|
|
Home
Checkout our New Members Due to recent membership drive activities we had 12 new businesses join the Chamber, and 5 previous business members re-join in 2008. Thanks to all the committee members and businesses that supported this effort. |
DeTour Village is only a little over century mark, although the DeTour Township has sesquicentennial bragging rights. DeTour Village was incorporated in 1899. DeTour Township was organized on March 28th, 1850 under the name Warner Township until March 1899, when it was incorporated as the Village of DeTour. In the early 1800's and 1900's DeTour was a mill town. Commercial fishing was also a growing industry that still survives to this day. The following 4 photos are from the 1880s, these are digitized from originals held in the Sault.
Here is a late 1800's street scene photo of DeTour,
and a 1908 storefront picture. The
names on front of photo read D.S Stewart, D Stewart, Yours Truly, M.
Munral, Baby Stewart, Miss Walton? Miss McRay and Miss McRay...card was to be
sent to Miss Olive Tilley Brimley Michigan...
An RPPC from the 40's or ? Showing the DeTour/Drummond Island Ferry Dock. Some History Making Highlights: (from various sources) - 1543 Jesuit Priests visit the area noting the fishing, furs
(and uncrowded snowmobile trails ;) Historical books of the DeTour area and the DeTour Centennial Yearbook can be found at many local businesses
Pictured to the left - "The Hunter", owned by Fr. Theodore Bateski, used for tourist sightseeing and fishing trips! Father Bateski dedicated 50 years to the growth of DeTour and was known as the "The Fighting Priest of DeTour" for his many accomplishments for the area!
1952 Drummond Islander Ferry Photo, and another Drummond Islander Ferry Photo (year????)
Old Drummond Quarry Photo 40's or 50's? - Still about the biggest industry
around here.
Some articles, poems written about DeTour. Come to DeTour By Roy R. Fuller Along Lake Huron’s northern shore
Runs State Road M-one-thirth-four,
A ribbon over every hill
From “seven-five” to Cedarville.
The scenic roadway then extends
to DeTour Village, where it ends,
But there the corner signs will show
The street becomes Ontario.
The village has a grocery store,
A bank, a school, and much, much more.
Motels and cabins, churches too,
and restaurants to name a few.
A lumber yard, a party store,
An ice cream stand, with treats galore,
A harbor where small pleasure boats
Can tie up to a dock that floats.
For fisherman, and hunters too,
There’s lots of action here for you,
and at a village store you’ll find
Your sporting goods of any kind.
But those who prefer not to be
Involved in much activity,
May count the seagulls as they fly
Or sit and watch the ships pass by.
So, if you want to play or rest,
There is a place to do it best
Just come to DeTour and explore
A village near Lake Huron’s shore.
Written Sept. 16, 1987 R.R. Fuller
DeTour, The Village Beautiful DeTour, ideal summer resort and playground, is the first Upper Peninsula community to greet the waterway traveler from the lower lakes. It is situated at the Strait of the DeTour, where the magnificent St. Mary's joins Lake Huron. The name was given it hundreds of years ago by the old French voyagers as " the turning-point" to Mackinac. DeTour was up and coming long before Detroit or Chicago were dreamed of. St. Mary's has been called the river of a thousand islands. These islands cluster around DeTour and extend for miles up stream, ranging from Drummond with its 75,000 acres to tiny points barely large enough to serve as foundations for a lighthouse. St. Mary's and the near-by streams and lakes, including bass, trout, perch, pickerel, pike, muskelonge, and even whitefish will take a hook; while deer, bear, moose and smaller game are to be found in the woods around DeTour and on the larger islands. There are excellent docking facilities for smaller power boats as well as for freighters and the passenger steamers plying between this port, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and the Soo. DeTour, Potagannising Bay and Old Ford Drummond are favorite anchoring grounds for yachtsmen from all over the Great Lakes. DeTour may be reached from a fine highway through diversified farm and woodland scenes and skirting Caribou Lake. The latter is in the heart of the woods, five miles west of DeTour and it is famous for it's long, clean sand beach and the readiness of it's big pike to take a chance. Trolling for pike, bass, and pickerel in Caribou Lake is the acme of bliss for many vacationers. They are seldom disappointed. Hundreds of delightful campsites in the village and along the river shores were at one time free. DeTour is 50 miles from Sault Ste. Marie and 73 miles from St. Ignace. The local water supply is absolutely pure and hay fever germs have no chance whatever in the cool summer breezes. All needs of the tourist are abundantly cared for, spiritual and physical, by churches of several denominations and a number of general stores. Daily bus, mail and train connection is maintained via the Soo. DeTour is vastly different from the average resorting place - an oasis of tranquility and relaxation in a weary world, and beautiful enough to be an abiding place even for the Great Spirit as the Huron Indians fancied long ago. DeTour welcomes you to her hospitable shores, where you may pitch your tent, swim, hike, fish, drive over many miles of forest mainland or islands, go boating in the channels or lazily watch the stately ships slide by on the busiest waterway in the world. Welcome to DeTour and Happiness!
This a picture of the old lighthouse on Pipe Island in the early 1900s. It proudly stands in front of the USCG station in Sault Ste. Marie today.
DeTour
Michigan - So Detroit is preparing to celebrate its 250th birthday? DeTour's history as a permanent settlement goes back 300 years. Settler's babies were nearly 50 years old before Monsieur Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac showed up with 25 canoes to found the fort that became Detroit. DeTour counts as comparative late visitors Fr. Marquette, who dropped in 1668, and La Salle, who was aboard hill ill-fated vessel, Griffin, in 1679. DeTour nests in the evergreens at the easternmost tip of Michigan's fabled Upper Peninsula at the mouth of the beautiful St. Mary's River, one of the most vital waterways of the world. By all standards it should have become an important industrial town. But DeTour is insignificantly small and embarrassingly unknown, a fate, for which it holds Detroit indirectly responsible. Time was, when DeTour benefiting by its then flourishing lumber and fishing industries, was a sizable community, having twice the permanent residents it has today. By the turn of the century, however, lumbering bowed out as a big business - But a thriving tourist business replaced it. DeTour became the first tourist haven of the Upper Peninsula - its tourist business was all water borne. The village was so busy looking after its tourists that it failed to hear the loud explosion coming from horseless carriages in Detroit. When the highway touring replaced water travel DeTour was left high and dry. But last summer, the State Highway Department completed the Cedarville-DeTour section of the new Scenic Highway. Plans call for extending this from DeTour to the Soo. So, DeTour has hopes. Autos made in that young upstart of a community down the lakes may once again put DeTour on the map. Here are some nice old photos of the DeTour Lighthouse when it was located on shore in DeTour.
|
Come On U.P. Get away from the downstate hassles, follow the signs to DeTour.
|
|
The Eastern Tip of the U.P. has been an important area for natives, settlers,
and traders for hundreds of years. It has been named "Giwideonaning" by
the Chippewa, which loosely translates to "point we go around in a canoe" and
then similarly named "detour" or "the turn" in the river by french fur
tradesman. 
The old
light on Frying Pan Island.
Father
Bateski was influential in the building of Sacred Heart Church, shown in this
photo soon after completion. 
Anybody know anything about a DeTourist Inn?
Aerial photo from the late 60's (my guess since there is no Apartment Building,
any other guesses?) showing DeTour Passage, Whitney Bay, Drummond Quarry. 
DeTour Spring Bay Coal Dock 
