1844

Dugout CanoeNautical item

Good

Text from sign at museum: Shashaguay Dugout Canoe Built 1844, restored 1950s White pine log construction by Native American Joe Shashaguay. Gift of the Edgecomb family, 2013. Built for Saugatuck pioneer Lou Hamlin and later sold to Morgan Edgecomb of Saugatuck, the canoe was used for hunting then later stored under a porch for 30 years. Edgecomb’s son Jay added the metal straps and green paint after his return from the Korean War and occasionally took the canoe out for a paddle. Newspaper clipping shows Jay in front of the Saugatuck Pump House that today is the Saugatuck-Douglas History Museum.

Notes: According to its first owner, Lou Hamlin, this dugout was made from a single log in 1844 by "Indian Joe" Shashaguay, who lived near the river east of Saugatuck. It was purchased for $3 in 1898 by Morgan J. Edgcomb, Sr., son of early settler W.G. Edgcomb. He used it for hunting and trapping until the 1920s when he became a Great Lakes sailor eventually rising to the rank of captain on the Georgian Bay Line. The old dugout languished under the porch until his son, Morgan J. Edgecomb Jr. returned from the Korean War, refurbished the century-old vessel and put it back in the water. Morgan J. Jr. ran the Snug Harbor Gas Station on the corner of Butler and Culver in the 1950s and later (according to Cynthis Sorrenson) became a boat captain for daredevil Evil Knevil. In 2004 When Morgan Jr. was at Hospice, ill with cancer, Saugatuck firemen honored his long tenure with the fire epartment by trucking the old dugout he so treasured to a pond near the facility. Morg died later that year and a new fire department rescue boat was named the Morgan J., in his honor. Status: OK Status By: Mary Voss Status Date: 2011-06-06