Waterlines 21 August v2

Waterlines, August 2021
Sure enough, on January 27, 1902 the
Morning Record published that BasseG Island
had been sold to Charles H. Thorne and the
Chicago Yacht Club for $2000. Apparently, the
deal had been long agreed upon, but it was
not unLl that year that BasseG had gained
patent Ltle over the property on which he
lived for at least 23 years. At that Lme
BasseG and his wife had already moved to
MarqueGe but traveled south with the news
of the sale. Shortly a[erward, it is thought
that the BasseGs moved far to the west,
seGling in Los Angeles where they joined
friends who had gone to California from the
Old Mission Peninsula. It is there that the
story of Dick BasseG fades, with no further
reports of the former "hermit" as he found a
quieter life.
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As for BasseG Island, then definiLvely named
for its former resident, the new ownership by
the Chicago Yacht Club led to no new
improvements. In 1906, the island was
was under contract to the Traverse Bay
TransportaLon Company, the new formed
local steamship company serving the length
of the bay. The rough-hewn buildings of Dick
BasseG's fish camp were torn down and a
100' x 50' two-story dance pavilion was built,
to be served by streamers which sailed from
the docks at the base of Union Street in the
early evening to the new 250' dock at the
northeast corner of the island. Lit by electric
lights powered by dynamos onboard the
docked steamships, the dance pavilion
remained a popular aGracLon for a short
number of years, in which the first showing
of a moLon picture in the Grand Traverse
region in took place at the dance pavilion in
1907. In 1917, BasseG Island was purchased
in a transacLon that consolidated the
property with Marion Island and transferred
ownership to Henry Ford.
Sketch of Dick Bassett published in The
Michigan Tradesman of Grand Rapids in
1882
The unique story of Dick BasseG is that of a
man who made the best of what was
available to him in a place and Lme, while
that once raw environment transformed itself
literally around him. It is most likely that as a
combat veteran of the Civil War, BasseG dealt
with post-traumaLc stress syndrome. While
Dick was not "anL-social", he certainly valued
his autonomy. Due to circumstances created
by the loose nature of government recordkeeping
in the rapidly changing world of the
late 1800s, BasseG found himself "outside"
the most basic definiLons of local society --
unable to be recorded as the property owner
of an island that bore his name. Similarly, for
a lengthy period of Lme, he may not have
been able to secure of veteran's pension
without verificaLon from the loose records