Submitted by Julia Borak, former guide and cook
UPPER PENNINSULA – Joe Beach was a game warden (with the Michigan DNR) out of Newberry in the 1920s. He had frequent requests from Lansing to take some privileged personnel to see the Big Falls with his patrol boat. There were no roads near the Tahquamenon Falls at that time.
He visualized the opportunity, quit working for the state, and coalesced a round trip to the Falls and back to Soo Junction (a spot on the Railroad tracks between Trout Lake and Newberry).
Robert Hunter, owner of a quiet sawmill on the river, became a silent partner. His property included the five miles of tracts from Soo Junction to Hunter’ Mill on the river, the proposed boat landing. It was 21 miles from that point to the dock near the Falls (leased from the State).
Julia Borak’ grandfather built the first boat for Beach, The Betty ‘B’ named after Beach’ daughter. Borak, of Roscommon, became guide and cook on the boats during the summers.
The first years, the ‘train ride’ to the Betty ‘B’ launch was on a flatbed Railroad car pushed by a tractor on a narrow gauge track. In peak years the train consisted of two engines and nine or 10 open cars, each holding 30 (more or less) passengers, sometimes a few on the roof. The train went through the swamp and woods about as fast as a good sprinter, and generally loosened up any uptight tourists.
Anyone could ride all day (children under 12 were free) for $2.50, including a half mile walk through the woods, from the dock to the falls.
The boat service was back in motion every November. It dropped off deer hunters and all their gear at the hunting shacks along the river, and returned them and their deer and bear and beards to Soo Junction.
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