The Origin of Shanty Days

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Boat at shanty (photo used with permission of Wendell Wilke) 

It rained on Toot’s parade.  That is to say, it rained--a real gully washer--right in the middle of the inaugural Shanty Days parade in 1987 when Algoma, posthumously, honored Francis “Toot” Wenniger.  It rained the next year too when Shanty Days honored another prominent local fisherman, Art Dettman.

Shanty Days was begun as a business venture to bring tourism to Algoma and celebrate Algoma’s best asset, Lake Michigan.  Toot Wenniger, the first Shanty Days honoree, was a commercial fisherman.  Art Dettman, who was honored the second year, was a pioneer in sport and charter fishing.  Both were fitting subjects to be recognized at a festival billed as “A Celebration of the Lake”.  Wenniger, it was said, was the “Personification of the Spirit of the Lake”.  Dettman was the “Fishing Mayor”.

 

In addition to a 150 unit parade, the Shanty Days festivities included lake-related activities like a trout pond for young fishermen.  There was a World Championship Smelt Cleaning Contest with the name of the winner to be submitted to the Guinness World Book.  A boat show featured antique, futuristic, modified, and home built boats.  There was a sport show with taxidermists and tackle.  The U.S. Coast Guard demonstrated air and sea rescues.

    

A favorite part of the celebration was the fish dinner.  Commercial fisherman of Kewaunee and Door counties donated 100 pounds of fish each for a combined plate of whitefish, smelt, and perch offering 6-8 butterflies at $3 per plate.

 

Music and dancing of all kinds were featured--polka, folk, jazz, bagpipe, the Algoma Community Band, and a barbershop quartet.  There was a sock hop.  Johnny and the Stingrays played 50s and 60s favorites.  There was wrist wrestling, an art show, a 10K and 5K run, and a farmers market.  A tremendous fireworks display capped off the family friendly festival.

Honoring Wenniger and Dettman in particular those first two years of the festival was intimately linked to the personal investments these two characters had in fishing and Algoma.  While both shared a love of the lake, they were very different fishermen.

       

After Toot Wenniger--who earned his nicknamed as a young child--married in 1932, he began fishing full-time.  By several accounts he was a unique, kind man.  He once cut his boat in two and added a piece in the middle to make it longer.  He ran a 150’ dock, a shed, two boats, and a fertilizer plant.  In retirement, he continued to run a boat and oversee his fertilizer business.  Toot claimed he was a conservationist because he fished when there were some fish and did other things when there weren’t.  He passionately disagreed with DNR fishing control measures.  Toot Wenniger was part of the fishing industry on Lake Michigan for over 50 years.

    

When Art Dettman began dating the assistant lighthouse keeper’s daughter, Caroline Braemer, he became interested in fishing.  Arthur Dettman was mayor of Algoma for four terms from 1964-72.  As mayor, Dettman worked collaboratively with the DNR.  He championed a project to get the DNR to plant coho salmon.  He promoted sport fishing by giving game reports.  After Dettman took then Wisconsin Governor Warren Knowles out on the lake on a charter excursion, the governor proclaimed that Algoma was the “Salmon and Trout Capital of Wisconsin”. 

  

Art Dettman's fish shanty

“Shanty Days”, the event’s fitting name, is derived from the prevalence of fish shanties that once lined the river.  According to the book “Commercial Development of Algoma, Wisconsin”, as early as 1851, when Orrin Warner and John Hughes built a little hut on the north side of the river, fishermen had been building sheds, shanties, and net drying racks at the river’s edge.

   

A prime example of those shanties remains on the north side of the Ahnapee River.  Art Dettman’s shanty was built in 1935.  He leased the property from the Algoma Fuel Company.  The Dettman fish shanty is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the only remaining shanties left on Lake Michigan.  His fishing tug, the “Caroline”, was built by Peterson Boat Builders of Sturgeon Bay.  

     

For more information read “The Real Shanty Days in Algoma, WI:  Commercial Fishing at its Best, Vol. II,” compiled and printed by Wendell Wilke.  The book provides amazing photos and details of the history of the early days of fishing at Algoma.

 

Perhaps it will rain again this year during Shanty Days.  Let’s hope it holds off until after the parade and fireworks.