Proposed Development on Presque Isle, Oath Keepers Coming to Town, a Possible Ban on Dogs, and a Nudist Retreat
The Latest From Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
A CHANGE COMING to Presque Isle? Could be, if a Boulder, Colorado-based hotel group has its way. The Eco-Tourism Hospitality Group has proposed to the city that it purchase 4.3 acres of the pristine peninsula for what it calls “an environmentally friendly” lodge and twelve yurts…The two-story lodge, to be constructed of timber harvested from UP forests, would consist of twelve additional rooms, a vegetarian restaurant and an outdoor deck…
“We have the utmost respect for the environmental ethos in Marquette,” says Shirley Yuejohke, the CEO of Eco-Tourism. “I think when people get a sense of what we have in mind for Presque Isle, they’ll get on board.”…The hotel group, which has built similar, highly successful developments in Boulder, Santa Fe, and Lake Tahoe, is planning to present its plans to the City Commission this summer.
NOT WHAT MANY of us were hoping for. The infamous Oath-Keepers, the right wing group that played a prominent role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, is planning a regional meeting in Marquette this summer…Preliminary dates—the weekend of August 12-14… “Don’t worry,” says a laughing Donny Brooke, the Upper Midwest Vice Commander of the group, “we’re not planning anything big. No attacks! Just 100, maybe 200 of us, planning strategy for the year ahead, and we figure Marquette’s a friendly place for us. Good for recruitment…”
ALSO IN THE works for this fall, just prior to the midterm elections—a debate between Fox TV host Sean Hannity and Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez…Site undetermined so far but it will be in Marquette…The duo, who promise verbal fireworks, have also scheduled debates in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
SPOTTED AT THE Marquette Golf Club last week—three officials representing the U.S. Open, one of golf’s four major tournaments. Their mission? To gauge the feasibility of staging the Open at the famed Greywalls course in either 2029 or 2030…Needless to say, a huge, fluffy feather in the cap for the Greywalls course and Marquette…The problem, though, and it’s a big one: Not enough hotel rooms in town. U.S. Open officials reportedly told city officials they’d need to build another 7,200 hotel rooms in the county to accommodate all the visitors.
City officials said they’d look into it…Oh, and one other teensy-weensy suggestion from the U.S. Open bigwigs: Upgrade the clubhouse, as in, double it in size and modernize everything…Estimated total cost for that is upwards of $14 million…Anybody wanna start a GoFundMe campaign?
DOG LOVERS, UNITE!…A newly-formed citizens’ group, Keep Marquette Clean (KMC) is proposing that dogs, even on leashes, be banned from a sixteen square block area of downtown, and fourteen blocks of the Third Street Business District… “I like dogs, I really do,” insists Kaye Neinkrappe, the president of Keep Marquette Clean, “but they don’t belong downtown. Their owners are not cleaning up their messes. It’s disgusting.” The group which now has 27 members, is hoping to collect at least 1,000 names on a petition before presenting it to city officials.
KINDA SCARY. A marine biologist from the Great Lakes Maritime Laboratory in Duluth confirms that fishermen caught two rare freshwater sharks off the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior last August…The two, a mother and a baby, are classified as Pistris Fictus…The mother shark, by the way, measured 14 feet in length with incisors that were six inches long… “It’s very rare, indeed,” says marine biologist Dr. Ima Phibbur, “but we do know that Pistis Fictus can tolerate relatively cool waters, and Lake Superior has been warming in recent years.” Dangerous? Yep. The remains of a moose and a golden retriever were found in the mama shark’s stomach.
THIS WILL BE INTERESTING…A private homeowner on a nine-acre lakeside estate west of Middle Island Point, is advertising his home as a nudist retreat for the months of June through September…The ad appears on the website northernnudism.com…The owner of the estate, Dick DiSplaier, says he intends for the retreat to be discreet and low key… “None of my neighbors will be able to see a thing,” he says, with a laugh, “unless they climb a tree and use binoculars.” He intends to limit the invited nudist population to 100—60 women and 40 men.
Ya gotta wonder, though. Lake Superior rarely climbs above 70 degrees, even at the height of summer. Will the male nudists be concerned about inevitable shrinkage?
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Oath Keepers actually meeting in Calumet 😜
Richard. Desplairer, really.