Conservancy Purchases Marquette Island Property

It is quite difficult to express the broad mix of emotions I have felt with the Conservancy’s acquisition of our beloved Marquette Island property. The purchase fulfills the promise I made to my mother in March of 1988, the day she died, which was to protect the land in every way possible. It fulfills the need, deeply instilled in me by my parents, to demonstrate to the Les Cheneaux community our appreciation for what it has given our families through five generations. We have never taken it for granted. It fulfills the desire my husband, Lars, and I have for our children and grandchildren to experience the incredible world of nature and its gift of solitude, combined with their heritage, in order to inspire them to fight intelligently and diligently for the preservation of earth and mankind. In our minds, it fulfills the standards to which Little Traverse Conservancy so wisely adheres in its mission to provide the broadest possible benefits to the communities it serves through education and protection of their respective aesthetics.

Cate Seiberling Stewart with John Osoqwin

And then there are the discomforts of letting go, of wondering if all bases have been covered, of trying to anticipate the unknown and the structuring of ecology, and dealing with this political world. Everything seems to be in such a fragile state, having to depend almost solely on man’s intelligence.

In the late 1890s, four brothers and sisters of the Seiberling family from Akron, Ohio, began acquiring lands for summer retreats along the western end of Marquette Island. In June 1907, at nine months of age, my mother, Catherine Seiberling (babe in arms in photo to left), began her first summer at their camp, SunSands, in the cusp of Marquette Bay. Her memories of childhood were centered there, instilling in her an uncommon bond with nature. Her exceptional marriage to my father, H. Bartlett Stewart, Jr., reinforced this as he, too, loved the outdoors. In 1945 they purchased over 200 acres on the south shore of Marquette Island. There they built their beloved camp, Windswept.

Camp Wildwood - 1907. The Seiberling family's first camp in the Les Cheneaux.

Like my mother, my childhood memories are centered in the Les Cheneaux. John Osoqwin, whose grandfather was the last chief of the Chippewas in the territory, was SunSands’s caretaker and a major figure in our lives.

My mother attributed her extensive knowledge of birds, wild flowers, ferns, fungi, and their whereabouts, to the relationships – such as John’s – she established there over the years. All this was passed on to me. Even in the midst of Seattle’s dreary winters, I can transport myself into that beautiful world of cedar bogs, sand and cobbled beaches, and the great expanse of wild and wonderful Lake Huron, freighters edging the horizon between Pt. Fuyard and the giant turtle, Mackinac. I can smell it, I can hear it, I can feel it, as can our children and grandchildren.

When my mother became terminally ill, I began writing a storybook-cookbook of the area, “Hollyhocks & Radishes.” Initially, it was a means to keep her at Windswept, where she could thrive in its tranquility, reflecting on her remarkable life and marriage (my father was dying of Alzheimer’s Disease). She stretched her medical prognosis of only two months to live into three years, with the book expanding in accordance. I didn’t publish it until she was gone, dedicating it to her memory and the song of the white throated sparrow, which my father would whistle to let her know he was nearby.

Bonnie and Lars Mikkelsen with three of their grandchildren.

If my parents and their parents were alive today, they would bless what Little Traverse Conservancy and its benefactors have made possible. Along with the preservation of a piece of nature, at its best, the opportunity is being given for others to continue to experience, understand, and pass on its reciousness, for eons to come.

Catherine Seiberling Stewart’s favorite quote, which she’d use to preface her many birding and wildflower journals, was “Lost to the casual observer but there for the truly discerning.”
To all of you involved, Lars and I, and our 15 children and 17 grandchildren, and those yet to be, thank you from our hearts. May we cross paths along the cedar bogs!

Little Traverse Conservancy would also like to acknowledge and thank Kent Gilges of The Nature Conservancy for his assistance with this project.