I have spent the summers on the small spit of land on the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River called McDonald's Island from 1927 to about 1969. Then we moved to a permanent home on the St. Clair River in Marine City. So I have been around these waters for 73 years.
Nowadays whenever the water is higher than usual, the papers and reports from agencies who measure such things have dire predictions of what will become of the area. When the water is lower, the same people issue their predictions of disaster; always finding some one or something to account for the phenomenon.
They blame all sorts of things for the low water: the water being siphoned off by Canada, the deliberate slowdown of water flow by those in charge at the locks in the Soo area in the Upper Peninsula, or the USA in the Chicago area. Of course, when this the Great Lakes area has had less snowfall or rain than normal the water funneling down to the Flats will be lower. That's readily understandable.
Great problems are caused when the waters are lower than usual. Some people cannot get their boats out of their canals. There is concern that the freighters will not have deep enough water to navigate. Some pleasure boaters hit bottom in areas where they had traveled before without any difficulty. Folks have to build ladders to get comfortably from their boats to their docks, and some folks revel in the beaches that appear out of nowhere.
Of course the beaches are enjoyed only in the areas where the entire river or lake side has not been changed by the construction of seawalls. (These seawalls were built when the water was high and property owners were concerned about flooding problems or about losing parts of their property). When seawalls are built, the natural beaches disappear.
The Native Americans, who have observed such things as high and low waters in the area, because they have lived off the land and are dependent upon the water that surrounds it, have claimed that the water level goes up for seven years and then goes down for seven years. My personal observation is that is true, give or take a couple years this way or that.
We, the people. with our over-populating the area, tinkering with nature by expelling tons of chemical pollution into the water and area. destroying the ozone layer in the air, etc. with our civilization may be contributing to a change in the pattern which nature itself had established over the many years.
My personal observation, from living on a flat spit of land in the middle of one of the channels, as well as on the banks of the mighty St. Clair River itself, is that the water levels go up or down in cycles.
Many people are convinced that the St. John Marsh area, along M-29 south of Algonac, has always been a marsh area. Not so. I remember in the late 30's playing golf on that area where a golf course had been built by Will St. John. This is the same man who started the construction of homes on the Colony. Many of the mounds that you see have been constructed by beavers, but many of them were formerly the sides of sand traps on a golf course. I played golf on the course, so I know it was there.
I remember when they dug the canals along the edges of the "golf course" to deposit the dirt for a roadbed for M-29 to run through that area. That was when the water was low. I also remember the military men coming out from the air field (which was then known as Selfridge Field) to shore up the same M-29 during high water periods with hundreds of sand bags. This was done to keep the road from flooding out in that area.
Now, in 1999, there is much concern about the water being so low. I can remember years in the 30's when the water level was so low, that we could walk across the entire back of McDonald's Island to the bay that lay to the West of it. There would be brush fires in this land, which the islanders would rally to fight with brooms, old rugs, and shovels; in an effort to protect our cottages. I don't remember the brush fires ever burning anyone's home. We always worked together and conquered them.
There weren't any canals built to cut through the island, or for havens for boats at that time. It was then illegal to make an artificial cut for these purposes.
I also remember years of high water. Water that covered the island; and swallowed up cottages that were not built up on cement posts as our was. I remember one year, in the mid-1930's, when the water was so high that we could ride right up to our porch with our outboard motor boat, tie the boat to one of the porch posts, and step over the railing into the cottage.
The lot next to ours was covered with water to such a depth that in the springtime there were large carp flopping around in that lot. For some reason, this infuriated my mother - and she would wade out into the waters of that lot and trash the carp with her rake telling them to get out of there or else.
The high water ran from the channel all the way across the island and back to Long Pointe Bay behind us. This posed quite a dilemma if one wanted to use the outhouse. It meant wading through the high water with boots on or finding some other way.
I was in my middle teens and had quite a crush on the boy next door who was out there walking with his high rubber boots on. Nature called, my folks were out fishing, and there was nothing for me to do except to row the small boat out to the outhouse. Then came the problem of how to open the door and hold the boat in check while sitting on the throne. I decided to row the front of the boat right into the outhouse, keep by feet in the boat and stop it from floating over to the bay. Of course, the young man had to wade through the waters at that precise moment, observe my embarrassing situation and greet me with a bemused "hello".
So you see, there were high waters and there were low waters - and it is my observation that it will continue to be that way unless our "civilization" destroys the natural sequence of things completely.
Lorraine