Photo Essay: Visiting Ernest Hemingway Sites in Upper Michigan

Hemingway in Upper Michigan in 1920

Ernest Hemingway's fiction is full of the particularities of place. From his time as a reporter with the Kansas City Star (1917) and The Toronto Star (1920-1924), he learned how to avoid vague generalities and airy abstractions. His writing was full of specific detail about people, places, and things. And when he began to work seriously on his short story-writing in Paris in the mid-1920s, he learned how to keep the stories interesting by filling them with physical detail and setting them in particular and recognizable places. As Ernest explained to his father in a letter in 1925:   

"I am trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across - not to just depict life - or criticize it - but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me, you actually experience the thing."

All of Hemingway's writing has a strong sense of place. Whether it's a short story, a novel, or a memoir, you always find yourself in an interesting location: Paris and Spain in the 1920s, perhaps; deep-sea fishing in Key West in the 1930s; on safari in East Africa in both the early '30s and early '50s; and fishing for marlin in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba in the '40s and '50s. "Write what you know" says the creative-writing teacher. Well, Hemingway knew about fishing and hunting and bullfighting and skiing and going to war. And he knew some of the most intriguing places to go in pursuit of these activities. 

Upper Michigan in the centre of the Great Lakes

One of the places that Hemingway wrote about a lot was Upper Michigan. It was particularly important because it provided the background for his first significant batch of literary short stories. Upper Michigan was where he spent three months of every single summer up to the age of 22 (except 1918—when he was serving with The Red Cross in Italy during WWI). It usually took Hemingway at least five years to digest an experience before writing about it. So it wasn't until the mid-1920s in Paris that he began writing a series of short stories set in his favourite places in Upper Michigan and featuring his alter-ego, Nick Adams. Sure, these stories lack the sophisticated allure of 1920s Paris, for example, or the exotic and corrupt charms of pre-revolutionary Cuba, or the drama of Civil-War-era Spain. So when a list of places that informed and inspired Ernest Hemingway's fiction is compiled, Upper Michigan is often ignored. Which is a mistake, because these early short stories reveal a lot about his relationship with his parents and the preoccupations of his late-teenage years. 

Ernest writing at Walloon Lake in 1916 (aged 17)

In August 2016 my good friend Jerrod Edson and I made a two-day pilgrimage to Upper Michigan in order to visit the key locations associated with Ernest Hemingway and his writing. We wanted to visit and document  (through photographs and videos) the places that were important to him in the region—especially the places that inspired that first batch of short stories he wrote in Paris in 1924-25.

Jerrod and I at Harbor Springs (August, 2016)

 

This blog post is a comprehensive and detailed account of the places we visited in Upper Michigan. What I have tried to do here is to link explicitly fiction with fact. I have combined black-and-white archival photographs from the early decades of the twentieth-century with my own colour photographs. And I have tried to illustrate with photos the links between particular places and specific Hemingway works of fiction.

Harbor Springs

It was always a long and tiring journey north for the Hemingway family from their home near Chicago to their summer cottage in the woods of Upper Michigan. Each year, Dr. Clarence Hemingway—Ernest's father—would prepare detailed lists of the provisions required for the upcoming three-month holiday. The clothing, housewares, tools, fishing and hunting gear, toys, books, and non-perishable foodstuffs would be carefully packed into trunks, crates and boxes. From Oak Park—then a small town due west of the city, but now an outer suburb of Chicago—the Hemingways would take a train east for 9 miles (15 km) into the city, and then hire a horse and cart to move their heavy luggage to the docks.

Colour postcard of the SS Manitou

 

Their belongings would be loaded onto a large lake steamer, which would carry them north-east across Lake Michigan to Harbor Springs—a gateway, of sorts, to the summer-resort area centred on the town of Petoskey. Steamers had begun plying the waters of the Great Lakes in the mid-nineteenth-century, and Chicago soon became a major passenger port on Lake Michigan. Getting north by train or car was not a viable option until the 1920s; it was the lake steamers which opened up the north woods of Michigan to summer holidaymakers in the 1890s.

SS Manitou coming in to dock at Harbor Springs

When the Hemingway family sailed north to Upper Michigan, it was often on the S.S. Manitou, one of the more luxurious steamers. The fare was $5 per passenger (not including meals and private berths). The Manitou was the fastest ship on Lake Michigan. It had a top-speed of 17 knots (19.5 mph); depending on the weather conditions and the number of stops, it would take between 24-32 hours to reach its destination at Harbor Springs—located on the north shore of Little Traverse Bay in Upper Michigan. 

Harbor Springs is on the northern shore of Little Traverse Bay

Postcard of the dock and train station in Harbor Springs in early twentieth century

Harbor Springs became the preferred port for the large steamers because it was well-protected by Harbor Point and it had the deepest natural harbor in all of the Great Lakes. The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad built a spur line into town. The station was right beside the dock; the porters would only have to move the Hemingways' luggage about 100 yards to get it to the station depot.

 

Harbor Springs Bay (the Point in the distance)

The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway depot in Harbor Springs

If there was a delay, the children would play in the dirt road, or on the grass lawns in the park next to the station. Eventually everything and everybody was loaded onto the train, which then made its way around the shoreline of the Bay for 11 miles (18 km) to the town of Petoskey, on the opposite (southern) shore of Little Traverse Bay. 

Hemingway children in Harbor Springs: (l-r): Ernest, Marcelline, Madeleine and Ursula

 

Train from Harbor Springs to Petoskey

 

All that's left now of this early-twentieth-century travel infrastructure is the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad depot. The passenger trains no longer run up in this region. The tracks are gone. The original dock is also long gone—replaced by a large, covered marina belonging to Walstrom Marine. The station has been renovated; it opened in 2012 as The Depot Club and Restaurant—a private dining club offering two menus: fine dining inside and more casual food at the patio outside on Bay Street. You can walk west from The Depot along the beach at Zorn Park and look south over the harbour towards the Point. And then look back towards the GR&I station and imagine the Manitou docked in the harbour and the Hemingway family heading for the train.

The beach at Harbor Springs with Walstrom Marine marina behind

  

The GR&I Railway Depot in Harbor Springs

Passing The Depot, which is now a restaurant

Jerrod and I spent most of our time in Harbor Springs on the waterfront—looking out across the harbor towards the Point—imagining the Manitou slowing coming around it and arriving at the dock. As we walked over to check out the original Grand Rapids and Indiana station, we passed a woman on a bicycle. She stopped—her curiosity aroused by the professional-looking camera and tripod we were carrying. After we explained the nature of our visit, she asked whether we knew about the Hemingway statue up on Main Street. Well, no, we didn't; so after our visit to the depot, we strolled up to Main street and found the bronze effigy outside Knox Galleries at 175 E. Main St. It was a fitting spot to do a series of photos and a brief video.

Me (left) and Jerrod, with our bronzed buddy Hemingway outside Knox Galleries

Getting a large family and its baggage to Upper Michigan in the first two decades of the twentieth-century was really only possible by boat. But then in 1908 the Ford company in Detroit began to mass-produce cars in sufficient numbers to make them available to upper-middle-class families. After holding out for a while, Dr. Clarence Hemingway finally bought one of these new-fangled things—a Ford Model T Touring car. 

1916 Model-T touring car

Clarence was an adventurous sort, so in the summer of 1917 (when Ernest was turning 18 years old) he decided to try getting to Walloon Lake in the new car. There wasn't room for all the family and their luggage, of course; so the four girls travelled by steamer, as usual, and the rest of the family—Ernest, his parents Clarence and Grace, and the youngest child, Leicester (then only a two-year-old)—travelled in the Model T.

And it was quite an adventure. The roads were unpaved, and there were no signs to mark the way. It took them five days to cover the 487 miles. They camped out each night in tents (except for the fourth day, when they stayed with Clarence's brother George, and his family, in Ironton). Most of the luggage they needed on route was stashed  in the back—so Leicester had to sit on his mother's lap for the whole trip! Ernest sat up front with his father. Some of their stuff was carried on the outside of the car: a couple of spare tires were roped to the driver's door; and other equipment was packed on the running board.

Clarence, Grace, Ernest (second from right) and Leicester with Uncle George's wife and children

Clarence kept a brief diary during their journey—with notes about times, distances and costs. The car would average 20 miles per gallon. The total cost for gasoline and oil for the five-day journey was $8.32. The top speed for a Model T in 1917 was 45 m.p.h. But they could seldom run at that speed for extended periods. Clarence had brought a saw along with them. Ernie was often called upon to cut a handful of branches that would then be jammed under the wheels to provide traction on uphill sandy patches of road. The 30-mile stretch from Traverse City to Walloon Lake was especially challenging; they averaged only 8 mph. Well, it was a memorable experiment. But it came as no surprise when Dr. Hemingway had the car shipped from Manistee (south-west of Traverse City) to Chicago on the S.S. Missouri. A detailed account of this adventure north by Model T car can be found in an article written for Michigan History Magazine by Morris Buske, a retired teacher who worked at Oak Park High School, which Ernest had attended from 1913-1917.

1884 drawing of Harbor Springs (the Point behind and Petoskey in the far distance)

The final thing I wanted to do in Harbor Springs was to get a photograph from higher up in the town—a vista looking down over both the lower town (in the foreground), the harbour and the point (in the middle), and Petoskey (way off in the distance across Little Traverse Bay). There is an impressive drawing done in 1844 of just such a view; it is included in Constance Cappel's book. I hoped to capture a colour photograph of a similar view. Navigating by instinct, we drove up to a ridge above town and found the perfect location on East Bluff Drive. We could see the white buildings of Petoskey far across the Bay. It was late afternoon, but there was still a couple of hours of good light left. We got in the car and took the same route on M-119 ('M' for Michigan highway) as the GR&I train would have followed along the north shore of the Bay.

Looking over Harbor Springs from up on East Bluff Drive

Petoskey

Map of Petoskey with our destinations labelled

Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway depot in Petoskey (looking north)

The train from Harbor Springs would arrive in Petoskey at the Grand Rapids & Indiana station on Bay Street.  The Hemingways would transfer themselves and their baggage on to a smaller "dummy train"; this was a seasonal, suburban-style train that would take vacationers further south to hotels and cottages on Lake Charlevoix and Bear Lake (rechristened later as Walloon Lake). 

The GR&I Railway depot (now an office complex)

Looking south at the GR&I Railway depot

If there was a delay waiting for this local train, the family would wander around that area of town. On one such occasion (in 1908), Clarence and Grace—Ernest's parents—had their photo taken in a nearby tourist office. It was the equivalent of a modern "photo booth". The backdrop features a native Indian motif.

Clarence and Grace Hemingway in Petoskey in 1908

The GR&I depot was built in 1892. The building is now called the Pennsylvania Plaza, and it serves as an office complex. Located conveniently across Bay Street is the Perry Hotel. This station is mentioned in Hemingway's satirical novella The Torrents of Spring (1926). The story's protagonist, Yogi Johnson, leaves Brown's Beanery on Howard Street ("The Best By Test") and walks north out of town on the railroad tracks with a naked "Indian squaw" via the GR&I depot. 

The old depot is now called the Pennsylvania Plaza office complex

The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad promoted the wonders of Upper Michigan throughout the Midwest. In newspaper advertising and tourist brochures, they referred to themselves as "the fishing line".

Unlike the situation in Harbor Springs, the old train rails in downtown Petoskey have not been removed. You can stand on the rails looking south and imagine the dummy train chugging its way south to Walloon Lake in 1918 with Clarence and Grace Hemingway on board, together with their six children and the many boxes and crates of provisions for the summer ahead.

 

The unused railway tracks going south through Petoskey

Across the street from the station sits the Perry Hotel. It is located at the corner of Bay Street and Lewis Street. It was built in 1899 (the year of Hemingway's birth), and was the last of the original resort hotels that served vacationers at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Perry Hotel—built in Hemingway's birth-year (1899)

In June 1916, Hemingway and his high school friend Lewis Clarahan set out on a hiking adventure. They crossed Lake Michigan by steamer to Frankfort, and then hiked north from river to river in Upper Michigan fishing and camping. They parted ways at the Kalkaska railroad station. Clarahan headed south back to Chicago. Ernie took the train north to Petoskey. He stayed for one night at The Perry Hotel and paid 75 cents for a room. The next day he hiked south to Horton Bay to stay with the Dilworth family.

Lewis Clarahan and Hemingway (right) in Upper Michigan in June, 1916

 

Perry Hotel before Lewis Street was paved

Perry Hotel: Hemingway stayed here for a night in June, 1916 (the room cost 75 cents)

 

There was another railway station in Petoskey. It was built in 1892 by the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad (CWMR). In 1899 the CWMR merged with two other railroad companies to form the Père Marquette Railway. So this depot—located at the junction of East Lake Street and Bayfront Drive, just across from the Municipal Marina—is known as the Père Marquette Station. With the eventual demise of the Railway, this station was converted to The Little Traverse History Museum in the 1960s. It houses permanent exhibits about local history.

The other railway station in town: the Pere Marquette depot

 

The south side of the old Pere Marquette depot—it now houses a local history museum

There is a whole wall on the south-west end of the museum devoted to Ernest Hemingway's ties to Petoskey and the surrounding region. There are only a few artifacts here linked directly to Hemingway, but there are some first editions of his books on display, and half-a-dozen excellent wall displays about the Hemingway family and their time in Upper Michigan. 

Permanent Hemingway display in the Little Traverse History Museum

High chairs used by the Hemingway children at the family's Windemere Cottage
—they are visible in the photograph on the wall

One of Ernest's closest friends in Petoskey was Edwin "Dutch" Pailthorp. They hung out together a lot in the winter of 1919-1920, when Ernie was living in town. When Hemingway visited Petoskey briefly in 1947, he gave Dutch inscribed copies of A Farewell to Arms, Death in the Afternoon, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Mr. Pailthorp donated these valuable items to the museum along with a Christmas card he received from Ernie and his wife Mary. Hemingway loved to give everybody nicknames: it is amusing to read the inscription in the Christmas card to the Pailthorps—"Dear Dutch and Mrs. Dutch", it reads.

Hemingway first editions donated by "Dutch" Pailthorpe to the museum

Descendants of Liz and Jim Dilworth, who ran a holiday resort and restaurant in Horton Bay, have loaned three items to the Museum: a helmet, a canteen, and an ammunition belt. Hemingway stayed with the Dilworths often in his late-teen years—especially when relations were strained with his mother Grace. In 1919, during his first trip back to the area after his service as a Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy during WWI, he left a few American army objects at the Dilworth's Pinehurst Cottage. 

Three U.S. army objects left by Hemingway at Pinehurst Cottage in Horton Bay

As with the railway depot in Harbor Springs, the railroad tracks here have been removed. But there's no mistaking that this building used to be a train station; it has the characteristic extending eaves that would have protected passengers from sun and rain, when they were waiting for a train. The museum inside has the station office paraphernalia next to the bay window on the north side: ticket dispensary, telegraph machine, and so on.

Typical eaves of a train depot

The Museum has the depot office set up in the bay window—with appropriate artifacts

Hemingway would have used this station if he was taking a train south down the coast to Charlevoix, rather than the "dummy train" to Walloon Lake. He mentions The Père Marquette railroad tracks west of the station in his high school story "Sepi Jingan" (1917) and in the short story "The Indians Moved Away".

Looking down on the Little Traverse History Museum from West Lake Street

The Hemingway family seldom came up to Petoskey during their summer vacations at Walloon Lake. They brought all the non-perishable foodstuffs with them from Chicago; and perishable food—like eggs, milk, meat, fruit and vegetables—would have been obtained from their neighbours at the Bacon farm, or from stores in Walloon Village. But around the time that Ernest and his older sister Marcelline graduated from high school, they began hanging out more with friends beyond their family's Windemere Cottage. Ernie preferred Horton Bay; Marcelline spent her time in Petoskey.

In the Fall of 1919, Hemingway did not go back to Oak Park with the rest of his family. He craved independence—especially from his mother. He stayed with the Dilworths in Horton Bay, to help them with the seed-potato harvest; and then in October he moved up to Petoskey to hang out with his friends there for the winter—especially Marjorie Bump and Edwin "Dutch" Pailthorp.

Ernest rented a room here in winter of 1919-1920 (corner of Woodland and State St.)

Hemingway found a room at Potter's Rooming House on 602 East State St (corner of Woodland Ave). He rented an upstairs room from Eva Potter in the front corner of the house. He was determined now to try his hand at writing stories for the popular magazines. Eva's daughter Hazel—who worked down in Mancelona, but came home for the weekends—noted the endless sound of Ernie banging away on the typewriter in his room. He worked hard at his stories during this period, but he couldn't get anything published—his fiction was still too immature and derivative. Hazel also recalled him spending a lot of time with Marjorie Bump. It's likely that one of the main reasons he moved up to Petoskey that winter was to be near her.

Marjorie Bump

In the summer of 1919, Marjorie had been working as a waitress in the restaurant that Liz Dilworth ran in Horton Bay. Ernest took a shine to her. She was three years younger than Hemingway. She moved back to Petoskey in September for her last year of high school. Ernest would regularly walk from his room on State Street to the high school in the afternoon to meet her. They would spend the rest of the afternoon together walking around town and talking. Hemingway used his memories of Marjorie Bump to create the character of Marjorie in the two related short stories he wrote in the spring of 1924 in Paris: "The End of Something" and "The Three-Day Blow".

Hemingway rented a room here at the Potter Rooming House

One of Hemingway's regular rituals when he was living on State Street was to walk a couple of blocks north to East Mitchell St, in order to visit the library. He would read the newspapers and borrow books. The Petoskey Public Library was in the Carnegie Building—yet another public library built with funding from the Carnegie Foundation (in 1901). Eventually the library was moved—but to a building right across the street. The Carnegie Building is now a community centre and houses some historical archives.

Carnegie Building on E. Mitchell St. was the town's library in early twentieth century

The Carnegie Building in 1901

 

During his stay in Petoskey in 1919, Hemingway was invited by the "Arts Study Group" of the Ladies' Aid Society to speak at the library in December about his WWI experiences. This was a reprise of the talk he had given to students at Oak Park High School, his alma mater, the previous March. He wore his uniform—including the sweeping cloak with the silver clasp and the highly-polished cordovan boots—and hobbled in with the walking stick he used all the time (because of the extensive shrapnel wounds he had suffered in his legs). An impressive sight. It was a dramatic presentation, during which Ernest declared that, after his wounding at the front, "it seemed more reasonable to die than live." The women were moved.

One of the women who heard Hemingway's talk at the Library that evening in December, 1919 was particularly impressed—and that would have important consequences for his future. Harriet Connable happened to be in Petoskey visiting her mother. She went along to hear Ernest's talk primarily because she was a friend of his mother Grace. Harriet was the wife of Ralph Connable, who ran the Woolworth chain in Canada. The Connables happened to be looking for someone to keep company with their teenage son, while they went south to Palm Beach, Florida for a three-month winter vacation. Their son had been lame from birth; they were looking for a young man who could keep their son active and out of the house. The sporty, confident, and out-going Hemingway seemed the ideal candidate. Ernest had no other prospects at the time so he jumped at the opportunity: he would be paid well, have full access to the Connables' mansion in Toronto (not to mention their wine cellar and drinks cabinet), and enjoy free travel and interesting new experiences. Ralph also happened to have important contacts at The Toronto Star. His recommendation got Ernest in the door at the Star. This led to journalistic assignments with the paper and, ultimately, to the unique position of roving, freelance European correspondent based in Paris. Hemingway took up the position in Toronto with the Connables in January, 1920.

Hemingway (right) and Bill Smith on Mitchell St. (near the Library) ca. 1920

One block north of the Carnegie Library building is the City Park Grill at 432 East Lake Street. It was built in 1899. In Hemingway's time this bar/restaurant was known as The Annex. 

The City Park Grill on East Lake Street (formerly The Annex)

The Annex (on the right)

Before Prohibition took effect in Petoskey in 1920, The Annex was a billiards hall and saloon. Hemingway used to hang out here, playing billiards, drinking, and making bets on bare-knuckle fights in the nearby park. It is thought to be the inspiration for the saloon setting in Hemingway's short story "A Man of the World" (June, 1957). The plush Cushman House Hotel was once attached to the west side of The Annex. Ernie stayed in the hotel briefly in October 1919, before he moved to Eva Potter's rooming house. 

The Annex (left) next to the Cushman House Hotel (Ernest stayed here in Oct. 1919)

 

A Michigan History Society Hemingway plaque—this one outside the City Park Grill

The City Park Grill makes much of its Hemingway connection. There is a drawing of Ernie (based on Yousuf Karsh's famous 1957 photo) above the bar, near the seat that is reputed to have been his favourite (second from the end, near the front door).

Jerrod sitting in what is reputedly Hemingway's spot at the bar—second from the left

Pilar liquour behind the bar (Pilar was the name of Hemingway's boat)

There are three Hemingway sites to visit on nearby Howard Street. The Harold Grant Building used to stand at 210 Howard Street. It was the site of Braun's Restaurant, thought to be the model for Brown's Beanery ("The Best By Test") in Hemingway's satirical novella The Torrents of Spring. 

Jesperson's Restaurant on Howard Street

One block south, at 312 Howard Street, is Jesperson's Restaurant. This was a favourite diner of Hemingway and his friend "Dutch" Pailthorp. The long counter here is thought to have been in Hemingway's mind when he wrote his short story "The Killers" (1927). And the proprietor, Yorgen Jesperson, must have been in Ernie's mind when he came up with the name Yogi Johnson for one of the two protagonists in The Torrents of Spring.

Petoskey's Flatiron Building

 

The Flatiron Building

Across the street from Jesperson's is the Flatiron building. In 1919, a couple of stores north of the triangular corner—at 309 Howard Street—sat the McCarthy Barber Shop. Hemingway probably visited this establishment at some point for a shave or haircut; no doubt he would have enjoyed the freewheeling jesting that would have gone on in there all day. A brief scene in The Torrents of Spring, has two Indians entering McCarthy's for a shave, while protagonist Scripps O'Neill watches from the street outside.

The Hemingway shelves at the McLean & Eakin bookstore in Petoskey

I made two purchases: The Torrents of Spring and Hemingway on Fishing

 

When we arrived in Petoskey on Monday morning, we found a really good cafe/diner for breakfast called Roast & Toast. Right next door, coincidentally, is McLean & Eakin—an excellent bookstore. By the front window they had an entire section devoted to Hemingway. I bought a copy of The Torrents of Spring for myself, and a copy of Hemingway on Fishing for a friend who is an avid fisher.

Hemingway leaving Petoskey for Toronto in January 1920

Ernest Hemingway's winter stay in Petoskey ended in early January, 1920. He took the train to Toronto, in order to take up the three-month job for the Connable family. There is a characteristic photograph of Ernie—probably taken on the day he left town, because he has a suitcase in his left hand—standing outside the Potter Rooming House on State Street. He is standing in the snow, supporting himself with a cane.  He's wearing the leather coat, with a sheepskin lining, that he wore all through that winter. And look carefully; there's a bottle of wine sticking out of the coat's right-hand pocket!

Walloon Lake

The Walloon Lake region: Walloon Lake (right) and Lake Charlevoix (left)

After spending Monday morning exploring Hemingway sites in Petoskey, Jerrod and I left town around noon. It would have been faster to get to Walloon Lake village by heading south on the M-131. But since our first destination was to be the Hemingway-family cottage on the northern shore of Walloon Lake—which would have required a diversion west from the main road anyway—we decided to take Resort Pike Road. It runs south from the western outskirts of Petoskey and ends up at the lake just a few hundred metres east of Windemere Cottage. This route would have been the favoured one back in 1900-1920. 

Looking north on Resort Pike Road towards Petoskey

In Hemingway's time here, Resort Pike Road was a dirt road. As he got older, he started to spend time away from his family at Windemere Cottage; he hung out with members of the Bacon family nearby, and interacted with some of the Ojibway Indians who lived in a settlement on the north side of Indian Garden Road. Sometimes he went up to Petoskey on Resort Pike Road in a horse and cart with Joseph and Carl Bacon. One such trip is fictionalized in Hemingway's story "Ten Indians" (1927). He also mentions Resort Pike Road in "The Indians Moved Away". The road rises steadily uphill as you drive south out of Petoskey; and eventually it heads downhill as you approach Walloon lake. There are moments on the road when you can get impressive vistas looking north towards Little Traverse Bay and, later, towards Walloon Lake to the south.

Hemingway sites labelled on close-up map of Walloon Lake

When we reached the end of Resort Pike Road, we were on the north shore of Walloon Lake. There was a small area available to park vehicles. We got out of the car and discovered an attractive public park that gave us access to a small beach. 

Beach on Walloon Lake at the Resort Township Park (southern end of Resort Pike Road)

Walloon Lake was gouged out of the landscape by retreating glacial ice. It covers 4,270 acres (about 17 km²) and has a maximum depth of  about 100 ft (30 m). It's one-quarter the size of nearby Lake Charlevoix. Although the western tip of the lake is only a mile (1.6 km) from Lake Michigan, it sits 100 ft above it. Walloon Lake is fed mostly by groundwater. When the Hemingways first encountered the lake, it was known as Bear Lake; Bear River drains out of the east end of the lake at Walloon Village and flows north to Little Traverse Bay.

Jerrod scrawling into the beach sand

Jerrod's panorama of me photographing Walloon Lake

Clarence and Grace Hemingway—Ernie's parents—first visited this area in August, 1898. They were interested in buying land, in order to build their own cottage. They brought their seven-month-old daughter Marcelline with them. The family stayed in a cabin at Wildwood Harbour on the southern shore of Bear Lake—directly across the lake from the spot where they would eventually settle. It took them two weeks to find a property that satisfied them. Eventually they bought 4 lots (an acre) on the north shore from Henry Bacon, who owned a farmstead nearby. The property had a 200-foot lake frontage.

Clarence Hemingway, who worked as a doctor in Oak Park on the outskirts of Chicago commissioned the building of a cottage, based on Grace's own design. The next year, the family returned to monitor the progress that had been made. There were two children now; Ernest had been born on July 21st., 1899. They stayed a mile away from their property at the Echo Beach Hotel. Ernest was just six weeks old on this first of 22 summers at Walloon Lake (between 1899 and 1921, he only missed visiting Walloon Lake in 1918, when he was serving with the Red Cross in Italy).

The Hemingways stayed here in 1900

Grace with son Ernest at the family's new property on Walloon Lake in 1900

When the Hemingway family returned in the summer of 1900, the cottage was ready. It had cost $400 to build. It measured 20 feet x 40 feet. White pine boards were used for the exterior and interior walls, and the exterior walls were faced with clapboard that had been painted white. The living room had a large brick fireplace and two window seats, which doubled as beds for the children. The kitchen had a wood-burning stove and an iron-handled pump that drew up fresh water from a well. There was also a small dining room. At the back of the cottage there were two small bedrooms. Three years later (1902) a kitchen wing was added. It included a screened-in dining area. And eventually an annex was attached with three more bedrooms. Grace dubbed the cottage Windemere—after the town and lake of Windermere in England's Lake District. But she slightly altered its spelling.

Looking up at Windemere Cottage from the beach

Looking south on Windemere Cottage from the property line

There was no electricity at the cottage—at night they used oil lamps. They built an outhouse in a grove of pine trees at the back of the property. Lake water was used to bathe in and wash their clothes. The original cottage had a porch on the front side. It faced south-west. They had chosen their location on the shoreline well; they were in a small bay, and their place was protected nicely from the north wind by a promontory that jutted into the lake. It became known as Murphy's Point—the children would camp out on the Point in their teenage years. From the porch they could look south into the distance at the rolling green hills rising over the southern shore of the lake. And beyond the beach right in front of them lay the beautiful blue waters of a pristine lake.

Grace and Clarence with their first two children: Marcelline (left) and Ernest

The Bacon farmstead lay behind the property line at the back of their place. Close ties developed between the two families. The Bacon farm provided a lot of the fresh produce the Hemingways needed throughout the summer (such as daily milk and cream); and Clarence—Dr. Hemingway—provided ad hoc medical care and advice during his summer vacations. In addition to the food from the farm, the Hemingways would regularly get provisions from stores in the village of Walloon Lake. They hardly ever needed to make a long trip up to Petoskey. The Bacons are the models for the Garner family in a couple of Ernie's early short stories: "Ten Indians" and "Fathers and Sons".

Land north of Windemere: now a nature preserve, it used to be the Bacon farmstead

 

The cottagers on Walloon Lake were serviced by a couple of lake steamers. After the Hemingways arrived at Walloon Lake village by train from Petoskey, they would transfer everything to The Tourist—a large, 82 ft. long, wood-burning steamer brought to the lake in 1893 by the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway, specifically to drum up tourist business for their trains out of Harbor Springs and Petoskey. Summer holiday-makers were then delivered to various small docks ("landings") around the lake. The Hemingways used Bacon Landing. In those days, of course, there were no easy methods of communicating; so if cottagers wanted the steamer to stop at their landing, and take them into the village, they simply flew a white flag from a flagpole on the shoreline of their property.

The "Tourist" lake steamer which serviced Walloon Lake

The Tourist lake steamer at Walloon Lake village

It was in the woods around Windemere Cottage that Ernest Hemingway was introduced to fishing and hunting by his father, an avid outdoorsman. Clarence taught his children how to catch wild animals and how to cook them over an open fire. 

Ernest's first hunting gun—an air rifle

On the beach at Windemere Cottage in 1901 (Ernie in Grace's arms)

 

Clarence first took Ernie fishing for bass and trout on Walloon Lake, when he was three years old. He was hooked. Later, he turned his attention to trout fishing over in Horton Creek, which flowed south into Lake Charlevoix, just west of the little hamlet of Horton Bay.

Not surprisingly, the Hemingways spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water in front of their cottage. The lake provided some practical means of transport and communication. It was also used for washing and cleaning. But it appealed primarily for the recreational opportunities it provided. The family went swimming all the time. Clarence and Ernest were keen on fishing—mostly for bass and trout.  And the family began to acquire boats. The first vessel was a simple canoe. Then came a long rowboat dubbed Marcelline of Windemere. When the family acquired Longfield Farm, they realized that another rowboat would be required for the regular 1.5 km trips directly across the lake from Windemere. They bought a rowboat almost identical to the first; this one was named after the second daughter—Ursula of Windemere. Much later, in 1929, they acquired an 18 ft. launch (called Sunny, after daughter #3) powered by an inboard Gray Marine motor. They had a boathouse built to house the growing fleet. And they began to install a portable dock at the beginning of each summer (removing it each fall because of the ice that covered the lake for most of the winter).

Ernest (second from left) in Ursula of Windemere

Hemingway standing tall in the prow of a rowboat on Walloon Lake

Ernest Hemingway wrote a number of short stories set in and around Windemere Cottage. The most important are "Indian Camp" (the first-published Nick Adams story, which introduced the key Hemingway themes of physical pain, death and suicide), "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" (a revealing portrait of his parents), "Ten Indians" and "The Indians Moved Away" (which reveal both sympathetic and racist attitudes toward the local Ojibway Indians), and "Wedding Day" (about Ernest and Hadley's marriage in Horton Bay and their honeymoon at Windemere Cottage).

Longfield had been denuded of trees by lumber companies in the late nineteenth-century

In 1905 the Hemingways used part of the inheritance that Grace had received from her father in order to buy a 40-acre farm on the south shore of Walloon lake, just west of Wildwood Harbour. They called it Longfield Farm. They used the farm as a source of food and a place that would offer the health-benefits of regular physical labour. The Frank Washburn family was hired to serve as tenant farmers: Clarence got one-third of the crops, in return for paying the upkeep on the farm. The Hemingways improved the land by planting many trees, growing hay and vegetables. Their children were recruited to sell surplus vegetables to neighbouring cottage owners and nearby resorts. In 1917 an additional 20 acres were bought. A local farmer, Warren Sumner, was hired to take over from Frank Washburn. One of the useful things Sumner would do was to cut large chunks of ice from the lake during the winters and store them in an ice-house built at Longfield. The ice would then be transferred by boat in the summer to an icehouse at Windemere Cottage. 

Warren Sumner and Ernest (right) removing rocks from Longfield Farm (ca. 1917)

In 1919, Ernest's mother decided to build a small cottage for herself at Longfield Farm. She wanted to set it up as quiet refuge away from the noise and clutter and worry of dealing with her six children for the entire summer—especially after her husband began to spend less and less time at Windemere in the summers. It had been an ambition of hers for many years. Clarence was opposed to the idea. But Grace went ahead anyway. She spent about $2,500 having the cottage built on a high ridge at Longfield that she and Clarence called Red Top Mountain. She dubbed it Grace Cottage. Soon a piano was installed. Grace used the place as a music room and art studio. The money spent building Grace Cottage became a bone of contention between Ernest and his mother. He felt that the money should have been used to fund his younger siblings college education. The resentment he felt for Grace about this issue was added to the growing estrangement—caused, he felt, by her domineering and censorious attitude to the family. Ernest believed that Grace hen-pecked her husband. He never forgave his mother for that—especially after Clarence committed suicide in 1928.

Grace Cottage on Longfield Farm

 When he became a teenager, Ernest was expected to take on more and more work each summer at Longfield—especially after Clarence began to spend more time at his medical practice in Oak Park during the summers. In the summer of 1914, Ernie pitched a tent at Longfield Farm and spent much time there with his high-school friend Evan Sampson. They gathered hay and sold vegetables around the lake. By the end of the summer they had harvested 50 bushels of potatoes.

(l-r) Clarence, Carol, Marcelline, Madeleine, Grace, Ernest, Leicester (baby) and Ursula

 

Hemingway's father died in 1928. After his mother followed in 1951, Ernest inherited Windemere Cottage. But he never went back there after his last summer spent in Upper Michigan in 1921. With Ernie's death in 1961, his fourth wife Mary Welsh Hemingway fulfilled Ernie's stated wish and signed over the cottage to his sister Madelaine ("Sunny"). She used the place as a summer home until her death in 1995. It was then bequeathed to her son Ernie Mainland, Ernest Hemingway's nephew. In a long chat with a local, who was sunning himself in a deckchair on a dock at Horton bay, I discovered that Ernie almost never visits the cottage anymore. It's future seems to be up in the air. Will it stay in the family? Or will it eventually become a museum/shrine that Hemingway fans will be able to wander around?

Jerrod and I at Resort Township Park

After a short stay at the Resort Township Park, Jerrod and I walked west along Lake Grove Road, in order to find Windemere Cottage. We knew roughly what it looked like—the key feature was the uneven roofline, caused by the addition of the kitchen-wing to the original 20 ft. x 40 ft. structure. In the 1910s there was no road or track behind the cottage. Access to the property was gained from the lake. There was just a split-rail fence marking the northern boundary, separating their lot from the Bacon farmstead. The Bacon land is now part of the Covert Nature Reserve, supervised by the Walloon Lake  Conservancy. There are some hiking trails set up through this land. Now there is a paved road providing automobile access to cottages and homes. Many of these homes cannot possibly be called "cottages"—they are huge, obviously very expensive, residences. If they are only seasonal homes, it boggles the mind how much money has been spent on them. 

Windemere Cottage is on Lake Grove Road

Windemere Cottage from the road

We knew from photographic research that Windemere Cottage was a rather humble abode. We stopped at one place that looked a likely contender, until we examined the even roofline. We moved on. We finally found our prize. Well, we did walk on a fair bit further, just to ensure that we were absolutely correct. It would be embarrassing in retrospect, to identify and photograph the wrong cottage! 

 

 

This back of Windemere Cottage shows the uneven roof line caused by the added kitchen wing

Windemere Cottage on Walloon Lake

I set up my tripod and we did a few videos. Then I took a lot of photographs of the cottage and the lot and, using the tripod again, several "selfies" of Jerrod and me standing in front of "mecca".

Here we are, Jerrod and I, at Windemere Cottage

When we got back to the parked car on Resort Pike Road, we looked north and noticed a pair of white-tailed deer on the road. They had come out from the nature reserve.

White-tailed deer at the corner of Resort Pike Road and Indian Garden Road

If you go back up that road and turn right roughly where the deer were standing, you are on Indian Garden Road. In the area east of Resort Pike Road and north of Indian Garden Road there used to be, in Hemingway's time, an Ojibway Indian settlement centred on the creek that flows south into Walloon Lake. The Indians who live there were sawyers and birch-bark strippers. Once the first-growth lumber in the region was exhausted by clear-cutting, the Indians' livelihood was eliminated, and their settlement would soon disappear. Hemingway got to know some of the Indians living here—especially Billy Tabshaw, Dick Boulton, and Dick's daughter Prudence—and they are featured in several of Hemingway's early short stories: "Indian Camp", "Ten Indians", "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife", "The Indians Moved Away", and "Fathers and Sons".

Ernest arriving at Windemere in 1916

Horton Bay

 

 

Map of Walloon Lake and Lake Charlevoix with Hemingway sites labelled

Horton Bay village

Aerial view of Horton Bay

Ernest Hemingway's summers in Upper Michigan were centred on two places: in his early years, he spent most of his time in and around the family's cottage on Walloon Lake; but as he grew into his teenage years, he spent more and more time in Horton Bay, on nearby Lake Charlevoix. He became something of a fixture in the home of Liz and Jim Dilworth. And in his late-teens, he would hang out with other youngsters his age, who were spending their vacation in the village. To get to Horton Bay, Hemingway would row across Walloon Lake and then walk about three miles.

The Dilworths of Horton Bay with the Hemingways at Windemere Cottage

There were two families in Upper Michigan that the Hemingways were closest to: the Bacon family, who had sold them their lot on Walloon Lake, and the Dilworths in Horton Bay. Liz and Jim Dilworth ran a holiday resort there. Jim also had a blacksmith shop opposite the township's school on the Boyne City Road. 

Jim Dilworth's blacksmith shop on Boyne City Road just east of Horton Bay hamlet

The  heart of the Dilworth holiday resort was their home at Pinehurst Cottage. Liz ran an inn at Pinehurst, which offered meals and accommodation to summer tourists. It was known particularly for the chicken-dinners Liz specialized in. The Dilworths also owned "Shangri-La", the house next door; it served as a rooming house. Ernest often stayed at Pinehurst, when he was visiting his friends in Horton Bay. 

Pinehurst Cottage in foreground; the Point visible on the other side of the Bay

The two houses are still there: to find them, turn south on Lake Street just east of the General Store on the Boyne City Road. The former-Dilworth establishments are the first two buildings on the left-side of the road as you walk down towards the Bay.

Looking south on Lake Street towards the Bay

Pinehurst Cottage (the rebuilt blacksmith shop just visible back-left)

Shangri-La Cottage—next door to Pinehurst and also owned by the Dilworths

At the southern end of Lake Street there is public access to the Bay—a sandy beach and a boat launch, where you can put vessels into Lake Charlevoix. Horton Bay is sheltered nicely by Ten Mile Point. Ernest set a couple of significant early short stories here: "Up In Michigan" and "The End of Something".

Horton Bay beach in foreground and the Point behind

Horton Bay beach

 

Ernest showing his catch on the wharf at Horton Bay (1919)

If you follow the beach west from here, you would eventually come to the mouth of Horton Creek. But a better vantage point can be found from a small dirt parking lot on the east side of the creek, just north of the Boyne City Road. It's in the Rufus Teesdale Nature Preserve. You walk from the lot on a short path through some open, scrubby ground into cedar and birch trees. And there you are, beside the Creek. 

Jerrod on the bank of Horton Creek

The clean water of Horton Creek

It's a beautiful, unspoiled spot. The young Hemingway was introduced to it as a three-year-old. In 1903 (when he was just four) he began fishing there with the 11-year-old Wesley Dilworth, who was his best friend at the time. And there is a famous photograph of the six-year-old Hemingway fishing here in 1905 with a bamboo rod, wearing a straw hat. Horton Creek remained his favourite place to fish trout for many years.. The clear water flows briskly to the Bay. I noticed some watercress growing close to the bank—a sure sign of the water's cleanliness. 

Ernest fishing on Horton Creek in 1905 (aged 6)

Hemingway mentions Horton Creek in "The End of Something", "The Indians Moved Away", and "On Writing". It's probably the model, too, for the creek mentioned in "The Last Good Country" and "Summer People". Even late in his career, he reminisces about fishing it in True At First Light (written primarily in 1954-1956).

Shangri-La (right) and Pinehurst Cottage (left)

The spring on Lake Street

As I was walking down Lake Street to the Bay, I was looking carefully along both sides of the road for a small spring of water. It was mentioned by Hemingway in his short story "Summer People", and I had the spring down on my list of things to see here in Horton Bay. He mentions dipping an arm into the water—as a way of beating the heat of a hot summer night. Ironically, then, it was not until we were trudging back up the road from the beach, and beginning to really feel the mid-day heat, that we noticed the spring in the ditch on the east side of the road—identified by a small, wooden, hand-made sign beside it. It invited passers-by to stick their hand into the spring and say "Yiaow!" Jerrod stuck his arm into the small, but rather deep, pool of water and dutifully yelled "Yiaow!" Then he noticed a couple of large frogs (toads?) sitting motionless next to the spring. I crouched down to examine them and then stuck my hand into the spring. Yes, the water was very cold. I suddenly caught a whiff of mint; there was quite a large and healthy-looking mint plant growing next to the water. I plucked a large leaf from it, rubbed it between my thumb and forefinger and held it up to my nose. I passed it over to Jerrod: "Smell," I said. "Mint," he replied. We had only been at the spot for a few minutes, but it seemed a memorable interlude. As we were about to leave, I impulsively picked a couple of sprigs from the plant. 

The impressive mint  plant at the spring

When we got back to our motel at the end of the day, one of the first things Jerrod did was to open his copy of The Nick Adams Stories to the story "Summer People", set in Horton Bay. He read through the first paragraph.

"Oh, man!" he exclaimed; "He mentions the mint." He read aloud:

"Halfway down the gravel road from Hortons Bay, the town, to the lake there was a spring. The water came up in a tile sunk beside the road, lipping over the cracked edge of the tile and flowing away through the close growing mint into the swamp. In the dark Nick put his arm down into the spring but could not hold it there because of the cold. He felt the featherings of the sand spouting up from the spring cones at the bottom against his fingers. Nick thought, I wish I could put all of myself in there. I bet that would fix me. He pulled his arm out and sat down at the edge of the road. It was a hot night."

"That's neat," he said.

"Yeah," I replied. I got up from the couch and went out to the car. From the back seat, I grabbed the two sprigs of mint and brought them in.

"Here," I said to Jerrod, "Take one of these. I'm gonna press my piece as a special memento." 

I retrieved my copy of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway from the bedroom. I looked for "Summer People" in the Table of Contents and opened to page 496. I placed the sprig of mint between the first two pages of the story, being careful to spread and flatten out each of the large leaves. I closed the book and placed it on the coffee table, and then piled several more books to sit on top of it overnight. 

"It'll dry out slowly in there," I said. "And the pages of 'Summer People' will take on quite a minty aroma!"

"Cool," Jerrod responded. I thought, if my wife were here, she would really think I was nuts.

A view of the General Store from Lake Street

When we got back to the car—parked in between The General Store and the Red Fox Inn—we put a couple of things on the back seat of the vehicle, and then turned our attention to the Red Fox Inn. It is an old building, built in 1878. It was made a restaurant in 1919, when Hemingway used to come here often during his summer vacations. Now it was set up as a store specializing in all kinds of Hemingway memorabilia: new and used books, T-shirts, mugs, baseball caps, etc. 

The Red Fox Inn on the Boyne City Road (next door to the General Store)

 

Red Fox Inn

"It looks closed," I said.

"Nooooo!" said Jerrod.

We mounted a short flight of wooden steps and pulled at the handle of the screen door. It did not move. "Shit."

Although we had both planned to spend a bundle on a handful of items each, Jerrod was particularly disappointed. We gazed in disbelief at a small printed sign on the door. Closed on Sundays and Mondays, it read.

Closed on Sundays and Mondays!

I set up my tripod and we did a couple of videos and a few photos, cursing repeatedly as the situation hit home.

"Well," I offered, looking at the building next door, "let's check out the General Store."

The Horton Bay General Store

The Horton Bay General Store was established in 1876. It has a distinctive false-front that rises high above the roof. It's the de rigueur photo shown in any book, article, or web-site page about Horton Bay. In Hemingway's time it was a combination of general store, cafe, and soda shop. And it served as the social centre of the community. 

When the current proprietor took over the place (about 15 years ago), it was store specializing in party favours. He turned it into a combination antique/curio shop and small diner. The back wall is filled with photographs and illustrations of Ernest Hemingway. I discovered from the owner that the store was actually closed, but he said it was OK for me to look around because he was going to be there for another half-hour, anyway, finishing up a few tasks. He told me to check out the photo of Ernest and Hadley sitting together on a bench. "It was taken out front," he mentioned nonchalantly. 

The interior of the Horton Bay General Store

Ernest and Hadley in St. Louis (1920)

I bought a styrofoam-cup's-worth of coffee and checked out the photos on the wall. That picture of Ernie and Hadley was framed. It shows a stream of tobacco smoke pouring from Hemingway's nostrils. Hadley was particularly impressed by that. I was about to correct the proprietor's information; I knew this shot was taken during a brief visit Ernest made to St, Louis (Hadley's home-town) in March, 1921. But I bit my tongue. I struck up a conversation about—what else?—Hemingway. His responses were rather perfunctory at first, but he warmed up considerably, when he realized I was a true aficionado of the Wemedge. He took me over to a spot on the original long mahogany counter, where customers would have sat for a coffee or soda back in the early twentieth-century. 

"There, look at that," he said, pointing down at the counter. There was a fully-formed capital H gouged into the wood. It was about 2 inches square. Beside it was the beginnings of a capital E, but not completed. "He was probably using his own pocket-knife on that piece of schoolboy vandalism," he said—"but got interrupted." Of course, I took a couple of pictures. I don't know, I thought. I'm a bit dubious about that. But why not; he was the type, I suppose.

I bought a Hemingway T-shirt, although I wasn't that crazy about it, I confess. But I felt the need to get something, at least, to recompense the guy for his time and interest. And a consolation prize for missing out on the Red Fox Inn memorabilia.

Another Michigan History group plaque

Jerrod and I went outside and sat on a bench on the front porch. We were both soaking up the atmosphere. It was a lovely summer day. We were thinking about Hemingway and the stories he set here. He mentions the general store with the "high false front" in "Up In Michigan", his first significant short story (from 1921). And it was the model for "Mr. Packard's store" in his unfinished novella "The Last Good Country". 

Horton Bay General Store—heart of the community in Hemingway's time

When Hemingway first started writing successful short stories in Paris (in the mid-1920s) he was reminiscing about—and making sense of—his last few summers in Horton Bay. In 1916 he spent more time than ever with the Dilworths and became close friends with Bill and Katy Smith. He had known them for several years. They came from St. Louis (as did his future-wife Hadley Richardson), and spent every summer in Horton Bay with their aunt Mrs. Charles.

Hemingway missed his first summer in Upper Michigan in 1918; he was serving with the American Red Cross near the front in north-east Italy during WWI. He spent the autumn and early winter in Milan, recuperating from serious shrapnel injuries to his legs. When he got home in 1919, he spent the summer in Horton Bay with Bill. At the end of the summer he did a camping and fishing trip to the Fox River, near Seney, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That experience inspired his best short story about fishing—"Big Two-Hearted River", which he wrote in Paris in 1925.

At the end of that summer, after the Hemingway family returned to Oak Park in Chicago, Ernest stayed on at Horton Bay and helped the Dilworths with the seed-potato harvest. Then he moved up to Petoskey and boarded at the Eva Potter Rooming House. His war-talk at the Carnegie Library in Petoskey in December lead to his three-month job at the Connable mansion in Toronto.

The "summer people" in 1920: (left-to-right) Carl Edgar, Katy Smith, Marcelline H., 
Bill Horne, Ernest and Bill Smith

In the early summer of 1920, Ernie was back in Horton Bay. Shortly after his 21st. birthday in July, Ernest's mother threw him out of Windemere Cottage, following a huge argument. He felt that she had hated him since he opposed her spending the money on building Grace Cottage. He spent most of the summer in Horton Bay with his usual gang of friends. He reminisces about this time later in the short story "Summer People".

The "summer people" down at the Bay in 1920 (Hemingway third from right)

When he returned to Chicago in the autumn, Ernest finally broke his ties with home. He could not face living under Grace's roof again. He did not go back to the family home in Oak Park; he moved into the city and shared digs in an apartment with a few friends. It was there that he met Hadley Richardson. She had come from St. Louis to spend time with her friend Katy Smith—who was also Ernie's close friend from Horton Bay. Ernie and Katy had deep feelings for each other.

Hadley and Ernest soon became a couple. She moved back to St. Louis, and they exchanged almost-daily letters to each other. Hemingway went down to St. Louis to visit and the couple became engaged. Hadley was an orphan; her mother had died the previous autumn. So they decided to get married at the Methodist church in Horton Bay. Hemingway didn't want a big wedding and he wanted to marry in a comfortable environment.

Hadley on her wedding day (Sep. 3, 1921)

Ernest and Hadley married on September 3rd., 1921. In addition to the immediate Hemingway family, Ernie also invited everyone in Horton Bay to attend. Bill Horne was best man. Most of the "summer people" were there. The service was held at the Methodist Church, located next door to the General Store. Following the wedding, everyone moved down to Pinehurst Cottage, where Liz Dilworth supervised the preparation of a wedding brunch—one of her familiar chicken-dinners, served up next door in Shangri-La.

Ernest and Hadley's wedding day in Horton Bay

Pinehurst Cottage—site for the wedding reception

Ernest's parents were in attendance; Grace had patched things up somewhat with her son. And she had offered the couple the use of Windemere Cottage for their two-week honeymoon. At about 4 p.m., a friend drove them over to Longfield Farm in his Model T Ford. Ernest rowed one of the family's boats over to Windemere.

In that last year from 1920 to 1921, Hemingway seemed to linger in and around Horton Bay as though he knew they would be the last times he ever spent there. The marriage service and wedding celebration in Horton Bay marked the end of Hemingway's Michigan summers. 

Looking over to Windemere Cottage

Jerrod and I drove over to the location of Longfield Farm from Horton Bay. We went south-east along the Boyne City Road and then turned east onto Sumner Road (named after the Hemingway's tenant farmer at Longfield). At the very end of the road it turns from a tarmac surface to a dirt road. There is a boat access and a short pier for tying up small boats. We stood at the end of this dock, looking across Walloon Lake towards Windemere Cottage. We thought of Hemingway's short story "Fathers and Sons", which features an extended portrait of Ernie's father Clarence (in the guise of Dr. Adams). The father's acute eyesight is mentioned, and Nick Adams recalls the two of them standing here, on the southern shore of Walloon Lake, and his father being able to see things that he couldn't: flag, flagpole, sister Dorothy and sheep.

"Nick would look across the lake and he could see the long wooded shoreline, the higher timber behind, the point that guarded the bay, the clear hills of the farm and the white of their cottage in the trees ... ."

In two-and-a-half days we had done Harbour Springs, Petoskey, Walloon Lake, and Horton Bay. Not bad! Our adventure was over; our pilgrimage complete.

Our pilgrimage complete

Resources

Biographical Information:

 

Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, by Carlos Baker, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969.

The Young Hemingway by Michael Reynolds, Norton & Co., 1986. [This is the first volume of Reynolds' excellent  five-volume biography of Hemingway.]

Hemingway In Michigan by Constance Cappel (Montgomery), Vermont Crossroads Press, 1977. [This excellent book provides links between all of Hemingway's Upper Michigan-based fiction and the places that inspired it.] 

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure by Michael Palin, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999 [This is based on the diaries and notes Palin kept during the filming of the BBC-TV series; it is not a transcript of the TV-series.]

"Up North With the Hemingways" by Michael Federspiel, Michigan History Magazine, Sep/Oct  2007.

"Dad, Are We There Yet?" by Morris Buske in Michigan History Magazine, March/April 1999.

  

Hemingway's Michigan,  a brochure published by The Michigan Hemingway Society, available at the Little Traverse History Museum

Tour Hemingway's Michigan, a website established by The Michigan Hemingway Society in 2016. This site contains a PDF file version of the society's useful brochure.

Hemingway Fiction set in Upper Michigan:

"Up in Michigan" (1921)—from Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923)

"Indian Camp" (1924)—from In Our Time (1925)

"The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife" (1924) from In Our Time (1925)

"The End of Something" (1924) from In Our Time (1925)

"The Three-Day Blow" (1924) from In Our Time (1925)

"The Battler" (1925) from In Our Time (1925)

"Big Two-Hearted River" (1925) from In Our Time (1925)

"Ten Indians" (1925) from Men Without Women (1927)

"The Killers" (1927) from Men Without Women (1927)

"The Light of the World" (1932) from Winner Take Nothing (1933)

"Father and Sons" (1933) from Winner Take Nothing (1933)

"Summer People" (1924) from The Nick Adams Stories (1972)

"The Last Good Country" (ca. 1951-1961) from The Nick Adams Stories (1972)

"Wedding Day" (?) from The Nick Adams Stories (1972)

"On Writing" (1925) from The Nick Adams Stories (1972), deleted from "Big Two-Hearted River"

Some of Hemingway's best stories set in Michigan were published in this book (1925)

The Torrents of Spring, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925., satirical novella set in Petoskey.

The Nick Adams Stories, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972., short stories set mostly in Walloon Lake, Horton Bay, and Petoskey

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987.

Ernest Hemingway: The Collected Stories, edited by James Fenton, Everyman's Library, 1995.

Colour Photography by Clive W. Baugh

using a Nikon D7000 camera (DSLR)

with a Nikon18mm-105mm zoom lens

© Clive Baugh, 2016—do not use without permission

[panorama photos by Jerrod Edson]

  

B&W archival photos 

 were found on-line and assumed to be public domain

(please advise if images here violate copyright restrictions);

some archival photos from the Hemingway collection at the J.F.K. Library in Boston.

Other photo-essay posts of mine about Ernest Hemingway:

Book Review of Hotel Florida by Amanda Vaill

[about Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn in the Spanish Civil War in the mid-1930s]

Photo Essay: Hemingway's Cojimar in Cuba

[lots of photos of Cojimar, where Hemingway docked his boat Pilar]

Photo Essay and Film Review of Hemingway in Midnight in Paris -- Part Two

[Photos of places in Paris used in portraying Hemingway's life there in the mid-1920s]

Pilar -- Hemingway's Boat at Finca Vigia in Cuba

[Photos and story of Hemingway's boat, in which he fished for marlin in the gulf stream]

Ernest Hemingway -- The Paris Years

[Photos of all the key places associated with Hemingway in Paris from 1922-1927]

Hemingway in Cuba -- Ambos Mundos & Finca Vigia

[Lots of Photos of Finca Vigia and Hem's apartment in Havana's Ambos Mundos hotel]

Film Review: Woody Gets Ernest in"Midnight in Paris"

[Fully illustrated review of Woody Allen's wonderful romantic comedy about 1920s Paris]

I have also produced a ten-minute YouTube video called

Finca Vigia: Ernest Hemingway'sCuban Home

featuring about 100 of my own colour photographs and about 40 B&W archival photos