cheboygan

 What I wondered about was why Cheboygan?  Why was Cheboygan the start of the journey?  I don't mean any disrespect to the proud town but viewing it from google maps there doesn't seem to any port.  I see a couple harbors but they seem only big enough for small fishing boats and pleasure craft.  So where does the Mackinaw harbor?

How is it a big deal in Cheboygan?  Do they gather at lakeside to cheer the sailors on and then gather in watering holes to tell tall tales and sing sea shanties deep into the night?  

I have read that when the west was being won there were not enough trees in that arid land and Wisconsin and Michigan were nothing but trees so they chopped them all down and they went down the lake to Chicago where they were cut into boards and put on trains so that the western settlers would not have to live in mud houses anymore.

Well maybe it was the river then, maybe they chopped the trees down and floated them down the river and put them on Great Lakes shipping boats to go south.  But again where did those shipping boats dock?

I went to wiki for more info but didn't find much as to why Cheboygan is there, probably not much farming there, maybe as a port on what was once a teeming trade route.

I did learn that it was home to a cyclecar manufacturer, which were cars halfway between motorcycles and automobiles.  

Well I am just spitballing here, when we have a guy who has lived there for about fifty years right here in the Institute smoking room, so I will let him tell the story.