Dave Richey: Mystery of The Shack Diary

May 05, 2008 04:00 am

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An important piece of local angling history has gone missing, and it disappeared 10 or more years ago. Where it is or who has the original book called "The Shack Diary" remains something of a mystery.

The diary was more like a ledger than a real diary. Several Xerox copies exist, in whole or in part, but the original last owned by Judy Weber appears to have done a runner.

This piece of legendary lore was kept by the late Art Winnie, a Traverse City barber and famous fly tier early in the 1900s. Winnie's grand-daughter, Judy Weber, found the Shack Diary among some of his scrapbooks.

The shack, located on the Boardman River near Keystone and about five miles from Traverse City, seems to have sprung up from the logged-over land in the early spring of 1913. There were 10 founding members: Charles Alley, John Corcoran, David Core, Carl Erickson, Ed Gilbert, Pat Hastings, Charles Longnecker, Charles Quick, Bert Ward and Art Winnie.

The purpose of the Traverse City Fly Club, which owned the shack, was to provide a place where the men could go to fish, and during the fall months, do some duck hunting, especially for mergansers that threatened to eat the river trout.

The shack, as one observer noted, was "held together with chewing gum and cardboard." Actually, based on photos I have, the shack looked rather substantial although its location lacks any degree of beauty or aesthetics. Pine stumps, slashings and woody debris on land and in the water made foot travel a bit risky.

It seemed that fishing in those days was quite similar to what we experience today. Fishing can be wonderful one day and rotten the next, as the diary so eloquently stated on many pages.

It seemed the shack founders enjoyed their company, and a lengthy roster of guests were noted amid jotted observations that so-and-so left dirty dishes and others didn't clean up after themselves. In that respect, some things never change ... some people work and others do not.

It's certain that most of the lengthy list of guests hailed from the Traverse City area but some came from around the country, including one visitor from Washington, DC. Guests included: R. Anderson, Toots Armstrong, Mr. and Mrs. J. Bechtel, Harold Brown, Dr. A.W. Bruley, Walter Chase, David Core, legendary conservation officer Mark Craw, John Farwell, Bill Foot, Walter Hanson, Remington Kellogg, Ray Lather, Dick Lawson, Charles Luick, D.J. McMeechan, Art Moore, J.B Moore, Theron Morgan, Donald Roxbury, Gus Ruff, Clayt Sardie, Jay Smith, Walt Thirlby, Harold Titus, and George Winnie. If any names are misspelled, let's blame it on faded handwriting and poor Xerox pages.

The record keeping was rather shoddy, and it seems that many dates were ignored or no one wanted to keep records that year. Some pages stated that fishing was bad while others boasted of large catches.

Members and guests of The Traverse City Fly Club also spent some of their time planting trout at various points near the shack, and other nearby creeks as well as the Boardman River. Getting to the shack was apparently an adventure in itself.

The trail in was a corduroy path of small tree trunks laid across the muck. One step off the trail, and it was a cold, stinky, wet walk into camp.

The Shack Diary continued, in fits and starts, until 1933 when the Traverse City Fly Club dismantled the shack and relocated it to Rugg Pond in Kalkaska County. The photo on the cover of The Shack Diary was an original photo of Art Winnie as he cleaned some trout.

The story doesn't end there. A number of people borrowed The Shack Diary from Judy Weber, and all of them returned it except for one person. My twin brother George had the diary for a short time, and I saw, handled and read it, and then it was returned by him.

The late Record-Eagle outdoor writer -- Gordie Charles -- graciously turned over his notes about this and hundreds of other local stories that he wrote for the newspaper and various magazines to me upon his death. By giving me these files, he asked me to appeal to my readers concerning the whereabouts of The Shack Diary.

If anyone knows anything about the original Shack Diary, kindly contact me at Dave Richey, PO Box 192, Grawn, MI 49637 or email at dave@daverichey.com or contact Judy Weber at 231-275-5657. The Shack Diary needs to come home to rest.

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