BBL & Beyond News
Big Bass Lake and Beyond will take you to Big Bass Lake, Michigan, and that particular area along with posts on the Ludington/Scottville area, Camps Martin Johnson and Union League, Boys Clubs of America, Indiana, and recipes galore! Check out our categories on sidebar for more.
Yes, even trucks love cruising around on Big Bass Lake! This one is observed facing Four Winds Island while its inhabitants do a little ice fishing. I’d say that the ice is pretty thick in order to hold up that truck. One has to wonder if those guys took the truck for a ltittle spin around the lake?
Only in winter could one see a truck moving about Big Bass Lake which is usually reserved for speedboaters and pontoon boats. But do trucks have a winter monopoly on Big Bass Lake?
Yes, snowmobilers enjoy Big Bass Lake too. Let’s face it! Be it winter, summer, spring, or fall, Big Bass Lake has it all. And if you don’t happen to enjoy Big Bass Lake, just change the channel and go over to Little Bass Lake!
When our boys club kids were at our property they spent a fairly good amount of time fishing. However, you’d have thought they would have caught some bass. Most of the time perch or blue gill were taken in by their hooks. Not only did they not catch any big bass but nary a little bass either. One of the kids asked, “How come they didn’t call this Perch Lake?”
Truth to tell, most of the boys probably couldn’t tell a bass from a perch, much less a blue gill. Being from Indiana they could tell you what a catfish might be but that was about it. Yet even though they were disappointed at not catching any bass, those perch and blue gills sure went down their gullets just as fast. I thought perch were right tasty fish myself.
Only a few of the boys fished but everyone reaped the rewards of those efforts. However those that didn’t fish got to do the dishes that evening so they achieved their just desserts, don’t you think?
My grandmother never believed in wasting anything. She also used her resources to the maximum and that is why you could have a big hearty bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and then for dessert in the evening have a great piece of oatmeal pie. Here’s how-
Ingredients:
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup melted butter
2/3 cup white corn syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2/3 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust
Preparation:
In a medium bowl, combine eggs, butter, corn syrup, brown sugar, oatmeal, and vanilla; mix well. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until firm. Serve topped with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.
Brown sugar may have topped your morning oatmeal but I prefer ice cream to top my evening portion and that’s for sure. Fiber away!
Today there will be two posts as a recipe article will come your way later in the day and perhaps tha is where this fellow is heading?
For those of you who are unfamiliar with “On King” that is from Sgt. Preston of the Yukon and Yukon King his fearless huskie. Mush may not be the popular order for breakfast in cold Michigan however it is the order of the day for your sled team. One doesn’t have to worry about flat tires when one travels this way but more Gaines Burgers may be used over that of a gasoline expense.
Parkas are also the order of the day when one travels in this manner. It may take slightly longer to get to your destination but you have the advantage of crisp, clean air all the way. “On King!” Lake County, Michigan, does see this sight every now and then and some even around the Big Bass Lake area because where tires fail to tred the fearless paws of the sled dogs do not.
So, what’s wrong with this picture? This youngster is jogging on a partially iced over lake and by himsef, no less. What if he were to fall through? There would be no one around to help him out. The viable danger this kid is putting himself in is a no brainer. If a lake is only partially covered in ice, do your jogging on the shoreline.
This youngster is asking for trouble. I would caution all parents to warn their children of the dangers such as this. Use this kid as your example of what NOT to do. Even at Lake Michigan I opt to jog on the shore over that of risking my life out there on the ice.
This was taken at a Lake County lake by someone that was obviously his friend but you can see where his friend would be standing in contrast to where the kid is jogging. Not even close to him! A picture is worth a thousand words and all of the words here would be dumb!
The last boys club that I was associated with was in Bradenton, Florida, and it was located right next to the Pittsburg Pirates spring training facility. In fact, our club profited from overflow parking in the spring using our three baseball fields.
Our large outdoor facility was fenced in and included those three baseball fields and an outdoor obstacle course. Our club was located right over the left field wall of that Pirates facility so we had screens in front of our windows to avoid having them broken. We set up a bleachers section on our land just past their center field wall so that our kids could watch some of those games.
Indoors we had a large full size gymnasium, a large games room, locker rooms with showers, concession stand, photography room, ceramics room, a library, and a woodshop. Just outside the area where our locker rooms were located there was another room apart from the club itself that featured a weight room for our senior members and a general meeting place for them.
Baseball leagues were the bread and butter programs for this club. Being so close to the Gulf of Mexico we also took side trips for swimming there. I’ll have more on this club in the future.
I’ve always wondered what it might be like to live on Four Winds Island in the winter? Of course you’d have to lay in a lot of supplies. Then again are wires strung out to the island for electricity or do they have their own generator? I think it would be great to own your own island.
And whereas the mainland Camp Martin Johnson is almost all but lost the same can’t be held true on Four Winds Island where history is still present. Several of the cabins, with graffiti, are still there for the looking. I can almost imagine former campers going out there with memories rolling in high gear. At least some of CMJ is still preserved on Four Winds Island.
I would think that the best ice covering Big Bass Lake would be the clear sort where you can see to the very bottom of the lake in various places. It would also be the best sort of ice for skating. Unfortunately, this kind of ice is also hard to walk on being very slick. Sometimes a light snow cover helps traction.
I would think snowmobiles would also like the clear ice as they could really have some fun on the lake. Turning might be a tad hard but since I’ve never tried it I’m not even sure of that.
I’ve heard that there are pockets that never freeze over at Big Bass Lake. How dense is the ice on the lake most winters? This photograph was taken in late winter and early spring so the ice was melting over the lake.
These northern Indiana kids were about to get the surprise of their life as lo and behold just behind them was a submarine about to make a landing in the surf. Wow! Or could this just be a plastic submarine making it appear like a real submarine? Maybe Subway Sandwiches was opening a new restaurant nearby?
Yet these kids were more interested in their sand castles than in a nuclear submarine! Whatever this thing was it sure made for a piece of great photography! Yet I don’t want to “torpedo” anyone’s thoughts about this being a real submarine but it just doesn’t look natural. What do you think?
I was at the Joplin Boys Club when word came that they were going to replace this great Boys Club logo with the wavy lines logo they now have. I was nearly beside myself with anger as the Keystone Logo is by far the best. For one it has the three colors of red, white, and blue as does our national colors. For another it stands out when you look at it.
Then there was the changeover expense to consider as that logo was on our floors, stationary, jackets, t-shirts, and nearly everything else at the club. The national office sure wasn’t going to help us with that expense. Whoever came up with those wavy lines must have been lost at sea sometime in their lives because I still can’t see that as the BCA logo.
As the Executive Director of the Joplin facility at that time I lobbied against those wavy lines and if I told you how much the national office paid for that logo you’d be shocked so I won’t. The keystone logo should never have been replaced!
These two pictures show you the ever changing shoreline of the southwest section of Big Bass Lake. This is a before and after view of the Noreika property on Big Bass Lake and you can easily tell the difference between what was formerly our tree lined shore and how it has not changed what with the new houses going in.
The big gray house on your far right has been on sale for some time now. It was built less than five years ago and is already on sale. One has to wonder why? Are the property taxes too high or is drinking water hard to come by? Maybe the winters have been hard on the home?
On the one picture you can observe the tip of the Haunted Island. The darker picture was taken from what used to be The Peacock Resort and is now the Big Bass Lake Campground. In time even more changes will come to that area as Big Bass Lake continues to become populated on the few acres of land left unsold.
Permission to come aboard? I enjoyed using our motor boat to glide past the waterfront of Camp Martin Johnson. It gave one a great view of the camp but caution had to be exercised as one didn’t want to get too close due to water activities at the camp.
The camp itself had a very active waterfront with sailboats, water skiing, rowing, kayaks, and of coure swimmers, some of which actually swam all the way to the Big Bass Lake store which was quite a swim.
Now the camp is a housing addition which is sad. Big Bass Lake deserves another resident summer camp on its shores.
As a rule I don’t like big boats as I tend to get a tad seasick when upon them and these waves do nothing for my confidence. I have taken the Badger to Wisconsin many times but never on days when the waves are high.
It’s a good thing that they don’t show movies on ferry boats because it would be my luck to get The Poseidon Adventure. Or it would be my day to have Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Not that the amenities on ferry boats aren’t good, because they are, however on wavy days I would need to see a doctor preferably on the dock!
Waves are only good to swim in but not to ride up and down like a bucking broncho. It should be said that these boats are built to withstand high waves. One can still get seasick even on the best of days. Perhaps a nap in my quarters would be in order. Later!
I grew up in the greater Chicagoland area through fifth grade and part of my childhood was watching The Cinnamon Bear episodes on local WGN-TV. This was a magical serial cartoon and if you can find these video episodes, they would go very well with my grandmother’s recipe for Cinnamon Pie. Talk about a marriage made in heaven! Here is my grandmother’s recipe for Cinnamon Pie-
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk
1 (10 inch) unbaked pie crust
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add the beaten egg, butter, and vanilla. Mix well and add the milk.
3. Pour mixture into an unbaked 10 inch pie crust.
4. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 45 minutes. Let cool and serve.
Then stick in that video of The Cinnamon Bear and enjoy a “Cinnamon” evening of food and fun!
I remember Luke’s Store moreso when I was a young boy. My dad and I would hike around Big Bass Lake and as we arrived at this store I would enjoy a Hires Root Beer. Funny? At the Bass Lake Store I liked Squirt but here Hires Root Beer? As I recall this was at the junction of the road to Freesoil through Bear Swamp and as you progressed back toward Bass Lake on the North side our property began at the first curve and almost ran all the way to the now public landing. That landing was once the property of Richard Bennish.
His wife Agnes was a good friend of my grandmother Barbara Noreika.
Back to Luke’s store. I don’t remember much else about that place except I believe they had a Sunoco gas pump there as well. The store couldn’t hold a candle to the Bass Lake Store and when I returned on camping trips with kids in the 1970’s this place was already closed and they had another store close to Harper’s Lake.
I think that on all my camping trips to our property my favorite times were at night. During the day we would swim a lot or take side trips to Ludington or the Lake Michigan Recreational Area, or even to Wellston and the Pine River. But after supper the real great times began. One time each trip was reserved for a voyage to the Haunted Island but largely our hiking times began at dusk until about one o’clock in the morning hiking both on our property and down the Bloody Antler Trail by and near Bear Swamp.
On our property we would travel down the old loggging trails that led to two large swamps and then to a creek. We would play hound and the hare or scouting games or just enjoy the night air. Once we went over to the blackberry patch but there were too many mosquitoes also enjoying that fruit.
Some nights we would just stay by our camping site and roast marshmellows or hot dogs while telling stories or singing songs. Some of the boys enjoyed sitting on the soft moss while taking in the night time beauty of Big Bass Lake. At times we took a rowboat excursion onto Big Bass Lake to take in all the stars of the heavens.
Talks about God were also not uncommon on those trips as many boys prayed before heading back to the tents for sleep. The kids just seemed to open up more in the evenings as the night air was more refreshing and stimulating to their thoughts. Campfires were real special at those times. Some deep theological issues were discussed right there in God’s creation.
After a full day of activities and campfire times sleep was welcome and appreciated at all times. After all another day of activities was about to come forth.
Mike Reynolds
Darren Crane
Guest Post