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  • Shanties (Page 10)

Fishtown’s Shanties

Fishtown facing east, showing the Leland Power House, ca. 1930s. Erhardt Peters Collection, LHS.

Fishtown is a unique historical attraction composed of weather-beaten fishing shanties and small shops lining the mouth of the Leland River. The site has endured and adapted over the last 150 years as an ever-evolving working waterfront that still operates as one of the only unmodernized commercial fishing villages in the state of Michigan.

meggen watt shanties

Click to see the shanty photo gallery

One of the most important characteristics of Fishtown is its core of historic shanties. Though only a few are still used for commercial fishing operations, most of the structures in Fishtown had their origins as commercial fishing buildings. These buildings served many purposes, including net-mending sheds, ice houses, smoke houses, and storage. Though processes like ice-making are now mechanized in a commercial fishery, running a fishery still requires extensive space for equipment storage and net repairs.

Many buildings have come and gone from the Fishtown landscape with the changing fortunes of the industry, yet Fishtown survives as a rare working waterfront and an authentic and active commercial fishing village.

 

Almost done for the day.

Joy Fishing

Experience what it’s like to fish in this gallery of Meggen Watt Petersen’s photos.

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trap net anchors

Preserving Fishtown, Ten by Ten

Fishtown Anchors are to the Preservation Society what the anchors are to Fishtown�s fishermen�anchors keep us grounded, and they keep us working.

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Now That We’ve Saved Fishtown…

We saved Fishtown in 2007. How will we save Fishtown today

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Ross Lang and Brian Price

The Rescue of Niko Economides

Niko Economides found himself in a sixteen-foot wood and canvas canoe in the Manitou Passage, four miles from shore, when the storm hit.

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