Pre-Summer 2006 UPDATE
07/05
I have been advised that part of the paper has been torn off of the
Big Boat House, but the new crib held! . The
"professionals" are coming back, lead by the indefatigable Scott
Mershon, his partner Ely "Skip" Salyards, Peter Salyards, and Chris
Edwardson. My son Matthew , me and one other new partner
in the boathouse project will start on July 20th. Our objectives are
to remove and replace the two cribs on the south east corner. I will update
our progress this fall.
David C. Barnum
06/26/2006
Big Boat House Restoration Project
written 11/11/2005
by David C. Barnum
As the Voyageur II nudges between Barnum Island
and Washington Island for its weekly visit a large drive in boat
house looms in the distance on Barnum Island. It is an icon in this
remote
harbor, and it is the building that as a small boy I spent many
glorious hours enjoying. One of the first things I did when our
family arrived at Isle Royale was to go to what we all called the
"big" boathouse. It was large and mysterious, but not scary to me.
Until 1971 the Scout, my great grandfathers fishing boat, was
situated over the water resting on logs, having been hoisted out of
the water many years prior. The Scout was well secured so I was able
to climb all over the boat and inspect it from bow to stern. My
brother Steve and I could spend a lot of time just hanging out on
the old boat. One year it was gone. In 1971 my dad, George G. Barnum
I, sold it to Westy Farmer of Rock Harbor. It was sad to not have
the old Scout where it had rested in the big boat house for so many
years, but I learned that even on Isle Royale things change.
The big boat house was built around 1910 for my
great grand father. It was built out of cedar logs, probably
harvested somewhere on Isle Royale. The logs were sawed in half
length wise. My grand father once commented that sawing those logs
was one of the worst jobs he ever had and quit after one days work.
Undoubtedly, one of the primary architects of building it was Edgar
Johns, who's family first settled on Barnum Island in the late
1800's. The building is over 40' long, 25 wide and perhaps 30' in
height. Drive in boathouses aren't seen much, on Lake Superior
anymore. I only know of 5 others that were on Isle Royale. Our
small boathouse that is still standing, the Andrews boat house once
located on Barnum Island just east of our place, the Johns family
"Warehouse" that had a small slip, one in Crystal Cove and the
Savage boathouse. Our two drive in boathouses are all that now left
standing. The others can be mostly be viewed at the bottom of the
lake.
In about 1980 Enar Strom made extensive repairs
to the big boat house. He spent most of the summer working on the
shore side or north side of the boat house straightening the wall
and shoring up the support of the building. Around that time the
roof was re-papered. The south side of the building, where the lake
side cribs are located was given little attention at the time. Over
the years the ice has moved some of those main cribs to a degree
that we all wondered whether the old building would with stand
another winter. The crib in the worst shape was located on the SW
corner of the building. There were in fact two cribs, one inside and
one outside. The challenge in a short season, without the aid of
modern equipment, and few ready resources was how to lift the boat
house, pull the old crib out and install a new crib. This would be
job way beyond my limited capabilities. After years of searching for
someone willing to come out to the island, I came across Scott
Mershon and Ely Salyards of Duluth. They are engaged primarily in
remodeling, but had built a number docks using crib systems on
Sunshine Lake. In the summer of 2004 they agreed to come out to the
island in order to inspect the building. It was determined that the
cribs on the SW corner could be replaced. After getting permission
from NPS, we spent the winter planning and contemplating the
project. It was agreed that we would need at least two more
"professionals" to help, and Ely's brother Peter and his partner
Chris Edwardson agreed to join the project. A final planning session
took place in Duluth with Enar Strom joining in to advise the group
as to what materials and tools would be available on the island.
On July 15th 2005 Scott Mershon, Ely and Peter
Salyards, and Chris Edwardson arrived in Grand Portage where I met
them on the Halcyon IV. We had chartered the
 Voyageur
II for the 2000 pounds of equipment to be hauled over. Along with
myself, I was joined by my son Matt and our friend Mark Sedzik from
Poland. There would be 7 of us working shoulder to shoulder on the
project. We agreed on working for 10 days at the most. I didn't
figure I could afford the "professionals" for any longer, in spite
of a generous discount on their normal hourly rate of pay. Matt and
Mark came free.
The first order of business after we got settled
on Barnum Island was to analyze and make the final plan on how to
proceed. It's one thing to discuss plans over the phone, it's
another thing to actually get started. But by the end of the day we
slowly started to move forward. It was agreed that 4 temporary cribs
would be built to support the building. We used materials that had
been stock piled by the Johns family for their restoration project
on the old hotel on Barnum Island. They gave us permission to
"borrow" timbers that they had brought up from Windigo two summer
before. These timbers had come from the old Windigo dock that had
been recently replaced. They were 4" by 12", and cut to a 4 foot
length. We hauled, perhaps, a hundred of the pieces from the east
end of the island to the boat house. We also were able to secure 4
of the timbers that were 25' in length. Once this was down the
 professionals
set about building the temporary cribs. Mark, Matt and I were given
the task of securing as many 12' logs as we could find, which turned
out to be about
 10.
We took only trees that had already fallen, which are always in
plentiful supply. We cut them then hauled them down to the dock
where we stripped all the bark off of them. These logs would later
be used to build the permanent crib. Having completed the building
of the temporary cribs they were floated out, 2 inside the boat
house and two outside the boat house, and we filled them with
rocks. The 25' timbers were screwed together in two pieces to make
them wider in order to be better able to support the building. The
boat house was lifted on jacks and the 25' timbers were connected
between the inside and outside temporary cribs.
 Having
now completed this critical portion of the job, the professional set
about building the permanent crib. This crib would replace two
smaller cribs, as it was decided that the ice had been leveraging
off of the two cribs over the years and one larger crib be an
improvement to the design. While the was done, Matt, Mark and I were
tasked with removing the rocks from the old cribs and pulling them
out, salvaging what ever logs were still good and cutting up the
rest. Once built, the permanent crib was floated over to be
installed. Naturally it didn't just slide in. After further jacking
of the building to the point that nobody wanted to jack even a
fraction of an inch for
fear of the whole building collapsing it was decided that the only
way to get the new crib in would to to dig a trench under water. All
told, it took about 3 more hours to dig our trenches and finally the
crib slide in. Rocks were placed in the new crib, and finally the
building was secured to it by removing the 25' timbers from the
temporary cribs. Those cribs were taken apart and all those
materials were carefully returned back to old hotel for use by the
Johns family in their restoration project. The inside of the boat
house put back together and we declared this first phase of the
boathouse repairs were complete. Although this work was hard, and
done during some of the hottest weather that could be remembered
(one day got up to 92) we all agreed that it was some of the most
satisfying work that we had ever been involved in.
This entire project took 8 days. We all worked
from about 7:30am until 6pm every day, no days off. The final cost
of labor and materials was over $11,000 all contributed by myself,
my brother Steve and sister Mary. We have 4 more cribs to replace
before the project is completed. This is a highly questionable
"investment". But I hope to keep going. I believe this building and
the other few remaining original buildings on Isle Royale, mostly
dating back to turn of the century, should be preserved as long as
possible. Considering the priorities of the park, it is highly
doubtful they will ever try to preserve many of them, and they will
eventually "molder" into the lake or the ground unless caring people
get involved. I believe the best people to maintain these buildings
are the ancestors of the ones that actually built them in the first
place. We are already starting to plan phase 2 for the summer of 06.
It'll be a lot work and a fair amount of money, but as I said, I
can't think of anything more satisfying than preserving the big
boathouse, which as served the Barnums for nearly 100 years and gave
me such joy as a youngster.
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