by Tom Drouillard » June 2, 2017, 3:50 pm
Let me first give you a little history to qualify my response. During the 1930s my mother, two brothers, sister, and I spent our summers in Algonac in our house on St. Clair River Dr. (M-29). Right across the road, located on the north end of the canal, was a boathouse that rented rowboats and motorboats to fishermen, most of whom came up to Algonac on weekends. In addition, the boathouse had a shop where they built small wooden boats. One of my brothers and I would barrow a rowboat two or three times a week and row along all of the canals and out into the St. Clair River to fish or just sight see, especially to watch the ore boats going up and down the river. As our father was captain of one of the Interlake Steamship Co. ore boats, when we knew he was coming by, we would row out to meet and talk with him for a few minutes. As for the origin of the canals, they were dredged out of marshlands along that section of the river. The dredged out material was used as fill dirt in creating the land surrounded by the canals and river. Because Algonac was such a popular summer and weekend vacation spot for fishing and river cruising, many people from Detroit and surrounding Michigan areas had summer homes on the islands, most with boathouses. On the south side of southern most canal going out to the river was the dirt road from main street out to the Tashmoo landing dock. On the south side of the road was a marshy area filled with cattails in which, as kids, we liked to hick through in the muddy, marshy water. I therefore presume the three islands created by fill dirt from digging/dredging the canals were once similar marshes. Since Algonac was where my father was born and all his family lived, after retirement from the Great Lakes he and my mother bought one of the houses on the northern island as a summer home from which my dad would take his boat out into the river every day to fish and say hello to the ore boats going up and down the river.
Let me first give you a little history to qualify my response. During the 1930s my mother, two brothers, sister, and I spent our summers in Algonac in our house on St. Clair River Dr. (M-29). Right across the road, located on the north end of the canal, was a boathouse that rented rowboats and motorboats to fishermen, most of whom came up to Algonac on weekends. In addition, the boathouse had a shop where they built small wooden boats. One of my brothers and I would barrow a rowboat two or three times a week and row along all of the canals and out into the St. Clair River to fish or just sight see, especially to watch the ore boats going up and down the river. As our father was captain of one of the Interlake Steamship Co. ore boats, when we knew he was coming by, we would row out to meet and talk with him for a few minutes. As for the origin of the canals, they were dredged out of marshlands along that section of the river. The dredged out material was used as fill dirt in creating the land surrounded by the canals and river. Because Algonac was such a popular summer and weekend vacation spot for fishing and river cruising, many people from Detroit and surrounding Michigan areas had summer homes on the islands, most with boathouses. On the south side of southern most canal going out to the river was the dirt road from main street out to the Tashmoo landing dock. On the south side of the road was a marshy area filled with cattails in which, as kids, we liked to hick through in the muddy, marshy water. I therefore presume the three islands created by fill dirt from digging/dredging the canals were once similar marshes. Since Algonac was where my father was born and all his family lived, after retirement from the Great Lakes he and my mother bought one of the houses on the northern island as a summer home from which my dad would take his boat out into the river every day to fish and say hello to the ore boats going up and down the river.