The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1946-02-28


girls this winter.
The wartime CT fad, the age
old recognition of feminine beauty
a.; a masculine ideal, Is a colorful
and eye-full feature Of winter
sports festivals in that spacious
part Of Michigan known as the
North Country"
Youth reigns at winter sports.
There is the traditional queen
some pretty and winsome lass OF
the community. who receives a
gilded cardboard crown at a shin
dig glorified as the coronation
ball" Some visiting dignitary from
out-of-town preSides at the cere-
mony.
Thus Michian royalty is created
amid Hollywood glitter and pomp
The youngsters like it. And the
grown-upS do too.
As a guest of the East Michigan
Tourist association, We journeyed
on a recent weekend in a char
tered bus to winter sport centers
in the northeastern section of the
lower peninsula. And then to OBJ
tain a statewide roundup of win
ter sports activities, we wired
friends for additional information,
Here's the 1916 picture, as We see
It.
The winter sport boom is fairly
new. Cravings million dollar park
is only few decades old. Caberfae
and Silver Valley are by-productS
Of the last depression when C.C.C.
camps were located in federal for
.ests. Other recreational develop
ments are, for the most part, still
in their swaddling clothes.
While winter sports appeal pri-
marily to youth, they offer a col
orful appeal to older people from
the viewpoint of spectators. The
gay, bright colors Of winter sport
attire, for example, constitute q
tonic for the blues.
Handicapped by Michigan's short
summer seasons, resort proprietorS
see an opportunity to extend the
season past fall hunting time into
an otherwise dull and unproduc-
tive snowbound period.
Our first observation, after Wis
iting a. half dozen winter sport
parks. is this: Sell yourself before
you try to sell others.
Winter sports should be justified
In the beginning, as a recreational
asset to the local community for
use OF IT'S own people. The invest
ment cost should be SO predicated.
Take Grayling, for example. This
sports park, rapidly accessible by
train and highway. was developed
and popularized by Grayling mer-
chants and citizens. without soil
citation Of Grayling promoters, the
state conservation commission ap-
propriated funds one year for the
Grayling park maintenance, and
1t has been doing so ever since
Harry H. Whitley of Dowagiac,
veteran member of the conserva-
ton commission. made the motion
We suspect that some Michigan
communities, now trying to pro-
mote winter sports, have yet to sell
themselves on the value of winter
sports as a community asset. They
are jumping into the field prema-
turely, utilizing press agentry OF
ballyhoo, too often induced by free
food and liquor, in the hope OF
attracting city dollars of Weekend
tourists. If the hotel rooms are
frigid at night Gas was our unfor-
tunate experience at Alpena), en-
thuSiasm of tourists is going to
cool-and inevitably so.
At Silver Valley, 16 miles west
Of East TawaS, the East Tawas
citizens are pioneering a winter
sports program that is bound to
prosper. The county probate judge,
a two-hour volunteer for toboggan
duty, tilted our toboggan as we
dropped down into the chute on a
breathlesS descent.
Caberfae, II miles west Of Cad
lilac on MSS, is also Clike Silver
Valley) in the national parks sys-