Cultural Cheboygan, MI

Cultural Cheboygan

How could you not love a town with a name like Cheboygan that rolls off the tongue and just begs to be repeated and repeated? More significantly, how many small towns house their city hall, police and fire departments under the opera house? Cheboygan, at the tip of Michigan's mitten,  is special.  We lucked into a personal tour by Vicky, the assistant to the Cheboygan Area Arts Council director when we showed up for the scheduled tour 25 minutes early.  We saw this gem of a proscenium theater stage from behind, under in front and on top. We heard how the town engages their youth in stage and music productions by making the hall available to school groups throughout the year for everything from graduations and Christmas pageants to drama productions and workshops. While the inside is gorgeous and has been restored to its former glory after fire damage and the harsh Michigan weather, the outside is a sad reflection of the original grandeur.  From the outside we would have had no clue that the opera house was indeed fit for opera and not just a fancy name for the local auditorium.  What a credit to the town of Cheboygan that this facility is alive and kicking. 

 EXTRODINAIRE!

 

While the locals told us this town has struggled since the 1980s, the main street sports more spiffy painted storefronts than empty ones. We found a tempting local history museum (sadly, closed) and many spacious vintage homes on shaded streets. 

 

 The range lighthouse was open and we received the undivided attention of the volunteer attendants as we explored this unique structure.  The range lights help ships line up correctly to navigate precisely in close quarters like this river entrance. The house was built in 1880 and is in the process of a several hundred thousand dollar renovation. While not as tall as typical reef lighthouses, we did climb the tower for a beautiful view of the river in time to see the Coast Guard ice breaker, Mackinac, returning to port just as the Blois Blanc ferry was departing the river. The Mackinac made the sizable ferry look tiny.

 

 

 

The crowds milling around this weekend were drawn to the activities celebrating Waterways Festival, but this is, at least in the summer, an exciting town that sits at the mouth of the Cheboygan River which leads to 40 miles of inland water wonderland – if only our boat had a shallow draft.

 

 

 

 

 

After strolling through the arts and crafts on sale at the art show we relaxed in the multiplex cinema on Main Street to see John Depp’s version of Tonto – definitely a grown up version of the Lone Ranger saga. This was only the second movie theater experience since we left home in January and a most enjoyable way to keep cool on a hot afternoon.

 

 

 

I should be working on details for the river section of our trip, but I have gotten distracted by “Rising Tide” a book on the development and taming of the Mississippi River. If this doesn’t sound like a riveting read, I have not made clear the characters which were the real life inspiration for the likes of Faulkner and Tennessee Williams.  Further as back ground on that river planning, I downloaded a free copy of “Spoon River Anthology” and entertain (torture?) Steve with the occasional poetry reading. (How did boaters travel before Kindle?)

More appropriate to our current locale, Steve and I have been reading about famous shipwrecks on the Great Lakes – like the story of the Daniel J. Morrell which we picked up because of the connection with the Maritime Museum we visited in Ashtabula, OH where the only survivor lived. These stories make us appreciate even more the beautiful weather we have enjoyed for our short time on these lakes and while we know the storms may come, we plan to keep our eye on that weather report before venturing far from shore.