Welcome to Macina Island Moments, hosted by lifelong islander Jason saint Ande. Through conversations and interviews with Foe Island locals and residents, Jason will bring you the real stories and characters that to find life on the island. Whether you're a seasoned visitor, new to Macaina Island, or even an island er yourself, it'll be sure to learn firsthand about the island with Jason on Macan Island Moments.
Come to another edition of the Macina Island Moments podcast, the only podcast brought to you by a Macina Islander. From Macina Island folks, It's been just about a week or two since we talked last, and I want to update everybody in the cleanup efforts that have commenced on Macan Island. It's it's no big surprise. We had the big storm a couple of weeks ago, the big ice storm storm of the century as folks are calling it,
and I concur with that analogy. I do want to clear up some of the misinformation going around, so we're gonna we're gonna touch on that today and then some of the you know, pronounced efforts that have gone into getting us back on track. This episode is sponsored by our friends at the Mustang Lounge.
The oldest historic tavern.
In Michigan, located on Astor Street. The Mustang was crucial and these clean up efforts and not only getting open, but staying open and helping supply meals, and we'll touch on that in a bit. So I wanted you to know that the cleanup began immediately. You know, the Islanders are a pretty resilient bunch, and that's been fostered by, you know, our independence from mainland.
Securities, so to speak.
We're pretty resourceful folks, not because we're built any different than the rest of the world, but because we've had to be. You know, you're at the mercy of a boat or an airplane, so you get a little bit more resourceful over time.
But cleanup began immediately.
And what I mean by that is even during the storm, State Park and Fire Department crews were out clearing vital roads, which are you know, in my opinion, roads that lead from the fire station to any occupied residents, because we had to secure fire and MS lanes in the event of emergency. Because some of you may not be aware, but people do live here year round, so we want to make sure they had support efforts available.
So to that end, let me say this.
You know, there's a lot of headlines that said, will MC and Island open? Is MC and Island open, blah blah blah. This is a living breeding community and I touched upon that in the very first podcast, the intro. This is a town with citizens and a school, a police department, a medical center that's open year round. So I don't know how we ever closed to get to the point where are we going to open?
Now?
I know there's some you know, some.
Words you can play with, because the vast majority of our businesses are seasonal, and those businesses do open in the end of April, beginning of May. The Grand Hotel, Fort mckinawe, you know, Mission Point Resort, all the big places are going to open here in about I don't even know what the date is, April twelfth, April thirteent. They're going to open in about two weeks ten days. So yes, I guess if you want to play some attics with words like that, you could say those businesses open.
But you know, the.
Ferry service runs until it can't and some years that means it runs year round, and some years it means it only runs till the beginning of January and then it resumes as soon as it can. In some years that means the second week of January, and some years it means not until April. This year, it resumed pretty early in March. I think around March tenth or so, I'm not sure. So you can always get to the island.
And let me clarify that Mcina Island is eighty two percent state park, which means it's owned by the people of the state of Michigan. That includes all the woods and the shore. You know, the road around the beach is in the state park, the shore Fort mckinaw's in the state park, and in fact, the East and West Bluff Cottages are in the state park. More on that another episode, I guess. But it's a state park and there's no open and closed sign on that state park.
A lot of us enjoy the park in the winter. Cross country skiing here is unparalleled. And you know, Arch Rock doesn't close. They don't take it down for the year and put it away. Sugar Loaf doesn't close. Ford Holmes doesn't close. It's their year round to enjoy. Just getting here isn't very easy or or established, if you will. But anyway, it doesn't close.
So I don't know how it could open.
But you know, sensational headlines sell or as they teach in marketing, one O one sex sells. So you know, click driven headlines like will mc and Island open or mac and Island won't open on their opening day and such like that, they want you to click on that because they're click driven sites. Each time you click, someone gets a tenth of a penny or something, and if they get one hundred thousand of you to click on that,
then that's great. I guess headlines like mac and Island is cleaning up and shouldn't see any sort of glitch and opening day for their businesses, that's probably not a clicker. So that's truly what's going on though, And you know what's led up to that is just a pronounced effort on a lot of folks as part to make this happen.
And we're very lucky.
Bryce Tracy from the Office of Emergency Management for Macinac County. Macina Island is in Macinac County. It's the first county the Neper Peninsula off the bridge. He worked pretty hard to get the National Guard secured to come over here and help clean up primary roads and such, and there was no small undertaking. A lot of people were asking for help, and you got to be really good at your dot and your eyes and crossing your t's and make that happen. And we did get the call on
Wednesday that or was it on Thursday? You know, folks, my days I've been running together since this thing started. But we did get a call on Wednesday that on Thursday morning, a detachment from the Michigan National Guard would be heading over along with a chainsaw Strikeforce team from MAYBIS. Maybe this is the Michigan Automated box alarm system. And we're real happy to hear that this was going to happ happened, so we had to react quickly. We had to get
some people together around, some manpower up ourselves. We needed meals for the guys, and apparently in some of their deployments they sleep on cots and they bring their own food with them, and the people in this town right away said, oh, absolutely not. And our friends down at Mission Point offered up hotel rooms for all the guys and gals.
They brought some women with them as.
Well, and they offered up hotel rooms and between the Mayor's office, the city clerk, the Mayor's assistant, and I'm probably missing some folks, I know, they worked together with
the Mustang Lounge and they catered in some meals. So in the morning when they rolled off the freight boat, there was coffee and sweet rolls ready to go, and then they had a warm lunch, and then they had a warm dinner, and the next day they had a warm breakfast and a warm lunch again, and so much so that the guardsmen started to enjoy themselves, I think. And what that was was just some good old fashioned
mac And Island hospitality. And you know where a town steeped in tradition of hospitality, and we know when to roll out the red carpet, so to speak. So what happened is they loaded all their ancillary vehicles and side by sides onto the Arnold Frights vessel Senator and they departed Saint Agnes. And my god, if you would have seen Market Street, it was lined up from the from the post office almost almost to the medical center with
pickup trucks and ATVs and troop transports. I mean they had to bring they had to bring vehicles, and we were happy to see them.
There wasn't even a qualm about that.
So they rolled off and we went up to the community hall became their operating base, that's right down next to the fire station, and we kind of met went over to the lieutenant, and I went over to the firehouse to look at some maps and kind of point out some stuff. And you know, they're on a real strict mission that they're only to take care of primary roads, and you know they're not going interior because that's not
part of the highway. And what I did explain to the lieutenant as I said, look, you know, any other state park in Michigan, you can close the gate or put a saw horse across it and the park is closed and nobody's going to drive through that. But here on macn Island, you don't drive your car. You walk or take a bicycle. And I said, what's going to end up happening is going to be very similar to when the highway was closed around the east side from
the big wash out from the storm. So you can put all the barricade tape and all the saw horses, you want, and people are going to cross that and go out there anyway. And if we'd have had those that Art Rock Road closed and Sugarloaf Road, people are going to hop that and they're going to head out there anyway. And that's fine until they get hurt out there, and then we have no way to get an ambulance
to them or any other services. Not to mention, the dry season comes up in spring and that's you know, when we start being on high alert for any fire in the woods. So, you know, getting it open to us, I guess on paper, to the guard it probably didn't seem like a priority, but to us that are in the know, it was. So I had a little discussion with the lieutenant, and as luck would have it, I said, I don't know if you're familiar with our t rock.
He said, I'm very familiar with our t rock. Me and my wife got engaged at our trock and I said, okay, perfect. So if we don't get our t rock open and you don't get out there to get a picture to show your wife, you're going to have bigger trouble than me. And we all kind of laughed, and he said, again, our mission is to open up your primary roads and we'll see what we can do afterwards. I said, I
understand that, but those those are primary to us. And so they went to work and we split the teams up and they went to the east side of the island because that road was not open yet. The State park was able to get the west side open. Took a crew of four or five almost two days to
get it open from British Landing to town. And that side didn't get hit as bad because it's not as a pronounced you know, it's steep for the first mile or two, but then it starts of flatten out around stone cliffs, so it's not as a pronounced amount of dead fall.
But on the east side it was really bad.
So they split up and they started coming at it from two different directions, and we were hoping by day's end the two teams would meet up and then the highway would be open. I mean it's called a highway, folks, because it is M one five. It is a state highway, just there aren't any cars on it. So as luck would have it, and it's a surprise to us. By eleven thirty or so eleven forty, the two teams met
they had the road clear. I mean, these guys were going to town and chainsaws were flying and cedars were flying, birch trees were flying, and they were making.
Fast work out of what they had to do.
And fortunately they got that cleared. So then they reconvene at the base headquarters and made another plan and they said, okay, well we'll now start working on those secondary roads. We're here, so let's take on some more stuff.
It's great.
So they were able to get our trock open, and then they're able to get sugar Loaf open, and then they're able to get FOURD homes open.
At one pm, I noted on my phone.
Fort Holmes was liberated by the United States Army National Guard, and they all kind of jumped up on the fort and we took a photo of the guys who worked on that. Let me tell you, we're going up Fort Holmes Road, and these guys were running up the road from tree to tree, and you know, I almost wanted to yell out the window of the truck, you guys don't have to run, But then I remember the guys are all in their twenties. They probably run everywhere. They're
like a bunch of deer. But anyway, they were running up Fort Holmes Road getting the trees out of the way, clearing it open, and then that was opened, and then they spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up Garrison Road and British Landing Road, and they were pretty soon. We started looking around and thought, you know what, we have every paved road there is open, except for Leslie Avenue, which is one of the better scenic roads in the island.
But that is definitely not a primary road.
And that's a tough one to sell, even to the guard And you know, we said, you know, the State Park will just have to chip away at that one. But these guys, guys also had a list from the city and the Department of Public Works for major infrastructure, and that was you know, one of the reasons we had to get up Fort Holmes right away is because
the reservoir for mack And Island the water. You know, most towns you look and there's that great, big, bulbous tower with the town's name on it, and the water drains down from that into your service. Well, we have a million gallon reservoir as well, but it's up at Fort Homes and it's built into the ground, so you ride by it and you don't even know it. And
so getting that cleared was essential as well. There's a lot of service manholes and such that had dead fall on them and trees, and so they went around and helped clear that up as well. And by dinner time we were sitting real pretty I mean, they were quite clear, you know, they will.
Not do private property.
They can't and we didn't expect them to, and we didn't make an ask on that either.
But dinner was.
Served at the community hall for the guys, and by now some camaraderie started to form between the fire unit, state park units and the guard and a little bit
of laughter and we're having some fun. And then those guys were kind of done for the night, and they brought them down to their hotel at mission point, and I think they got a relax I know, one guy got a call from his wife or his girlfriend wanted to make sure they had a dry place to sleep and they had warm food, and he was laughing and said, this is just about our best detail yet.
We're fine.
So the next morning the reconvened at seven thirty in the morning, made new plan and even finished up more roads, and they even went to Mission Church, which is state owned, and there was a huge maple was right through the front the fence. Made fast work out of the fence, and the lieutenant said, we're going to get that done for you as well and help keep the other guys working on other stuff. If we can get all this stuff, that'll keep the local guys working on other stuff.
So they are.
So they did, and they laughed around noon on Friday, I.
Believe it was.
And you know, they did just a phenomenal job. They made fast work out of so much. Now during all this I keep reading these, you know, these headlines, Oh, we don't know if the island is going to open, it might be mid May, and I'm just you know, pulling my hair out reading this stuff. And I try not to comment because there's just no point.
You know.
I've had people argue with me about fires I've been to, and I you know, I tried to explain to them I was there, I'm the chief, and they still say, Nope, absolutely, that's not.
How it went.
I read it on a news outlet and I said, well, you can't argue with the internet, I guess, But you know, some of these things were, you know, just saying we don't know and hopefully it's mid May and and I get it. And a lot of these quote unquote news sources or Facebook pages. You also have to remember tourism in northern Michigan is probably the primary driving economic force, and there's a lot of these areas are competing for
that tourism. So some of these were promulgated from, you know, towns that compete with us for tourism dollars, and they were kind of piling on and I think they kind of figured if they could get you, the the general public and tourists to believe that mc and Island wasn't going to open, well, then maybe you'd go somewhere else. And you know, a lot of folks weren't like that, though, of course they knew that we're all in this together, particularly in this tourism trade.
Everybody gets trickled down from everybody.
So it's you know, it's not good to dog anybody, but it's really not good to dog somebody when it's not true. But my point of that story is what was the old quote there? Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated, and I'm happy to say now all those roads. Every paved road on Mcin Island except for Leslie Avenue is opened to passage and you can ride your bike down it or walk it. You can get to our Trock, you can get to Fort Holmes Point.
Lookout all the way around the beach. Are there piles of debris on the side of the road. Sure, sure, it's not garbage. It doesn't smell. It's just stacked up brush and tree and logs, and that's getting picked up by the hour. Eight park crews were out yesterday working. I don't know if they're working today. I haven't been out of the house yet. I'll go out here shortly. They work and all day yesterday to pick up debris and take it to a central location where it'll be
chipped and or burned. And next week a private contracting crew is coming in to pick up all the brush in the city areas, the residences and the neighborhoods. Just because this time here there's there's only a handful of dreys horse drawn dres on the road and a handful
of drivers. Well, those guys are kind of committed to, you know, deliver the ups, deliver the mail, deliver the food, et cetera, et cetera, and they'd have been just overwhelmed to try to go, you know, neighborhood to neighborhood to
pick up brush piles. So the city opted to hire a service that's going to come in with a boom lift as well to get rid of the widow makers, because there's some some hanging branches here and there, and they're gonna they're gonna kind of clear clear cut things and clean it up, I should say, not clear cut, clean it up. And that's going to start a week
from tomorrow. So I can tell you right now, if you rode around downtown, you'd be hard pressed to believe that's the same town as it was two weeks ago. It looks amazingly different. And every day awnings are going up and you're starting to see deliveries. I know, Like I said, a couple of businesses are going to open right after Easter. I think the Grand Hotel does a
soft opening. The end of Stone Cliff is going to have a soft opening mission point as well, And you're going to start seeing a few more restaurants open taverns if you will. And I would say we're well on pace, and what I indicated on a post on our sister's site, Mac and Island News and Views, was that I don't see a scenario at this point where any business isn't going to open on its.
Pre described opening day.
You know, back in January February the business to start saying our opening day is this, or opening day is that. I don't see a scenario where one single business says we're not going to open on time, at least due to the storm. Somebody might have some dry wall damage or some help didn't show up. You know, I can't control that, of.
Course, but there's due to this storm.
I don't see a scenario where anything isn't going to be open as its earlier prescribed time, you know. To that end, it is frustrating for the locals to read this open closed stuff. And we do love it in the winter.
I do.
I've said on many occasions I like winter better than summer. Not because I don't like tourists. I'm not in Moron. I understand what drives the economics of this town. I just like winter because it's pretty. It's there's all that snow and the ice, and then when there's open water, that azure blue water contrasting with the white is just really nice. And I like the views, and I do like if I want to go to art Rock, I'll
have our trock to myself. If you walk out to our t rock at ten am on any day of the week in the dead of winter, you probably have it to yourself for as.
Long as you want. Do we have some winter tourists? Sure? Sure, when those boats are running, there's one or two hotels down. The small hotels.
Open in town, particularly around the big holidays, and they have people in them all the time.
We had tourists.
I was in Fort Mcanay yesterday and a family of tourists kind of walked through and I think they were surprised to see all the construction going on, But it was tourists, nonetheless. So the long of the short is I mean, I don't mean to sound obtuse to the situation at hand, but everything is fine.
Everything is fine. I mean, do we have some damage. Yes. Are there some shredded lilac trees? Absolutely are.
There's some trees that have a lot of limbs missing and they look like someone put them in a blender.
Sure, But is the magic still here? I think so?
Is it still going to be some of the greatest sunsets and sunrises you've ever seen. Absolutely, are you going to get a great meal here? None of that has changed. None of it will change, you know.
I was last night. I was at the show.
The mclaland Arts Council Community Theater puts on a show, several shows it was a year. Last night they did Mama Mia.
Live Production, live orchestra.
I mean there must have been thirty different actors and eleven eleven musicians in the pit.
These are all locals.
These are people who live here and they put this show on, and it kind of occurred to me, you know, we're we're all kind of in show business here on Macin Island.
Now.
The reason I thought that was they were they were a little concerned, I guess because you know, they missed four practices because of the storm when you know, he couldn't get down the roads, so they didn't they weren't able to rehearse, and I heard some folks were worried that, you know, they weren't quite where they wanted to be. And I kind of blew it off and I said, that's mac And Island. We always performed to a t
we always get it together. We always have for since tourism season started one hundred and fifty odd years ago, or one hundred and sixty since folks first started coming here to see what we have. So we're all kind of in show business, I guess, and obviously I'm a behind the scenes guy with the fire department.
And but the folks in that show, they killed it.
It was It was absolutely amazing last night, and it was kind of a testament to what we'd been through. And it was fun to sing along with them when they're on stage, and you know, to think that just two weeks ago, yeah, you couldn't even get down the road and you were worried about getting hit by a tree. And here we are, right where we really need to be by the middle of April, and we're sure looking forward to another successful season. We're sure looking forward to
welcoming you all back. In fact, we can't wait to see you. This has been a mini episode of the mc and Island Moments podcast. I'm Jason Saint One from MCIN Island. This one sponsored by our good friends at the Mustang Lounge, and I can't say enough about how they really stepped up and delivered, not only taking care of their customers but getting those catered meals out to the Guard. They were wonderful. Lindsay, Darcy, you guys just
killed it. Can't appreciate you enough. But everyone else we're looking forward to welcoming you back to mcin Island. Good day.
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