Fresh from my humiliation over the State Record Muskie, I am preparing another crow pie. However, this one I’m going to put in the freezer until Norton Bretz gets back from Hong Kong, because he knows more about all this than I do anyway, and I cling to the hope that I’m not altogether wrong, just, probably, mostly wrong.
You will recall that I told you the Torch Lake Cribs were the remnants of the old lumbering era docks. Well . . . I have discovered that they might, in fact, be much more recent additions to the lake, built and sunk specially to provide places for fish to hide out. (Fish like giant, ferocious muskies, laughing their ventral fins off at my confusion.) I have been in touch with Chris Doyal, who has a wonderful website about wreck-diving and underwater photography and nautical archaeology. Chris has given me permission to publish these photos on Torch Lake Views–the better to rat myself out.
Torch Lake Cribs Diver - (c) Chris Doyal
Torch Lake Cribs - (c) Chris Doyal - The planks were inserted through the structure so that rocks could be piled on top, causing the whole thing to sink to the bottom.
Chris is careful. He says the structures appear to be of more recent vintage. He does not say AHH-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, you made a big fat mistake! I appreciate that. I added a link to his site in the Neighbors Around the Bay section, which I suppose makes it Neighbors Around and Under the Bay. When Norton gets back I’ll ask him to help me pin down the remains of the lumber mill docks and distinguish them from the fish structures. So many blogly duties.
While I was researching this whole thing I was distracted by some very interesting related sites:
Torch Lake Views 
p.j. grath
November 7, 2009
Well, all I can say, Gerry, is thank God I am not the only one who occasionally publishes erroneous statements. Come to think of it, an award-winning regional newspaper got taken in recently–hmmm. Do you have a good recipe for that crow pie?
Gerry
November 7, 2009
I have no good crow pie recipes. I rather suspect there are none that do not involve tongue in cheek, which sounds unappetizing. However, I did go googling about for the origin of the “eat crow” expression. The results are inconclusive, but the source that’s the most fun to read is Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words.
katherine
November 7, 2009
I know the cribs by my Mom’s house have been there for a looong time since before my Mom was born in 1921. I believe, at least, those were from the dock that was there when the lumber mill was there. There are “spiles too out beyond the cribs which would indicate there was a dock. I believe Norton has photos of it. He’ll be home from Hong Kong the 23rd I think.
But the other cribs may be for fish, I don’t know.
Gerry
November 7, 2009
That’s what got me going to begin with – Norton’s photo of you standing on the clear ice above your cribs. Ah, the perils of local history.
katherine
November 7, 2009
P.S. Cow Pies
La Mirada Bob
November 7, 2009
Re: Michael Q’s WWW; where he writes: “Volunteers to make empirical observations should form an orderly queue.” If hearsay is acceptable, I will quote from an old story told to me by his sister around 1946 about my brother-in-law, Howard W. Smith. In Rhinelander, WI at age 15 (around 1935) he shot, cooked and ate a crow. He got violently ill and was a vegetarian for much of his remaining life (HW died in 1994).
Gerry
November 8, 2009
Those Smith boys would do anything, but they turned out pretty well in the end.
Anonymous
November 8, 2009
We had always been told that the cribs in Torch Lake village were for lumbering, to hold the logs in the bay there. I think I have seen some pictures too, but not sure where.
Anonymous
November 8, 2009
Where does Chris Doyal say these cribs are where he dives?
Gerry
November 8, 2009
Chris says his cribs are off Torch Lake village. Keep in mind, he didn’t see my original post and tell me I was wrong – I saw one of his photos in the Record-Eagle and followed up on it. Chris is open to all possibilities, but he does think the cribs he photographed were of more recent origin. If it stays this nice for a couple days, I’m going to go out in the kayak and plot some locations!
Chas
July 26, 2010
My family use to own what is now the Torch Lake Twp park in the sixties and per an elderly member of the Barnes family who has long since passed away, the cribs were indeed used to stage logs in the cove prior to them being milled by the Cameron Brother’s Lumber Mill. The cribs were built on the ice and sunk in place during the spring thaw. If I recall correctly, the Torch Lake Masonic Hall is also a remnant of the Cameron Bros. operation. It’s my understanding, at one time there exist a railroad track that ran from the bay (down Bay Rd) to Torch Lake and it extended out into the lake; the old bedrock foundation still exist if you go beyond the pier ~ 30-50′ and turn north 90 degrees.
The railroad was used to transport lumber from the Mill (which was located where the twp park is) to the Bay where schooners would transport the milled lumber to market. Much of this history was documented at the old township hall… not sure where they moved it since the new twp hall was built.
During the sixties, the was a group of college kids that would spend several weeks in the summer harvesting sunken logs in the cove with a pontoon boat; they would attach balloons to the logs and fill them up w/air from a compressor mounted on the boat and raise them to the surface. Upon binding them to the pontoon, they would bring them into the ramp where a truck w/picker would load them on to a flatbed. In those days, lumber wholesalers would pay a premium for those logs as after a couple weeks work, these students would have enough money to pay for nearly their entire year’s tuition.
When I was a kid, my Labrador retriever and I use to swim out the cribs, specifically the third one down from our old property and we’d sit on top and fish for rock bass between the two planks extending east from the main structure… I use to be able to swim to the bottom and actually go inside that crib.
Lots of good memories long past… it’s a beautiful area and hopefully, the township and/or lake association will preserve what historical artifacts remain in those waters.
Gerry
July 26, 2010
This was a wonderful present to open this morning. Thank you so much for sending these memories.
I wonder why the sunken logs were still valued. It seems it would have taken a long time for them to dry out enough to be used for anything. That would be an interesting story, too. Every now and then the Bay tosses up an artifact from the old days. Once after a storm an old, old mast appeared on our beach, half buried in the sand. No one had ever seen it before, but there it was.
Chas
July 26, 2010
Actually, it’s a niche business; check out this link…
http://timelesstimber.com/
Gerry
July 26, 2010
I’ve been googling “harvesting underwater logs” and then you popped back up with this! Very interesting stuff indeed. Now I have another rabbit trail to follow. My Civil War veterans are cackling, the rascals. Who knows–maybe we’ll revive the logging era on the Chain of Lakes . . .
Bob edwards
June 7, 2012
I know they have been there since 1960 when we first started going to Torch. They are only a mile from our lake home and we still visit them to this day.
Bob Edwards
Gerry
June 7, 2012
Thank you, Bob. I’m feeling better and better about my original claim!