Island in Saginaw Bay is a little known slice of paradise
CHARITY ISLAND, MI -- Leaving from the marina in Tawas it was a fabulous day for a boat trip aboard Charity Island Boat Tours. 7 years strong these tours, run by Bob and Karen Wiltsie make the island their home 7 months out of the year, and give people a chance to experience this little known treasure located right in the middle of Saginaw Bay. The tours leave from both Tawas and Caseville and offer dinner cruises and day trips. Photojournalist Brett Dickie and Kevin Usealman got a taste of what the island was like, but for Brett it was a blast from the past, as he used to boat to the island when he was a kid. Today the tours cross Saginaw Bay to share the island with a tour group 5 or 6 times per week.
"In the old days when they were doing all the crossings in pretty small boats", said Bob, "they thought this island was placed in the middle of a dangerous place as a charity from God as a refuge for mariners." That, he says, is how the name "Charity Island" came to be. He says the island has saved many lives from the icy waters over the last couple of centuries.
The Charity Island Marina offers shelter from those unforgiving waters in the form of a breakwall that Bob and his family helped to build. It was built blasting limestone from the bedrock the island sits upon. That limestone and flint was was used by the earliest settlers. "The island is literally littered with arrowheads and hammerstones and the remnants of the tool making process that went on out here for almost 2000 years," says Bob. The island was so important that arrowheads made here have been found as far away as Tennessee, having found their way there in the Indian bartering process.
The Wiltsie's enjoy sharing the island with their family, and he says his 4 and 5 year old nieces and nephews describe Charity Island as a "Paradise". "It's great to be able to leave the memories and create the experience for our family," he says, "and for everyone that comes out on the ferry boat. We're sharing the island and it's history with everyone who gets on the boat. It's a labor of love for my wife and I."
To schedule a trip go to charityisland.com
