's Association.
She looked over our facilities, and made several comments. She thought our facilities were very nice, but that the artifacts, both on display and in storage, needed attention. Many require cleaning, sanding rust off with steel wool and cleaning and preserving leather and wood.
Some of our exhibits are being exposed to uv light.  We should get uv filters for the windows, and either uv-filtered fluorescent tubes or uv-filtering sleeves.
In the Native American room, we need more captions, a greater story line, and fewer baskets on display.  We can change baskets from time to time.
In the Strang Room, we should standardize the non-portrait frames by getting a few more aluminum frames.  We should replace the two wicker chairs with two metal chairs, to make it obvious that these two chairs are for people who want to sit and study.  Some pictures are too high, or too close to the corner. We should put white plywood over the window, tightly, and seal it permanently to reduce air and moisture infiltration..
In the Protar Room we should feature the Protar portrait.  We should cover the fuse box and channel better. We should raise the artifacts here off the floor, placing them on stools or boxes.  Better captions are needed.
The artifacts in the cedar cabinet (and in the agricultural display) need to be cleaned.  The fabric backer is not good.  The dust that has accumulated is amazing.  The spittoon is too far gone to save.
We might want to buy a hydrothermograph to measure the moisture in the air. RIGHT NW we have to put in heat and dehumidification to the museum.
Our back attic is a mess.  We should remove all the extraneous material (boards, paint, old display backers.)  Then we should put all the artifacts in boxes, using bubble wrap to protect them, and take all the boxes downstairs.  Then we should thoroughly clean and vacuum the attic. When that's done, we should put visqueen on the walls and ceiling to keep out moisture, and put tyvek on the floor to keep out dust. Then we should rotate the tall metal shelves so we have more room. We could set up a work table, and bring one box at a time up. We should clean and catalogue each piece before putting it on a lined shelf.
The upstairs front room needs clearer definition.  Perhaps we should create two or three different rooms in this space, each defined by a particular moment in time. For example, an 1870s bedroom, a 1900 kitchen, and a 1930s school room.  We could separate the room by means of temporary walls.  We can also prohibit access to the interior of each room by means of Plexiglas sheets; this would protect the artifacts, and allow us to display smaller items as well, secure that they wouldn't be stolen.
When we revise our by-laws, we should examine our mission statement.
We might want to have changeable displays at the School, the Library, CMU, and the Community House.
We should clean the mural at the Protar Tomb.  We might want to repost the Tomb and the Engineer's Grave with bulletproof lexan.  These signs would also be good for the Heritage Park --and we might want to include a roofed picnic table or two in our array of exhibits.
We can't lose sight of the importance of our collection.
We should join some of the state history organizations.

Laurie proved to have a wealth of detailed information and a good understanding of how we should conduct our business. I think she will be an invaluable resource for years to come.

2) John Leben. John Leben of Leben Productions in Saugatuck approached us about sponsoring a video he would like to produce about James Jesse Strang.  He produced the series, "Painting on Location," in which one program involved the Beaver Head Light (and included an interview with Mary Bert.)
John wants to produce a video that tells all sides of the Strang story.  To that end, I put him in touch with John Hajicek, Vickie Speek, Doug Larche, Carol Williams, Paul Connors, and others.  He has contacted these people, and most have offered to help.
John came to Beaver Island on August 31. He took pictures in the Strang room, looked at some of the material in our archives, and interviewed me on camera about the relevance of Strang's plight to the events of today. He said that he would apply for grants to cover production costs.  If we sponsor this project, which will cost us only the use of our name, the standard formula is for the sponsoring agency to receive 10% of any grants that are received.  In addition, we would have the option of selling the finished video.  If it's shown on PBS, they will give the video a plug at the end of the show.
His first step is to create a 5-min video representing his approach, to show to individuals and institutions that he will approach for funds.  He mentioned that we can help insure the success of this project by plugging it in our Newsletter and possibly providing him with our mailing list, including our members, so he could approach them about financial help.

3) The Jennie Johnston.  During the Irish famine, several ships were used to bring refugees to the New World.  f these, the Jennie Johnston was the most famous. She was built in Quebec in 1847 for the Donovan family of Tralee as a 122'-long, triple-masted barque weighing 408 tons. She was immediately assigned to bringing lumber and food to Ireland and p eople back to North America. Between 1847 and 1855 (the era of the overcrowded "coffin ships") she made at least 16 crossings.  In 1858 she became water-logged and sank in the mid Atlantic,
A replica of this noble ship is being built in Ireland.  She is slated to cross to America next summer, stopping first in Washington D.C. for an on-board meeting with President Clinton. Then she will make stops up the eastern seacoast, and take the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes until she reaches Chicago.
We have written to John Griffin, project chairman, about the possibility of her stopping here. His response has been very encouraging.

4) The Michigan Educational Network. Linda Williams at "Michigan Epic" is assembling stories of local history to put on the internet, and has asked me to help by contributing a 3- or 4-page general history of Beaver Island, which I have done. In return they will provide a link from their site, which is sanctioned by the Michigan Board of Education, to our site, beaverisland.net/history.