Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1904-02-13
GRAVEYARD OF THE LAKES.
One Little Pile of Sand that Causes a
Serious Wreck Almost Every err

one Little Pile of Sand that Causes a
Serious Wreck Almost Every ear.
Graveyard of the Great Lakes" is
the name that has been applied to
bleak Long Point Island, which has It's
beginning a few miles east Of Port
Burwell, Ontario, and thrusts itself
unwelcomed twenty miles out into the
middle of Lake Erie, fetching up some
siXty-four miles west of Buffalo.
Graveyard indeed 1t is, as the spars
and deck timbers and iron work that
cover the whole south beach testify
but 1t Is also the finest fishing and
hunting preserve of the great lakes
On the sand hills there are thousands
of deer; in the marshes in the fall and
spring wild ducks and geese congregate
in millions, and off the north shore
there are as game bass and pike as
fisherman ever threw line for.
OF this sport, however, only a few
know, and fewer still can take ad-
vantage Of it; while there's not a sailor
from North Tonawanda to South
Chicago who does not fear and avoid
the treacherous bars and persistent
southwest winds that make the south
shore of the island deserve the title
they have given it.
The island Is triangular, twenty
miles long and about six miles broad
at It's widest part or the $4,000 acres
contained in it 10000 are purely marsh.
under not more than six feet of water
all the year, and overgrown with quill
reeds, through which hundreds of
narrow waterways run. A few
hundred yards back from the south
beach are the sand hills, continuous
from point to mainland, sending off at
half a dozen points short ridges, that
reach out into the marsh like the teeth
of a gigantic comb.
The sands are surmounted by thick
growth of red cedar, and through these
scurry innumerable red foxes. Through
these also the deer have their runways,
having worn off the lower limbs to a
height of four feet and beaten the
ground under-foOt to firmness not ex-
ceeded by that of paved streets.
South of the sand hills there Is the
beach, on which one can walk half a
day without being required to ster.
from wreckage. For half a mile FROM
shore yellow bars extend, in parallel
lines, changing with every breeze, ami
ever waiting for unwary vessels that
may be blown in their direction.
1t was Uuited Empire loyallsts who
first made use Of the island. A certain
captain Ryerson obtained 1t from the
English government to complete MS
grant of land OH the mainland. For
many years it formed an admirable
brsakwater for the excellent harbo. Of
Port Ryerse, on the north shore of the
bay.
The channel between the island for
the fifty years following the war of
the revolution was very wide and very
deep, ard the boats of the lake entered |
1t fcarlessly. There was god trade
In iron ore and fish, and Captain Ryer- |
son throye exceedingly.
BY the time of the civil war |
however, the upper channel had been
VI uGu ldll1 anu TIC Lll DNl AISCIA was |
50 shallow that only vessels Of very
light draught could enter. Port Ryerse,
Of which 1t had been predicted that 1t
would become the greatest port on the
AXE, had shrunk to village Of a few
hundred INDECENT fishermen.
Already 1t had earned Its title of
Graveyard OF the Great Lakes. More
than nnA vassal had been wrecked off