Wood boat tradition lives on at a Cedarville boat-building school.

Clawed out of the limestone bedrock of Lake Huron’s north shore by the sharp fingers of ice-age glaciers, are the remarkably beautiful Les Cheneaux Islands.

The islands, 36 of them, and their narrow channels have offered shelter to native tribes, couriers de bois, missionaries and explorers as they paddled to and from lakes Superior and Michigan.

In French, Les Cheneaux means “the channels,” and it is those pine and cedar-clad islands with their watery passages that have created a marriage of water and watercraft linked since man first took shelter from the fickle winds and currents of the Mackinac Straights.

Hessel and Cedarville anchor the heavily wooded islands. Settled in the 1800s by Italian, Scandinavian and Irish immigrants during the age of timber and fishing, many old-world attributes remain, reflecting a marvelously simple way of life for today’s islanders. This, and the lure of nature, have continued to draw a very caring type of visitor—often multiple family generations of summer residents.

Where you have water, you have boats—and boats have long been the lifeline between island residents and the mainland, even today. For the Island’s 900 residents, boats remain vital to living here. All supplies, food and necessities have to be transported by boat during open-water times, or over the ice by other means once winter sets in—and winters here are long and cold.

Boats seen here tend to be wooden—a tradition of long-standing in the “Snows.” From the “Roaring ’20s” to the ’50s, many here kept fast, sleek and lovely boats of finely crafted hardwoods by ChrisCraft, Gar Wood and other classic builders.

For others it was sail boats, fishing boats and traditional wooden canoes made of cedar strips and canvas hides—all emblems of the classic wooden boat era. Many Islanders still have boat houses attached to their waterfront cabins or homes, and many house classic wooden boats ready to run in open-water times.

Today, wooden boats have been replaced in many places by fiberglass or metal-hull boats. But with most Islanders, wooden boats remain the choice.

However, a problem was growing: The old time wooden boat makers and maintenance craftsmen were retiring or passing on and the future of wooden boats here seemed headed for the history book.

“Several lineages of fine, wooden boat builders in Cedarville, and the Mertaugh family of Hessel (who held the first-ever franchise for ChrisCraft) spawned sleek and beautiful wooden boats, many still housed in the charming boat houses of yesteryear that dot the channels and sheltered bays,” says writer, Bonnie Mickelson. “The timelessness of Les Cheneaux watercraft is still there, something all who know it deeply cherish and cling to for the strengthening of our future.”

It became apparent that new boat builders would have to learn the craft from the remaining experienced builders in order to pass on the skills. To assure that this tradition of wooden boats marking the local Les Cheneaux culture would not be lost, an idea that created a new lineage of wooden boat craftsmen took form.

Thus was born the Great Lakes Boat Building School, located in a new 12,000-square foot facility in Cedarville. Students are offered a nine-month course in wooden boat building, and enrollees include:
1. Full-time students who seek training for a career in boat construction and/or restoration. These students are high school graduates or college-educated young people interested in employment opportunities in the maritime industry.

2. Full-time students who are refocusing to enter a new career field. This group includes students who receive financial aid though the Michigan Works! program.

Students completing two years are often hired by marinas, boat shops and chandlers around the Great Lakes to fill a growing need for skilled boatwrights.

Not all students come to learn these skills for work-related reasons. Some just want to learn how to build, repair or restore their own boats. Take Steve Hanson of Detroit. He carefully scraped the fine edges of dried glue from thin strips of hardwoods in a canoe he was building as he explained his project.

“I’d always wanted to learn to build a canoe like this, so my wife surprised me at Christmas with a gift of the school tuition so I could have my dream. Now, when this one is finished I will come back again, this time to build one for her.”

It is that love for the beauty and craftsmanship of wooden boats that draws people here each August for the annual Classic Boat Show, where you can walk the docks to “ooh” and “ahh” at hundreds of classic run-abouts, sailboats, canoes and other wooden watercraft built by artisans who loved wood boats as much as the island waters they cruised.

Thanks to the Great Lakes Boat Building School, that tradition of maritime craftsmanship will remain alive for new generations to come.