# USA - Great Lakes - Duluth Minnesota based USCG Buoy Tender Alder



## kewl dude (Jun 1, 2008)

Alder has been placing aides to navigation at first around the Straits of Mackinaw then proceeding up the St. Mary's River. Two nights in a row on AIS the Alder showed as stopped adjacent to Lime Island so the second night I zoomed in and got these two pictures:

AIS-Lime-Island-former Ships-Refueling-Pier.jpg
AIS-Lime-Island-former Ships-Refueling-Pier-Alder.jpg

ATON = Aides to Navigation.

Fourteen years old me took these two Lime Island pictures in 1955:

LimeIsland0-1.jpg
Approaching the dock.

LimeIsland1-1-1955.jpg
Tying up.

Lime-Island-Ships-Refueling-Dock.jpg

http://www.limeisland.com/timeline.htm

Quote

History of Lime Island - Timeline

Prehistory - 6,000 year-old flint fragments found on the highest point of Lime Island dating human activity.

Native Americans - LI was used for hunting, and burial purposes and a ball playing game similar to Lacrosse was played between LI and Cockburn Island. The Ojibwe called LI Pah-gah-dah-wahmin-is (ball playing island).

1700's - French voyagers and missionaries explored and traded on LI up to the 1880's.

1744 - LI was listed on a French map as the Isle aux Plastre (map was found in Charlevoix's "Journal d'un Voyage duns L'Amernigue Septenionnale." Vol. 5, Paris 1744).

1790 - Sixteen lime kilns were uncovered which dated some kilns from the 1700s to 1870. The oldest kiln found was dated back 200 years (1790-1990's).

1822 - First official survey was of the boundary between Canada and the US in June 1822 by John J. Bigsby, Secretary to British Boundary Commission .

1836 - In the Treaty of Washington the Indians ceded majority of the Upper Peninsula including Lime Island.

1837 - Michigan was granted statehood.

1842 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty established LI to be officially on the soil of the United States. This treaty also established the boundary between Canada and the United States.

1843 - Chippewa County boundaries established which included Lime Island.

1845 - Lime Island was first surveyed by John Mullet. In his notations, he noted three dwellings on the west shore of Lime Island.

1846 - Joseph Kemp was born at Shelbourne, Massachusetts August 30, 1813. As an adult, he moved to Ohio and lived with his sister and her husband. He became interested in the farming industry. J. Kemp and his family came to Sault St. Marie, MI on the brig the Ramsey Crook, which was operated by a leading fur company. Here he became active in the fishing and fur trade. He became interested in property on the eastern side of the Upper Peninsula which included Lime and Drummand Islands.

1846 - President Fillmore signed the deed to Lime Island under the Homestead Act over to Joseph Kemp who was the first recorded "owner-settler" of Lime Island. He and his family owned the island for 37 years.

While on the Island, Mr. Kemp pursued reclamation and development of LI. He grew hay, wheat and potatoes. He made friends with the Indians and traded with them.

1853 - The Kemp family returned to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. He was employed to locate land granted by the State of Michigan to the company that was to construct the original shipping canal at this point. From 1862 until 1865 he was employed as a keeper of the lighthouse at Whitefish Point and thereafter he was deputy customs inspector at Pigeon River and the Sault utilities.

Mr. and Mrs. Kemp and their children moved back to Lime Island. His wife was Harriet Bell (daughter of Capt. Elias Bell). Harriet and Joseph were married June 10, 1840. They had five children: Christine, Lewis, Johanna, Joseph B. and George. Their son George was born in Sault Ste. Marie, MI August 21, 1847. The Kemp Marina located in Sault Ste. Marie was named after George Kemp, Joseph and Harriet's youngest child.

Joseph Kemp was the son of Captain Lawrence Kemp. He served in the Revolutionary War and was also one of the Minute Men in the Battle of Lexington. His wife was Mahitable Ellis. They had eight children, all presumed to be born in Massachusetts.

1885 - Mr. Kemp sold the island to Lime Island Manufacturing. for $5,200. They processed the quarried limestone on Lime Island by use of the kilns. A cooper's house (cooper is a man who makes barrels) was located north of the kilns. The barrels were constructed there. They filled the barrels with powdered lime and sold them off of the dock which was located nearby.

1890 - LI Manufacturing sold the island to Frances Davenport, a retired naval man from Detroit. Davenport built a 30-room hotel and a two-story cookhouse.

1907 - A wooden hulled steamer named The Rome built in 1879 in Ohio went down in 1907 when it caught on fire, burned to the water's edge and was declared a total loss. No lives were lost. A Canadian firm was the owner of the steamer. It had a cargo of cement and hay. The hull of the vessel was filled with limestone and even today is used as a breakwall at the entrance to the harbor.

1910 - Mr. Davenport sold the island to Pittsburgh Coal Company. They used the island as a refueling dock for ships coming up and down the St. Mary's River. Pittsburgh Coal Co. built a refueling dock to be used for coal.

About 1910 the "big" house (known also as the Superintendent's House and the Victorian House) was pulled over to LI from Pte aux Frenes. The house as well as many as 8 smaller houses were pulled over to LI across the ice from Pte aux Frenes. The two and a half story house was pulled over by horses, block and tackle and a group of men. The house was placed on a foundation up the steep hill and is still there today.

The first coal dock superintendent to live in the house was Alfred E. Newton. Mr. Newton and his wife, Anna, and their children resided in the "big" house. The hotel was remodeled into four apartments for workers and their families.

1912 - A one room schoolhouse was built on the island facing west.

1913 - The schoolhouse was opened in 1913 and the first teacher was Anna Ballan (or Ballin, Ballen). Grades Kindergarten through eighth grade were taught and the schoolhouse was also used as a church, social gatherings, meeting place, and possibly a barbershop.

1917 - There is a group picture of the work crew of 1917 in the Lime Island Historical Museum.

1920 - Prior to 1920, the "Clover", a division of the Coast Guard, was piloted by Ed Putzke tending navigational markers and lights. When Mr. Putzke left the island, Jim Warner filled this position.

1928 - In this year, fourteen families and their seventeen children lived on Lime Island.

1937 - The coal refueling dock put in by Pittsburgh Coal was modernized by the addition of concrete facing.

1939 - In this year, thirteen families lived on Lime Island (per Anna B. Kabatek, teacher from LI).

1940 - Alfred Newton retired and, with his family, moved to Sault Ste. Marie, MI.

1941 - Percy Elliott became the coal dock superintendent. He and his wife, Racine, and their children, Bill, Harry and Marilyn moved to Lime Island. 

Mr. Elliott passed away in Sault Ste Marie, MI in 1999.

1948 - Pittsburgh coal and Northwest Hanna Coal Co. merged. The concrete block and steel service buildings were built. The block building housed the superintendent's office, men's changing and locker room, showers, bunks for "on call" night shift personnel, two diesel-powered generators, water supply system, laundry facilities, and bathrooms for the women.

The small diesel-driven craft, The Champion, made two daily trips to Raber where employees kept their cars. The Champion also operated a 40-ton scow that transported supplies and mail to and from Lime Island.

1949 - Percy Elliott resigned his superintendent position. James Fulton became the coal dock superintendent replacing Percy Elliot.

The old hotel was torn down in 1948 and in 1949 it was replaced by the present three cabins facing west. The cabins were built out of lumber processed at the LI sawmill.

1950 - Jim Fulton approached the Northwest Hanna Co. and asked if they would consider demolishing the hotel cookhouse and build a house in its place. The new house was built and Jim, his wife Marie, their son and daughter, moved out of the "big" house and into the new one until he retired. He and his family did not like living in the "big" house because it was too hard to heat and was often too cold.

1951 - A new coal hopper and conveyor system began operation.

1952 - Two fuel bunker tanks were built. Each tank held 1,750,000 gallons of bunker C oil.

1961 - The Lime Island School closed. The island's children were taken over to the Raber dock and attended school in DeTour, Pickford, Goetzville, or in Sault Ste. Marie, MI.

1965 - Consolidated Coal Company obtained Lime Island.

1968 - The bottom of the coal dock was grouted with cement.

1970 - Grouted cement was again applied to the bottom of the dock. In 1970 there were eleven families living on Lime Island.

1970 - An ice boat was used to transport people from the island to the mainland by the Corps of Engineers.

1972 - There were eight families living on Lime Island.

1977 - The Simcoe Ship went aground at Lime Island.

1979 - James Fulton, coal dock superintendent retired.

1980 - Henry Wojnarski became the acting superintendent.

1982 - Lime Island dock closed. It eventually "sold" to the State of Michigan for the sum of $1.00. All coal dock workers had to leave the island and take their families and belongings off the island. Several women in 1999 expressed their feelings to Norma Mieras, caretaker of Lime Island, of being very sad to have to leave their homes on the island as well as their husbands losing their jobs.

1982 - 1983 the island sat unattended and resembled a ghost town.

1984 - 1995 During the years 1984 and 1985, vandals struck every house and building. Windows were broken and many items stolen.

The Economic Development Committee wanted LI for development purposes; however, the responsibility of the island was given to the DNR Forest Management Division and became the responsibility of the DNR office in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. They put up for sale most of the structures on LI. There were no takers, however, and the transfer of the island to EDC halted. DNR formed a Task Force to develop a management strategy for LI.

1988 - DNR Forest Management Division began to develop a master plan. A Citizen's Advisory Community was created; however, no money was allocated to implement the guidelines.

Work began with citizen volunteers, DNR employees, National Guard, Corps of Engineers, and at-risk youth.

1989 - Jim and Pat Garrity became the first caretakers of LI from June 19,1989 to August 31, 1989. Barbara and Doug Dimond were caretakers from Sept 1, 1989 to Oct. 12, 1989 and continued until Sept. 1997.

1989 - Sept. 11th Michigan State University submitted to Dean Sandell, Forest Management a Phase I Archaeological Survey for the purpose of checking potential borrow pits. Plans for the development of a water trail began.

1990 - Preliminary Analysis of LI kiln site excavations by Lake
Superior State University at the Sault Ste Marie, Michigan by Susan M. Branstner was submitted to MI DNR, Bureau of History.

1991 - July 11th Michigan Department of State (from Kathryn B. Eckert) submitted a Cultural Resources report concerning LI. Lime Island Facilities Report prepared and accepted by DNR Forest Management Division. At risk youth, National Guard, volunteers and the DNR staff helped with the clean-up and improvements.

1992 - July 15th an Archaeological Investigation at Lime Island kiln site was prepared for the Bureau of History; Department of State.

1992 - Restoration of the Lime Island school began.

1993 - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form completed and sent to Dept. of the Interior; National Park Service.

1993 - Letter sent to Gerald Thiede, Chief, DNR, Forest Management Div; from Sandra S. Clark, Bureau of the MI History, RE: Stabilization of the Lime Island kilns.

1994 - May 7th letter to Kristina Wilson, Bureau of MI History, From: Hal Harrington, DNR Forest Management Div. RE: Minor changes for cleanups.

1994 - May 20th, a letter to Brigadier Robert V. Taylor, MI Army National Guard, from: Mr. Kilms, RE: Lime Island rehabilitation project.

1995 - August 18th, second Lime Island Open House held.

1996 - August 17th, third Lime Island Open House held. Cabins were paneled and had cedar furniture and inside bathrooms were used as storage for winter "shutters" for all the cabins 1 through 7. Cabin 8 "shutters" were stored in the basement of Cabin 8. Victorian House was painted and renovated.

1996 - Sept. 19th. Information from Dennis Carter-Edwards, RE: Fort Saint Joseph, Canada, using lime from Lime Island kilns was received. The letter and info was to Mike Renner, DNR, Sault Saint Marie, MI

1997 - Female students from Michigan State University came to study the terns.
Betsy Cook was doing her study on the coal dock and the "Rome" area for her Masters Degree. Terns did not maintain a nesting area on the coal dock until the DNR cleaned it up. First tern study began June 1996.

1997 - September, Bobbie and Doug Dimond retired from the caretaker positions on Lime Island.

1998 - May, Jerry and Olive Warner became caretakers and then the tern study with Betsy Cook continued. The Warners retired from caretaker positions as of Sept. 1998.

1998 - Solar energy for electricity on the Island was put in Sept. 1998 as well as small wood burning stoves in cabins 2, 3, and 4.

1999 -Bill and Norma Mieras became caretakers. The generator system had been removed and the electricity from the solar power was in place and very successful.

2000 - 2001 Bill and Norma continue as caretakers

2002 - John and Kathy Walthorn are caretakers

2003 - 2004 Bill and Norma Mieras return as caretakers

2005 - Howard and Janet Chilson become caretakers. Lime Island Master Plan is updated by DNR. An advocacy group, Friend's of Lime Island, is formed.

Unquote

Attached:
AIS-Lime-Island-former Ships-Refueling-Pier.jpg (95.4 KB) 
AIS-Lime-Island-former Ships-Refueling-Pier-Alder.jpg (112.9 KB) 
LimeIsland0-1.jpg (82.1 KB) 
LimeIsland1-1-1955.jpg (64.7 KB) 
Lime-Island-Ships-Refueling-Dock.jpg (51.9 KB)


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