Paddle-to-the-Sea

White Lake Beacon

In 1941 a sturdily illustrated book for young adults, “Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling Clancy Holling, was awarded the prestigious Caldecutt Award.

This book has caught the imagination and heart of adults and younger readers alike for decades.

Paddle-to-the-Sea became alive again this mid-September when White Lake resident Doddin Applegate was walking along the White Lake waterfront close to the Wabaningo Post Office to greet a friend when she happened to look down in the water and saw what looked like a toy canoe.

She picked it up, “and lo, and behold, I turned over this homemade canoe, and on the bottom was written the name and phone number of the family who had launched Paddle with the request to let them know where it was found, and also ‘Please Put Me Back in the Water. I am Paddle-to-the-Sea.’”

And from that chance discovery, came a revival of how a family put into action a concept from a popular book written over 60 years ago.

The illustrated story-line of “Paddle-to-The-Sea” is that of a young Indian boy from Lake Nipigon, Canada (a Lake that empties into Lake Superior), who would like the adventure of traveling the Great Lakes and eventually to the “Big Salt Water.” In reality he has to help his father hunt and fish, so instead he hand-crafts a canoe, complete with a Paddle Person, and paints it with his tribal colors. He places the canoe on a Lake Nipigon snow bank that melts in the spring, thereby releasing Paddle-to-the-Sea to start its journey.

Each chapter describes the stages of the journey through all the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence system to the “Big Salt Water.” This is an exciting imaginative and educational tour, with paintings serving as travelogues of the natural and economic resources of each stage of the journey. The text pages include detailed and instructive line drawings of an area’s major focus where Paddle is at a particular time, such as the operations of a saw mill and the Soo Locks.

When Doddin discovered the message on the bottom of the canoe, part of that message to note where it was picked up was also on the bottom of Paddle’s canoe. At one stage - Whitefish Bay - Paddle was picked up on shore by the Coast Guard when they performed a brave winter rescue of a sinking ship. Over the winter the Coast Guard personnel brightened the colors and attached a soft plate to the bottom with the request that if picked up, to indicate the location and put it back in the water. Doddin’s Paddle also included a phone number to call.

There was much excitement in the Bill Beardslee family, which launched the model cane, when the news came about the White Lake discovery. “In the background I could hear the children, Reading and Jasper, were so happy about this, especially in view of where the canoe was put in the water in July 12, 2007, in the St. Mary’s River midway between De Tour and Drummond Island Michigan,” Doddin recalled.

An e-mail from Bill Beardslee gave some more detail on the entire effort. Bill grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and his family spent a good deal of time in the Upper Peninsula, where they visit each year. Bill’s parents gave him the book as a youngster, and he has read it to his own children. In 2007 when Reading was 6 and Jasper was 7 they decided they would carve Paddle and try to duplicate the book’s adventure. The canoe Doddin found (with no Indian figure) was carved by Reading.

Just as with Paddle’s book adventures where the unexpected was routine, so was Doddin’s discovery of the canoe in White Lake. As Bill points out, “My guess in looking at the map is Paddle made a 220 mile journey in little over a year, if the boat went in a straight line, which is highly unlikely. What is equally amazing is that in the book Paddle took the same route, turning west after exiting the St. Mary’s River and running down Lake Michigan.” more