FishtownRising With water levels on the rise, Fishtown Preservation Society is working to keep Leland, Michigan’s historic fishing shanties in business and above water.
South Manitou Island Sleeping Bear Dunes
Steffens and Stallman Shanty (Diversions) in high water
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S E P T E M B E R 2021
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LAKELANDBOATING.COM
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North Manitou Island
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by Marty Richardson
Lifting the Morris Shanty
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ne of Michigan’s most unique northern destinations is Fishtown, in the heart of Leland, Michigan. Among the few publicly accessible commercial fishing complexes in the Great Lakes, this cluster of weathered, original fishing shanties, ice houses and smokehouses perched on docks overhanging the Leland River is a Michigan Historic Site and on the National Registry of Historic Places. Generations of area fishermen have made this 170-year-old commercial fishing enclave the center of Leland’s maritime tradition. But in recent years, many fisheries have struggled to remain viable. In 2001, the non-profit Fishtown Preservation Society (FPS) was formed to keep this connection to Lake Michigan’s fishing legacy alive for years to come. In an innovative arrangement, the organization now owns much of the property along the mouth of the Leland River, two commercial fishing tugs, Janice Sue and Joy, and related fishing licenses. Twelve shanties house commercial fishing operations, quaint shops and eateries in Fishtown; FPS owns 10 of them. Because of their advanced age, the shanties all needed work well before the waters started rising to historic levels in 2020. The high water caused additional damage to the buildings and made remediation more difficult. For example, the Morris Shanty, Fishtown’s oldest shanty dating to the early 1900s, sat in extremely high water for so long that the foundation was no longer salvageable; rescue crews had to use chain saws to cut the shanty away from its soggy and rotting base. The Village Cheese Shanty’s move necessitated emptying the shop of its inventory, so the owner threw a party for the locals, using up his Brie, goat cheese and Swiss stock. Weather delays and permitting process snags abounded, and the COVID pandemic further complicated and lengthened the project. “There is a bright side,” according to Amanda Holmes, executive director of FPS. “If the work had
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The Morris Shanty under water
