Sept. 11, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



151 



IE CLUBS OF THE ST. CLAIR FLATS. 



[II. — THE ST. CLAIR PISHING AND SHOOTING CLUB. 



NCE upon a time, and not so very long ago, as cycles 

 and seons go (so says a late issue of a Chicago daily), 

 western end of Lake Erie marked the furthermost 

 t of those waters of the Great Lakes which went 

 ward through the St. Lawrence. There was then no 

 Clair River, there was no Detroit River, and there 

 e no St. Clair Flats. All the water of that region 

 J; north instead of east, passed through the Mackinac 

 i,its, down Lake Michigan, over the ten -feet sand ridge 

 ch now divides the lake from the Des Plaines Valley, 

 so on. through the Illinois, down the Mississippi into 

 Gulf. 



i earlier articles, descriptive of the Chicago duck 

 >s, mention has been made of the peculiar Calumet 

 on, how it seems only recently divided from the main 

 >, and how lost and aimlessly its so-called rivers, 

 ly even now only creeks trickling along the bottom 

 he lake bed. wander around, flowing first one way 

 tit en the other, as high water or a high wind on the 

 i m ay dictate. It has also been remarked how inti- 

 e a connection there is between the Calumet region 

 the Des Plaines region, and how the "Sag." or the 

 after ," fairly connects the two. "Au-sag-inoski" the 

 Bndi an name for it was, which not very many people 

 w. This connecting trickle of water, which was 

 cal led the Calumet Canal, we are told, but which 

 is f o r the most part provokingly just too deep for a 

 s hunter to wade in hip boots, wanders through a 

 marsh, close up to the top of the divide. It used to 

 into the canal. All these places have received com- 

 t as good game localities close to Chicago. 

 r hen the eastern straits broke through, and the waters 

 lichigan, Superior and Huron, in obedience to some 

 jhty mandate 

 se reason or whose 

 we cannot f ormu- 

 . began to journey 

 ward through the 

 Lawrence instead 

 vestward through 

 Mississippi, the 

 xis Calumet duck 

 mds, and the yet 

 I famous St. Clair 

 £ grounds were 

 ably formed at 

 and the same time 

 he receding of the 

 ers. Behold the 



I of sympathy and 

 touch of human 

 rest which con- 

 a these two local- 



ut we shall see this 

 jular connecting 

 sad grow yet more 

 ular and more 

 ng. We shall see 

 pointing arrows 

 ig this thread, 

 ch mark alike the 



of the waters and 

 tread of the years, 

 3rsed upon them- 

 es and pointing in 

 opposite direction. 



shall see gray- 

 :ed old Father Time 



wide-handed Na- 



herself meekly re- 

 ie their steps and 



ow back along a path they have forgotten, a new 

 ;er trail marked out solely by the hand of man. And 

 a the St. Clair Flats and the Calumet Marshes will be 

 more intimately related. 



he city of Chicago as yet pumps her drainage water 

 r the divide. Larger facilities of the sort have been 

 ded, and it has long been the talk that Chicago must 

 mately cut through the low "Divide," and make a 

 iv whose source should be in Lake Michigan, and 

 ose mouth should lie in the valley of the Des Plaines. 

 thin the next few years this will doubtless be done. 

 m a river, of which the present fearful streams of the 

 Lcago River will be a part, will flow from the lake 

 th and west, at least 150ft. wide, at least 18ft. deep, 

 he subtraction of such a stream will make some 

 jiges along the lake levels, and this will undoubtedly 

 end to the St. Clair Flats. It was questioned by some 

 his would not affect certain riparian rights or certain 

 amercial necessities to the point of commanding an 

 a-diction, but the engineers say that there will be a 

 ■ering of only a few inches at the flats, hardly enough 

 be perceptible, and that if the big boats do scrape a 

 le on the bottom, somewhere in getting through the 

 ,s, all that will be necessary will be to build a few 

 les or so of wing dams and thus throw a yet greater 

 >d of water through the channel of the St. Clair, 

 icago, wonder-daring, nature-changing, lake-compell- 

 , generously promises that she will deal better with 

 country of the flats than it did with her own country, 

 . will not reduce the St. Clair River to a miserable 

 rsh trickle, as the St. Clair did with her Sag. The 

 dutifully clear blue waters of the St. Clair shall still 

 md eastward to the sea, unhindered and unhurt by the 

 [led flood of the river made by man, although the 

 irse of the latter shall be that first planned by nature. 

 Eerily, this is a great and wondrous time. Let not our 

 irts be troubled. Shall not man, who changes and 

 tores the course of the seas, some time be able to find 

 sans to restore and support the wild creatures which 

 e in and upon those seas? Already the outposts of that 

 >vement sit in light and graceful fortification alike 

 mg the St. Clair and the Calumet. Let not the men of 

 j.b St. Clair be troubled. Years hence, and hundreds 

 years, let us hope, their strong castle by the stream 



II sit at the head of the river, from its windows shin- 

 ; an influence as beneficent, in its way, as the light 

 At streams from the tower near by, with which it daily 

 ichea hands and nightly interchanges greeting. 



As I was saying, it was a mighty good duck boat, this 

 e that belonged to "No. 11," and it took only a few 

 oments to drop down to the end of St. Clair Club dock, 

 r, D. A, Whitney, the urbane steward, who presides 



over the practical workings of the club menage during 

 the open season, received the inquisitive visitor with 

 ready courtesy and hospitality, and cheerfully volun- 

 teered the assistance which made possible the writing of 

 our little story. 



The St. Clair Fishing and Shooting organization is the 

 oldest organization on the flats. It was founded in 1869, 

 and may therefore be said to have reached its full 

 majority, and at the same time to be lawfully the head 

 of the family of clubs. A glance at the illustration will 

 show, in a way more or less imperfect, since no black 

 and white engraving can present either the harmony of 

 color or the actual effect of the full perspectives, that the 

 buildings of the club are very considerable in extent and 

 architecturally very noteworthy. The main building is 

 very happy in its conception, being simple, strong and 

 comfortable looking to a degree. You may look long 

 and far and you will not find a club building which will 

 impress you better. But this is modern. Look beyond 

 the main building, at the left hand corner, and you may 

 see a glimpse of the building which, or a part of which, 

 was the original home of the club. The first building 

 was a small frame house, only 18 X 30ft. in size, with no 

 dock at all. First one addition was made to this, and 

 then a second, until it had fourteen rooms, at which 

 point it was thought that the height of all reasonable 

 architectural dreams had been reached. This old struc- 

 ture was formerly up on the dock, after the latter was 

 built, but was in course of time moved back. Behind 

 the main club house there are now so many bath houses, 

 boat houses, etc., that the place looks somewhat like the 

 quarters on an old plantation. Some of the larger of 

 these connect with the main building, and just how far 

 it is from front to back of St. Clair Club house is some- 

 thing no one knows. The present club house, or the 

 main building which is so known, was erected four years 



ST. CLAIR FISHING AND SHOOTING CLUB. 



ago, and after it was finished had cost over $27,000. It 

 is 200ft. in front, and about 200ft. from front to back. 

 In front of it lies 355ft. of dock. The passenger boats 

 can tie up almost at the front door, and the great 

 steamers of the lake pass constantly by, to and fro, only 

 a few yards distant from the wide verandas. Further 

 on, across the channel, lies the line of rushes on the 

 Canadian side. 



The front door of St. Clair house is a grand wide affair, 

 solid and well ornamented in stained glasses. Within 

 that, there appears a vista of highly waxed floors and 

 hard-oil finish in pine, bright and cheerful, which 

 stretches across a noble hall, a long parlor and observa- 

 tion room to the right and up a wide and stately stair- 

 case which admits no insinuation of a difference between 

 upstairs and down. The arrangement of this lower floor 

 is superb. Fine as this club house is in its exterior, it is 

 only at its best within. The long halls and the gracious 

 expanse of easeful room which stretches away from them 

 leave an impression of sheer magnificence. The finish in 

 the natural grain of the wood, the immense fire-place, 

 and the shining waxed floors heighten all this, and the 

 effect is further continued by the quiet elegance of the 

 furnishings. I do not know who had in hand the decor- 

 ation of this interior, but it was certainly no upholsterer. 

 There is a great table in the center of the observation 

 room, and. this is well loaded with books and periodicals. 

 Upon the walls are the admirable field scenes of the 

 Detroit artist, Mr. Hopkins, who certainly is that rare 

 creature at once a sportsman and an artist. There are a 

 few well mounted birds about the office and halls, and 

 there is a valuable painting by Hopkins, a marine, in the 

 ladies' parlor, upon the other side of the entrance hall. 

 Nothing is overdone, and all is well done. The colors of 

 this interior do not swear at one another, and there is not 

 anything in the whole effect to cause for one that invol- 

 untary twitching of the shoulder blades which sometimes 

 warns an unconvinced reason that something is wrong. 

 For instance, I suppose Mrs. Whitney might have red 

 silk curtains at the windows that front from the office on 

 the water, or she might have maroon, or a screaming 

 blue of some sort or other; but she doesn't. She has just 

 exactly the amount, kind and quality of blue in her silk 

 window curtains, which serve to make them a comfort 

 and not a query. Everything else is just so. You can 

 go into St. Clair Club house and have perfect comfort 

 with your shoulder blades. Moreover, Mrs. Whitney 

 took me through the big dining-room, and through the 

 big kitchen, and through the pantries, and through so 

 many other rooms, further and further back, and to one 

 side or the other that my head swam, and I pledge my 

 word and honor it was the same all the way through, 



and the most superciliously clean place I ever saw. I 

 would as soon be struck by lightning as to look at one of 

 those dishpans again, and as for the silver, it was bright- 

 shining as the sun. The world lost a great house-keeper 

 when Mrs. Whitney married, although her husband and 

 St. Clair Club gained one by the same token. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Whitney have been in this present position for 9 

 years, and they ought to be there about 99 more. 



The steward's office is railed off just to the left of the 

 entrance, and with his formidable keyboard and set of 

 books looks something like a hotel office. A good deal of 

 system is necessary in conducting an establishment as 

 large as this, for sometimes seventy-five or one hundred 

 persons will be on hand daily in the summer, or even 

 more if there is a grand ball or unusually large fish sup- 

 per on hand. There are eighty-nine bed-rooms on the 

 second floor. Any overflow beyond this is taken up by 

 the extra house down at the end of the dock, which is 

 devoted entirely to sleeping purposes. It should be borne 

 in mind that this is a very large as well as very wealthy 

 club. Its membership includes what we may, I suppose, 

 call the aristocracy of Michigan, although I do not like 

 the word, nor suppose the club does. You are liable to 

 go in there and fall down over a Senator fixing his fish- 

 ing rod, in almost any corner, and a postmaster-general 

 isn't any more than aces high. The Hon. Russell A. 

 Alger, whose name the breezes which sigh through the 

 lumber regions whisper in connection with the White 

 House; the Hon. Don M. Dickinson, ex-postmaster-gen- 

 eral, Senator McMillan, of Michigan, and a number of 

 other guns too big to be fired from the shoulder, all 

 belong to this old and select sporting organization, but 

 so far as I could learn they get treated just as well as 

 anybody else and are not held responsible. 



It should not be supposed that this club is devoted 

 altogether to social or summer resort purposes, or to such 



dissipations as danc- 

 ing, or eating fried 



f>erch all night. Doubt- 

 ess during, the heated 

 season many Detroifr- 

 ers avail themselves 

 of the privilege of tak- 

 ing the afternoon boat 

 simply for a cool ride 

 up to the club house, 

 and for the pleasure of 

 an evening there,with- 

 out any fishing or 

 shooting; but there are 

 many ardent anglers 

 and hard-working 

 shooters in this body, 

 and much good and 

 genuine sportsmen's 

 work is done. Of pre- 

 serves the club has 

 none, but the boats of 

 its members lie out as 

 long and as far in the 

 flight as any, and go 

 as far for bass. These 

 clubs are all equal in 

 this regard, as has been 

 mentioned. It was 

 something in the way 

 of news to learn that 

 n e i t h er the shooting 

 nor the fishing lies 

 very close to the made 

 ground, rather long 

 journeys being requir- 

 e d for either. The 

 question may be asked, 

 Why were the build- 

 ings, then, placed where they are? This was done so that 

 the big boats, which have to stick to the channel, could 

 get up to the building sites, before and after building. 

 From this "made ground," where all the club houses 

 stand, the smaller boats take out the seekers after sport. 

 For instance, the best bass fishing is now ten, twelve, or 

 even fifteen miles or more from the club houses, away 

 over on the Canadian side, among the channels where, 

 much as the jealous "Canadian Club" may object, they 

 cannot prohibit the club men from fishing. (No member 

 of the St. Clair Club, however, has ever hunted on the 

 Canada Club's preserves, or fished across the Canada line 

 until the opening of the season, which is later for 

 Canada than in Michigan.) 



For such journeys as are necessary or pleasant among 

 the fishing grounds or to and from the city, there are 

 owned by members of the St. Clair Club a number of 

 steam yachts, some of them of a very high grade of ex- 

 cellence. The Vita, belonging to Mr. M. S. Smith, Mr. 

 Alger's partner, I saw in the docks of the Detroit Boat 

 Works, down at the city, undergoing a refitting, and if I 

 am not mistaken it was the Idler also that I saw there. 

 The latter boat had undergone a complete rebuilding, her 

 lines being materially changed. Idler is owned by 

 Senator McMillan. Both Idler and Vita are grand boats, 

 among the best of their class on fresh waters. Then 

 there is the Dawn, owned by Mr. John S. Newberry, and 

 reputed to be the fastest little craft on the lakes. Dawn 

 is a thing of beauty. You could almost pick up her 

 slender, shining hull under your arm and walk off with 

 it, yet her noiseless engines can send her twenty miles 

 an hour. The Truant is owned by Mr. Truman H. New- 

 berry. The Magna belongs to Mr. W. K. Parcher, and 

 Louise to Mr. H. C. Hart. The Lillie is the property of 

 Mr. A. E. Brush, and the May Lily of Mr. Geo. B. Hill. 

 Pastime and Lurline belong to the Messrs. Walker. There 

 are twelve club boats for general touring purposes, and 

 about sixty-five small boats scattered around among the 

 numerous boat houses. 



The typical boat, if we may so speak, among the 

 various sorts used upon the St. Clair Flats, is a good stiff 

 skiff, clinker built, about 16 to 18ft. long, with provisions 

 for stepping a mast well forward. On a journey of ten 

 miles or upward the sail is an esteemed ally to the oar. 

 Most of the bass fishing is done from such boats as these. 

 The methods of this fishing will be described later on. 

 The typical rod, if such a thing may be where all kinds 

 of bass rods are brought and used, is a single-piece cane, 

 about 8ft. long. This makes a stiffish but springy rod, 

 which not even the bait caster always despises, for much 

 of the fishing for the small-mouths is deep water work, 

 as it is in Lake Erie about the islands, 



