Looking Back: Charlevoix's beautiful December snow
One hundred fifty years ago, the Charlevoix Sentinel of Dec. 14, 1872 reported that the South Arm of Lake Charlevoix had already frozen over.
There were 60 pupils in the Charlevoix school, indicative of how fast the settlement known as both Pine River and Charlevoix was now growing. The 1860 census listed only 29 residences in the settlement. And that some people just didn’t get it regarding “subscribing” to the newspaper. “CAN’T SEE THE POINT. We have often been asked by individuals to place their name on our books as a subscriber for the SENTINEL as they wanted to help it along and see it prosper. Nothing is said about paying for it, they simply subscribe to help it along.”
Fifty years later, on Dec. 14, 1922 the Sentinel reported that a small group of people narrowly escaped calamity in an odd auto accident. The spot where it happened was a bit north of Park Avenue on Grant Street where the road goes down to Lake Michigan Beach, behind the white house on the corner that today sports a dragon on its roof. “COMMERCIAL CAR BADLY WRECKED. Stalled on Hill and Slides Down Steep Bank. Last Sunday forenoon the commercial car owned by John McCann, Lawrence Taylor driver, stalled hear the top of the hill leading from Park Avenue to the government fish hatchery.
“The driver set the brake and stepping in front of the car commenced to ‘crank her up’ when the machine slipped back on the hill, which was a mass of ice, for a few feet turned at right angles and dropped down the high bank, coming up stern foremost against Mr. Kibbe’s cement garage. Fortunately the occupants of the machine unloaded before the effort was made to start the car, otherwise there would have been one or more new patients at the hospital.”
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Mr. Kibbe’s house stood close to the bottom of the hill on the Palmer Street corner. Both houses that have occupied the corner directly above Kibbe’s lot stood, and stand, on the brink of an abyss. The current house, only a few years old, had to have a huge curved stone and cement foundation constructed below to support the weight of the new home.
Fifty years after that, Charlevoix Courier editor Bob Clock, who fell in love with the town immediately upon arrival, and was never hesitant to express the sentiment, had this to say about December in Charlevoix. Dec. 13, 1972: “December Snow. If I were rich enough to travel the world over, I think I would try to arrange my schedule to spend every December in Charlevoix — particularly if I could be guaranteed a December like we’re having this year.
“All of the folks who high-tailed it to Florida or Arizona at the first sign of frost don’t know what they’re missing. Perhaps it’s even a little unkind at this Christmas season to tell them Charlevoix has never looked lovelier, not even during the first flush of summer.
“The snow started early in December, with flakes as big as silver dollars. And it has snowed almost every day since (28 inches worth), turning the whole town into a Currier & Ives Christmas print.
“Banks along streets and roadways are growing with every passing day, every fence post is wearing a white beret and every window box is heaped with marshmallows.
“It’s a dry kind of snow that kids love to play in and dogs love to frolic in. Furthermore, it’s light enough so that it doesn’t take much shoveling to clear a path to the street.
“We haven’t had a good old road-blocking blizzard as yet, but there’s plenty of time for those in January and February.
“For the present, Charlevoix is having a picture postcard winter that has everyone in step for the Christmas season. Furthermore, the old town has never been dressed up so brightly for the holidays. Christmas lights are ablaze downtown and one by one the homes in town are bursting with their holiday decorations. The stores, of course, are all dressed up for shoppers and the town has taken on a holiday air the like of which Charlevoix has never seen.
“I wonder what Lincoln-blvd. in Miami Beach is like this time of year?”
If that isn’t an endorsement for Charlevoix in any season, what is?
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Looking Back: Charlevoix's beautiful December snow
