... making a dugout canoe; touring research boats and historic sailing boats; hearing the saga of around-theworld solo sailboat races; building a $69 boat; and learning to clean, preserve, cook and eat Great Lakes fish-all these activities give participants insights into the maritime world of the past and present.
MICHIGAN MARITIM E MUSEUM
sion to the story .of the people in this remarkable serv ice. Michigan's native and non-native commercial fishing industries are being explored for the Museum by students at Western Michigan University (WMU), Kalamazoo, ¡who are taking part in the first Great Lakes maritime studies course offered in the state. They are examining several Michigan fishing communities that thrived from the middle 1800s to the 1970s and are talking to the families that are sti ll fishing today. For course credit, WMU students conduct oral hi story interviews, collect photographs and learn about the boats used (and often built) by the fi shermen and their families. Material s amassed from the WMU effort will become part of the Museum' s library and the information collected will help create a permanent exhibit on Michigan 's commercial fishing history slated to open in 1999. Recreational boating history was the focus of a 1995 exhibit about Michigan 's successful Chris-Craft Company. Establi shed in the 1890s, the company was founded by Christopher Columbus Smith and later involved dozens of other family members. Chris-Craft, along with the Truscott Boat Company of Benton Harbor, Hacker Craft and Dodge Boat & Plane Company of Detroit, Gar Wood Boat Company of Algonac, Century Boat Company of Mani stee, and many others, highlights Michigan 's contribution to the yachting and recreational boat building industry. Museum programs range from simple and fun, to sophisticated and fun . One favorite program for young children is painting the harbor with its many boats. Chi ld-sized easels are placed in the Museum 's riverfront park, and the young artists go to work. Another program invites children for docent-guided tours into all parts of the Museum . Touring without parents or school classmates makes the children feel special and helps them develop an interest in preservation, history and museum work. Another popular activity is a simp le game called "s ink or float. " Children of all ages try out the floating capacity of objects and the poss ibility of the objects becom ing boats. Children are taught the Boy Scouts (top) light fires in a log in a hands-on project to make a dugout canoe. Below: Dugouts and bark canoes are f eatured in the Museum' s main gallery exhibit on "Nati ve American Traditions. "
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SEA HISTORY 77, SPRING 1996