The Day Lake Superior Gave Up Her Dead

The Jones family of Cornucopia, Wisconsin, was well known as both boatbuilders and commercial fishermen on Lake Superior. Thomas Senior and his two sons, Thomas Jr. “Coonie” and Emery, made good money in the fall of 1924 when the price of herring was unusually high.The price of trout was also high at the time, and the men knew they could make even better money if only they could fish trout on the Big Lake after herring season closed. Overwinter fishing on the open Lake had never been done out of the small harbors of the South Shore. Another problem was, the Joneses didn’t have a proper boat capable of staying out beyond the pack ice for any length of time. Enter the Thomas Friant, a 96-by-18-foot abeam, 81-ton wooden hulled ferry built in Grand Haven, Michigan, in 1884. The passenger-hauling Friant had been converted to a massive – for that era – fishing tug. photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:06

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