I first actually saw Fishtown on a gray winter’s day in 2007. I wanted to walk the snowy docks and take in the Fishtown landscape before a meeting, because that meeting was with the board of the Fishtown Preservation Society, which had just completed the purchase of Fishtown from the Carlson family. It was February 7 — a date I remember because it was my first day as FPS Executive Director.
I had been through Fishtown more than twenty years before, but then I’d been part of a high school biology class catching the ferry to South Manitou to camp for several days. It was an unsettled October day, cold and rainy, and while I remember the two turbulent ferry rides and the many smoky campfires in between them, I somehow remember nothing about Fishtown itself. I’d grown up in Cadillac and Lake City, not that far away, and my parents had retired to an old farm in Leelanau County, but I’d spent many years away from Michigan traveling and for graduate school, and when I returned for visits I spent my time with my family, not exploring the region.
But that visit in 2007 — my first real visit — unleashed in me a longing to know all the layers of Fishtown’s history and stories. Since I’d ridden the ferry to South Manitou I’d gotten degrees in historic preservation and folklore & folklife, and these fueled my need to understand Fishtown. And each visit since that now distant February morning has revealed to me something new, whether something I hadn’t expected or someone I hadn’t yet met who was full of curiosity or an eagerness to share their stories. Just last week I was walking the docks and met a man fishing there. His name is Jack, and he told me that because he doesn’t have any remaining family, he spends his time fishing all over northern lower Michigan. He has a special fondness for Fishtown, though, and he’s spent many Thanksgivings and Christmases right here, fishing. It’s more than familiar, he said. It’s welcoming, and a comfort to him.
I hope you’ll think about stories like his on this day devoted to giving for a cause. We depend upon you and your fellow Fishtown supporters for all the work that FPS does to care for Fishtown, from the shanties and docks to the boats and the gathering and sharing of stories. We hope you will give — and when you donate, whether online or through a call to our office, you can add even more meaning to your gift by taking a moment to share with us what you remember from your own first time seeing Fishtown. We want to honor those moments and special memories. Fishtown is here because you care — and because it is a place where all our stories can continue to live. If you can, please give today.
Thank you,
Amanda Holmes
Fishtown Preservation