The Syracuse Journal, Volume 20, Number 3, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 17 May 1928 — Page 5

Sixteenth Century Mystery Ship, Buried In East Michigan Inland Lake, Believed To Be La Salle’s “Griffin” > Jt S .J St 8 g Jr ff jKy Poetical and Romantic Lake Solitude i Copyrighted; 1928 (E. M. T. Service) By Joe Dermody

Lake Solitude, near East Tawas, Michigan, about three-quarters of a mile from fat Lake Huron, one of the great inland seas, has a skeleton of a mystery ship buried in the muck underneath its placid waters. How the derelict came into the waters of Lake Solitude is as much an enigma as the presence of the ship itself. Lake Solitude is small and has no connection with any body of water except through a narrow two-foot stream that trickles into Tawas Bay J and Lake Huron during, the spring of the year and dwindles to a dry bed for part of the year. The battered old boat was in Lake Solitude when the first White settlers arrived. It was a sizeable craft, about sixty feet long, with a deck. First settlers described it as having an ornately fashioned prow, broad bows and narrow high poop resembling the old- Spanish, Portuguese and French caravel ships in the sixteenth century. Nails which held the withered old hulk together were said to have been of copper. On Lake’s Bottom Centuries The boat has been on the bottom of Lake Solitude for decades —perhaps centuries —that old hulk of rolling, rotting upper timbers immersed in a cobwebby atmosphere of antiquity. The pioneers who came to the shores of Solitude ninety years ago saw it and wondered. Historians have wondered ever since. Tourists from every state in the Union, from provinces of Canada, from European countries and even from the Orient, Intrigued by the romance of .the mystery, annually visit the isolated lake. No one has positively ascertained what ship it was that rests upon Solitude’s bottom, or how it came to be , in this inland lake. A sixty-foot vessel never sailed into Lake Solitude by way of the two-foot wide creek, bottomed with muck. It was a derelict before white men settled in Michigan and there is no living person who has been able to tear away the shroud of marine mystery surrounding it. } The waters of the lake have receded and the deck has rotted away, but the keel is said to be still intact, under the water, despite the constant attrition of lake waters, winds, ice and storms. The explanation? Here is the only logical one, given some credence by historians. ■> Vessel Built in 1679 The story starts in that epoch of derring-dp when English, French and Portuguese adventurers, explorers and voyageurs, impelled by the then human motivqsxtf conquest, discovery and regal reward, sailed the known and unknown seas seeking new worlds, gold, Arcadias and fountains of youth. Nearly 250 years ago, when the penetratingly bitter cold of a January day in 1679 congealed the Harrow of the most hardy, a little band of approximately thirty men toiled wearily through the plains and naked forests on the hazardous and difficult portage around Niagara Falls. They made

Springtime Fruits iimiwrrn

XXPRINGTIME fruits? Why, iFy fruits don't grow in springl No, they don’t, but they can be obtained in spring just the same, by going down to the grocery store and choosing, them for yourself. And what will you have — peaches, pears, plums, apricots? Take your choice. They are all there, the red fruits in the gold enamel lined cans which preserve their color. Naw Fruit Dishes These fruits all have a perfection that goes with the bright spring, for they were picked at the moment of ripeness-and canned within a few hours. In that way the housewife can pick out just the grade she desires, knowing that she can economically secure the highest ouality, i J/owJbgwHou? ItfhS Tknia

up the gallant and intrepid company which followed La Salle into the water wilderness of the Great Lakes. On their backs they carried ship’s furnishings from chandleries of Paris and in their hearts the high purpose of blazing a trail into a strange and unprofaned land. Above the falls they hewed great timbers and fashioned these timbers into the first sailing vessel to embark on the Great Lakes. On the vessel’s prow was fancifully carved the grotesque monster which gave the “Griffin” her name. Cruise Ends in Tragedy In August, the boat, which was destined to be the flagship of all the great fleet on the lakes today, set sail. But the cruise which had started so valiantly ended in tragedy—and mystery. It departed on August 7, with La Salle as commander and Father Hennepin as journalist. The Griffin made port at St. Ignace, where Father Marquette had established a mission eight years before. It cleared Michillimackinac for Green Bay September 2, where it took on a cargo of rich furs for La Salles creditors in Montreal. La Salle sent the Griffin back to Niagara Falls while he continued on in canoes to Lake Peoria, 111. The Griffin was lost in a storm and never heard of again unless, perhaps, the wreck which lies in the waters of Lake Solitude is that of the ill-omened craft. The fate of the Argonauts is unknown. Great Inland Sea Covered Areas Lake Huron probably extended farther inland than the three-quarters of a mile of high timbered ridges which now separates it from Lake Solitude. It is definitely known that at one time what is. now- the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was covered by a great inland sea, and undoubtedly Lake Solitude is what geologists call a newland lake. So it is not impossible that the hulk of the Griffin was tossed upon the shores and the water later receded, leaving only a small lake. Pieces of metal salvaged from the old boat are of ancient workmanship. As recently as 1900, skeletons were found in the vicinity of the boat, one with a sword thrust through it, which after much cleaning proved to bear the French Lilies and French motto and a sixteenth century date. If the boat was the Griffin what romance hovers about the decayed old derelict? What history lies there in the salvaging? All those who know the truth perished with, the Griffin. And every summer, thousands' of tourists visit Lake Solitude, described by one author-tourist as “a spot too poetic for anything but a honeymoon,” to dream ab.out the ancient sailing vessel lying under the lake’s surface, resisting the disintegrating process that always follows in the wake of disaster and neglect and Which typifies to the visiting tourist from every section of the country the valorous and indomitable spirit of those voyageurs of old who first planted the cross and civilization in this great territory .a

syrup from a caxi of apricots, add to it two tablespoons lemon juice and eight quartered marshmallows, and heat until melted. Meanwhile, soften two teaspoons gelatin in two tablespoons cold water, then dissolve it in the hot syrup. When cool. and beginning to set, beat to a froth. Arrange the fruit in a wet mold and pour over it the marshmallow mixture. Chill and garnish with whipped cream. Ginger Cocktail: Mix one number 1 can’ of sliced peaches and one cup diced canned pineapple, and arrange in glasses. Place peeled sections of three oranges around edges of glass. Decorate top with Maraschino cherries. Sprinkle one tablespoon of candied ginger oyer the top, and, just before serving, pour over it one-half cup of cold ginger ale.

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