(Ed. note: The Montauk was a paddle wheel excursion boat - a sidewheeler - that ran between the harbor at Duluth up the St. Louis River to Chambers Grove in Fond du Lac. Click here for more info on the Montauk.)
A Ride on the Montauk
The biggest event of each summer when I was a child was the Sunday School ride on the Montauk with a picnic at Chambers Grove in Fon du Lac. Mom carried a wood-slatted picnic basket with our lunch. It had no top so a colorful table-cloth covered the foods, and crammed on top of that were our sweaters lest it turn chilly. (It never did, the way I remember it.) Very few people had cars so mothers had to be pack-horses carrying all that was cecessary for their brood for the day.
I remember the thrill of those boat rides: the hot oil smell of the noisy engine, the rhythmic splashing of the paddles, but most of all I enjoyed watching the wake splash against the shores. The river and bay (Ed. note: "bay" is Duluth-speak for the Duluth-Superior harbor) had many floating islands then . . . one would see an island, sometimes quite large, about 20 ft. in diameter and you could not tell if it was a "real" island or a floater until the boat's wake hit it. The the treese would bob and wave back and forth. Some were quite small with only a clump of birch and hummocks of grass. I'd imagine what it would be like to be on one and ride up and down with the undulating waves. How come there aren't any floating islands anymore? We still have the clay banks with birch trees on top but they never seem to fall into the river in large pieces to make islands now. What was different then? I know the Montauk threw up a huge wake. Could that have done it? I just don't know.
Fond du Lac was ALWAYS hot . . . hot and muggy. The mothers would sit and fan themselves with the cardboard fans that merchants used to give away . . . with advertising on them of course. The kids ran around yelling and having a good time until the Games were to begin. I felt sorry for our minister, Rev. Adlard, who would put on a full head of peppy enthusiastic talk trying to get everyone interested in the games: Sack-race, three-legged race, finding the watermelon, etc. It just seemed too hot for organized play. His children would put on their happy faces and ask us all to join in on the fun, even tho we were all melting. Really, it was fun after one got involved. Then there was the lunch which made it all worth while. And "pop" which we never had at home.
Once as we were on our way back down the river, the sky suddenly turned very dark and a downpour pelted those of us on the open deck. One woman started screaming and cried out, "The boat is sinking!! Run to your mothers!" Kids began to scream, too, as my mom went up to the screaming woman and shook her, telling her to stop this at once. She did, but lots of kids were still frightened. I thought the shore was awfully close so no one would have drowned anyway . . . just would have gotten a dunking. It did make that trip unforgettable. Fond du Lac was always so hot on our picnic day . . . "A nice place to visit (by boat) but I wouldn't want to live there." I humbly eat those words today. (Ed note: Barb and Bill spent the last years of their lives in a house on the river in Fond du Lac not far from Chambers Grove.)
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