Staff photo/Rhonda Silence Top: Cook County Sheriff Deputies Leif Lunde and Joe Zallar, with Sons of the Legion President Ben Silence and bystanders inspect the fallen bingo tent. High winds caused the tent to buckle and start to collapse, so it was taken down for the remainder of Fisherman’s Picnic.
Fisherman’s Picnic 2009 may well go down as one of the most disastrous celebrations in history. Fortunately none of the catastrophes caused injury, only inconvenience. The cause was high winds and intermittent rainstorms.
The first calamity was on Thursday, July 30, the first day of Fisherman’s Picnic. Torrents of rain fell, driving vendors and Crazy Days Sales shoppers into tents and stores. Water flooded the city streets, overloading the storm drains and creating a river in front of Harbor Inn, where the Fisherman’s Picnic Lumber Camp was being set up by Wood-Mizer and Central Boiler. There was such a deluge, the huge logs to be used in the log rolling competition throughout the weekend, began to float.
Not a problem for the enterprising young people who have been mentored by logrolling champion, Jenny Atkinson. As adults ran for cover, local log roller Jessica Berg-Collman and other kids ran to try their hand at log rolling—on Wisconsin Street!
Photo by Julie Collman Upper left: When the street flooded at the Wood-Mizer Lumber Camp, kids had a great time wading and log rolling! Staff photo/AndyBrostrom Lower left: Rain dampened, but didn’t stop Fisherman’s Picnic activities.
The rain stopped, a lovely rainbow appeared and the streets once again filled with Fisherman Picnic celebrants. It seemed that the event was back on track, until heavy winds on Saturday, August 1 wreaked havoc with tents!
The canopy over the Harbor Park stage was blown out of its brackets and nearly ended up in the harbor at 11:07 a.m. Grand Marais Lions recovered it in time to carry on with the Citizen of the Year award presentations.
Wind next hit the American Legion Sons Bingo Tent. At about 1:29 p.m. while the Cook County Hockey Association was taking a fund-raising shift calling bingo, the wind whipped through the tent, snapping a pole on the west side of the huge tent. As the tent started to collapse, hockey moms, members of the American Legion Sons, and Legion Post 413 staff snapped into action. Hockey parents held the sides of the tent, buffeted by the wind, so bingo players could escape. The Legion Sons and staffers lowered the tent, with its large poles and heavy lights safely to the ground, to ensure that it did not fall the rest of the way. Because the weather forecast called for continued winds, the tent stayed down.
Congratulations to all who survived Fisherman’s Picnic ’09!
However, bingo did not stop. Christmas decoration lights were strewn around the tables and calling station and players used flashlights and lighters to see their cards. Nothing stops a determined bingo player from his or her game!
Another weather-related disappointment was the cancellation of the Fisherman’s Picnic Boat Parade on Saturday. The event was to take place at 12:00 noon on Saturday, but white caps and waves crashing on the Grand Marais breakwall would have made the water parade unsafe for even the largest boats.
Rain throughout the weekend dampened— but did not stop activities. There was a five-minute rain delay for Hoopin’ in the Harbor, the Pickled Herring Contest was faster than usual because of approaching rain, and vendors tired of covering their wares. But all in all, spirits were high. Fisherman’s Picnic 2009 appears to have been a success—despite the weather!
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