Historic sites will highlight Black River paddling pathway

Friday, August 12, 2005
By STORY AND PHOTOS BY HOWARD MEYERSON
GRAND RAPIDS PRESS OUTDOORS EDITOR

SOUTH HAVEN -- Other than the drips off our paddles the morning is quiet, a silent tribute to 400 years of riverine history.

Four of us paddle steadily through the lush green landscape cut by the Black River, once an artery of commerce, a place where logs were floated to mill, a rich natural pantry where Pottawatomie Indians came to collect birch bark and maple sap to trade.

Today it is the home for great blue herons, kingfishers and waterfowl. It is the backyard for hundreds of modern-day home-dwellers. But you would never know it to paddle its quiet recesses.

"People said this would never happen," said Sheri Lemon, the cherubic and enthusiastic president of the Bangor-South Haven Water Trail Association. "They said 'There is too much to do, too many downed trees. It's a river that has been ignored for 35 years.'

"Now they see we are getting it done," she says, proudly.

Lemon, her husband Robert and Ronnee Harrell, the association's vice president, have joined me for this trip down the lower four miles of the Black River. It's just a fraction of the canoe and kayak trail they hope to have open two years from now. It's a trip that requires imagination and a sense of adventure.

The 86-member non-profit group has tackled the tricky task of carefully opening a 20-mile water route through 30 to 40 years of downed trees. The route is narrow. Fish habitat is being maintained. Downed logs and woody debris are left in place as much as possible.

Twenty of the group's members met just the weekend before on an upstream segment near Bangor. Their work was to cut a path using chainsaws, canoes and inestimable sweat. At the conclusion of their effort mileage had been added. Two miles of river were cleared at the top. Four miles were cleared at the bottom. Just 12 more miles and countless trees to go.

"The biggest challenge has been getting others to visualize the project," said Ronnee Harrell, a researcher for the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven. "What clicked for my husband, Don, and I was the idea of paddling and picking up on the history of the area."

That is the hook for water trail association members, who look forward to the day when the route is finished and the historic sites are marked and interpreted with signs. It will be a time when families from Grand Rapids or Chicago can come and paddle the quiet river and learn of its roots.

The Black River is rich in history and culture. Its waters were plied by the French in the 1600s and 1700s. Native American tribes had settlements along its banks.

There were lumber mills and charcoal-manufacturing operations. Still later it became a playground for the affluent from Chicago. South Haven and the low upstream reaches of the river were home to popular resorts.

"It is the history of the settlement of Michigan in a nutshell," said Dr. Dave Lemberg, an associate professor of geology at Western Michigan University.

"There is very little memory or knowledge remaining that Bangor was one of the leading industrial sites in Michigan. Now it's just place you run by on the way to the beach," Lemberg said.

All that will change, he and association members say, as the trail progresses and the communities along the river get more involved. Community leaders in Bangor already have agreed to develop a path along the river and help with developing a trailhead.

Lemberg is the director for the Great Lakes Center for Maritime Studies at the university, the umbrella organization coordinating three pilot water trail projects around the state. They include the Black River, St. Joseph River and a 90-mile coastal water trail on Lake Huron.

The pilot projects grew out of a 2002 charge by the Michigan Legislature to determine the feasibility of creating a state Heritage Water Trail Program. The three projects are being done in cooperation with 4H and the Michigan Department of History Arts and Libraries.

The 50-mile St. Joseph River Heritage Water Trail was christened in 2004. It has the potential to be a 150-mile trail, according to Lemberg.

"What we envision is families and seniors with an interest in culture and history will be able to go from point to point, stopping at villages and towns along the routes, buying meals, looking at shops and staying at different bed and breakfasts," he said.

Ahead of us on the Black River today is a tricky portage over a substantial logjam. The river is not quite ready for prime time, but it is coming along.

Robert Lemon, one of the main route-cutting volunteers, says he has plans for handling the big obstructions. He won't say what, but he is typically careful about how and where trees are cut. The cuts have been guided by the input of a consulting fish biologist from the state, who advised on the best way to create a route and minimize fish habitat disturbance.

"We cut on the inside of a bend as much as possible," said Lemon, now retired from the Coast Guard. "It slows the river down and cuts down on the erosion on the outer bank."

One by one we stop to negotiate the logjam. Robert balances on the log and helps each of us pull our boat over. Then one by one we silently continue our slide down river.

"We expect the main audience on this trail will be church and youth groups, and families looking for a weekend adventure," said Sheri Lemon. She has just maneuvered her big yellow kayak through a small maze of logs and comes out smiling. The emphasis, at the moment, seems to be adventure.

But before long we are slipping into a more open area where the incontrovertible signs of development appear. We pass by a residential condo project and pass under a historic railroad trestle, now the site of the popular Kal-Haven Trail. Soon we are floating among the boats in South Haven harbor.

"People say they are glad we are doing this," Sheri Lemon says, acknowledging that some along the river are not sure that the project is a good idea.

But Lemon's enthusiasm is hard to contain. And more and more people are heartened by the idea. The finished version of the Black River Heritage Water Trail will be complete with identifying markers. There will be take-outs every five or six miles at a bridge. Paddlers will be able to get a brochure that explains the historic and cultural sites along its length.

For now, Sheri and her crew are looking to generate all the support and interest they can get. There are miles of river yet to clear.

"We'll be cutting again next week," she says, smiling.