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Welcome to mcina Island Moments, hosted
by lifelong islander Jason Saint Doje. Through

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conversations and interviews with fellow island locals
and residents, Jason will bring you the

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real stories and characters that define life
on the island. Whether you're a seasoned

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visitor, new to MCN Island,
or even an islander yourself, you'll be

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sure to learn firsthand about the island
with Jason on Macan Island Moments. And

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Welcome to another edition of the Mcaniland
Moments podcast, the only podcast brought to

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you from MCN Island by a life
long islander. I'm Jason saint On.

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Folks, have to apologize. I
was pretty tied up for a bit.

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We had spring break and then we
had the big Easter egg hunt to put

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on, and you know, time
just kind of slipped away and we weren't

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able to get down and get some
recordings done. So I do apologize and

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we'll try to get back on track
now. The reason I'm coming to you

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today is we're going to dispel a
couple myths, and you know, we

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always like doing that here on the
podcast, talking about things that are often

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brought up and thought but aren't necessarily
the try. And one of the ones

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I wanted to dispel, which has
brought up to me a couple of weeks

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ago, is the notion that everybody
on Maca Island is rich, and that

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couldn't be further from the truth.
And you know, although we do have

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a number of wealth to do and
we even have a few ultra wealthy folks

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on the island, the majority of
the year round population is is just blue

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collar, you know, working class
folks. You know, there is a

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lot of generational wealth, of course, but there's plenty of us who just

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make a living on a day to
day operations. And you know, my

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dad drove the snowplow, and there's
plenty of guys who still drive the snowplow

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and work at the state park and
work in construction, and work at the

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school and the very fabric of the
island in fact, So no I will

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say this we're all ultra wealthy and
that we get to live on Macin Island.

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And I don't mean that lightly.
I think that we're all very lucky,

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and you know, we get to
live where everybody else vacation. But

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there's many of us who can't afford
to vacation the places of the people who

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like to come here. I don't
know if I said that right, but

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you get what I'm saying. So
to answer a lot of that, yes

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you can see some great, big, majestic cottages that adorn the East and

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West Bluff. But believe you me, there's plenty of us who make a

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living. But again, we're very
lucky. The other myth, this is

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a great, big one, and
there's been a lot of television shows and

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websites and everything else directed towards this
is the island haunted. I guess it

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depends what your definition of haunted is. A couple things I'm going to say,

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and you know, there's even a
tour that takes folks around. And

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I'm not trying to hurt anyone's business
or beliefs, but listen the drowning Pond.

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I've seen that one on the internet. Supposedly they used to drown witches

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and the seventeen hundreds down by the
mission end of town. No, never

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happened, And that one was so
preposterous. I actually reached out to the

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the web creator of that and I
said, you know, this didn't go

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on, and he said, well, I know, but you know,

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it could have. I thought that
was the craziest comeback I've ever heard.

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I know it didn't go on,
but it could have. So, No,

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there was no drowning pond. Grand
Hotel is built on Indian burial ground.

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Also not really true potentially, but
not really true at least. That's

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a one that started to circulate more
recently, the ghosts of Mission Point Resort.

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I think they gave him a name, even Harvey or something like that.

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I mean, most of this is
for entertainment's sake, and by god,

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we've had the ghost hunters here.
And then you know, a few

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weeks ago they had that show on
Discovery and they came to I believe,

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Small Point, and you know,
they presented it as the island was totally

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abandoned in October and they were able
to finagle a ride here, even though

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the fairies were still running five trips
a day. But anyway, I had

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to remind myself as I listened and
watched while rolling my eyes, this is

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Hollywood. This isn't a documentary.
It's Hollywood. It's meant to entertain.

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Now that said, will you find
some locals that will say certain things?

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Maybe a bit feeling different. Maybe
I can tell you this much my whole

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life. First of all, I
don't really believe in ghosts. I believe

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in feelings, I believe in energy. How can you not. But I

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don't really believe in ghost And I
don't know of anybody who has said something

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jumped out behind him and yelled boo
or anything like that. But on one

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occasion, when I was still working
at Grand Hotel, I was walking down

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the fourth floor in the West End, towards the center of the hotel,

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and I felt something behind me.
I could just feel something was right behind

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me, and I started walking faster, and the feeling went faster. And

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the hotel at the time, the
walls were adorned with mirrors, and I

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even looked in the mirror to see
if somebody was behind me, and there

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wasn't. And then I remembered,
you know, my training from Scooby Doo

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that ghosts don't appear in mirrors,
you remember, And I walked really fast,

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and the faster I walked, a
feeling stayed right behind me. And

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I got to the center of the
hotel and just kind of dissipated, and

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I didn't think about it the rest
of the day. I mean, I

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just kind of thought it was weird. And you know, I'll tell you

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in the winter, all the lights
are not in the hotel. You travel

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throughout the corridors by flashlight often and
I just don't really I didn't say anything

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anybody. And at three o'clock break, we're having coffee in the cafeteria and

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I said, you know, guys, I don't really believe in this stuff,

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but for the first time in my
life today I felt something, a

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presence near me. And Al Rose, who still works at the hotel,

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he was a couple tables over and
he said, were you on the fourth

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floor in the West End And I
said yeah. He said I had it

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too. It was wow, And
that was it. I never felt it

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again and didn't see anything, and
I didn't avoid the fourth floor, but

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so that was it. So I
mean, but that stuff goes on anywhere.

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You know, it's an old building
and you know Mcan Island's an old

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town. But you know, back
to the haunting thing, I guess there's

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a big difference between haunted and spiritual. And I mean it is factual that

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literally thousands of Indians have been buried
here in the lower levels. You know,

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between where the school yard is all
the way to Mission Point. You

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know, hundreds of years ago,
it was a complete burial ground. And

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in fact, almost every building that
was built dug up some bones when they

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were digging the foundation. It's it's
pretty commonly known. And the reason that

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is is, you know, the
the Chipewan Ottawa Indians believe that, you

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know, God, their God lived
on Macina Island, so to be buried

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there was quite the honor. And
so there is that strong I don't know

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if I want to use the word
in energy, but there's a strong energy.

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But the good thing is, I
think, is you know, they

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weren't murdered here, they weren't held
captive here. They were buried here because

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they thought this was heaven. And
so if there's such a thing as happy

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energy, I think that's what's all
over the island and that is what has

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perhaps been part of the draw I
mean, people have just been drawn to

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this place for hundreds of years.
There's literally three dozen islands within fifty miles

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of mack And Island, but this
is the one. This is the magical

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place. This is the one that
people say when I'm there, I feel

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at home. I feel at peace. And is that due to all the

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nice flowers downtown. That's some of
it, I'm sure, and the horses

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and the cottages. But this feeling
of peace, it's kind of difficult to

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kind of difficult to explain, I
guess, And maybe that's what it is.

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Maybe it's a good haunting. Maybe
it's a good energy, and maybe

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that calling comes from all these happy
souls that were buried here for hundreds of

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years. And I think there's a
difference there. And you know, I

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very well could be full of crap
and I'll probably get some some hate email

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over this one that I don't know
what I'm talking about, But excuse me,

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you wouldn't be the first to ever
email me that. But so that's

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that's what I think about the hauntings. Is there any scary hauntings? Has

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anyone ever, like I said,
ran into anything like Ghostbusters where there was

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an old woman hovering in the library
and then a little green goblin slimed anybody?

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No, I don't know if any
stories like that are there. Feelings,

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Is there energy? I think it'd
be hard pressed to believe there isn't

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something that makes the draw the magic
of Macana if you will, something something

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just brings folks here and people fall
in love at the place. And again

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I could be wrong, but hopefully
that sums up some of the great ghost

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hunts and ghost haunts of mac and
Island. I think a lot of Islanders,

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you know, when shows come on
about the haunts of Mackinaw and all

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that Discovery Channel and all those websites, I think we kind of laugh because

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there are some things but they never
touch on it. They always miss it,

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or they do dramatizations or the stuff. I guess that sells TV shows.

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So that's where we're at with that. And again I expect I'll be

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told I don't know what I'm talking
about, but hey, this is what

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the podcast is for. We're going
to talk about perspective about the island,

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on the island from an islander,
and so that's where that is. So

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today we're bringing in the city foreman, Mike Ruttle. The city format.

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What is the city foreman? Well, most you know, cities, municipalities,

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they have a crew that kind of
takes care of the streets and the

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sidewalks and that sort of thing.
And right here in MCA Island, we

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have the same thing. So welcome
to the show, Mike Ruttle. Oh,

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thanks Jason for having me on.
Hey, I glad you're here.

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Mike is he's a hybrid Islander.
His grandmother as one of the old Islanders

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from the Island family and dress and
on the other side of the family,

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his grandparents used to own a cottage
on the East Bluff called the Wet not

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the wedding cake House, called the
Mini the Baby Grand, the Baby Grand

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the big white Pillars on the East
Bluff. So I'm sure Mike has a

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lot of great memories of hanging out
up at that cottage. To be honest,

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Jason, as a kid, I
was terrified of that house as it

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was an old kind of spooky house. Half of the house was all Victorian

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and carpeted and nice and heated,
and we stayed on that side. The

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other side of the house was all
bear wood, creaky, spooky, you

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know, And as a little kid
up there in the summer, when we

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would open up, there'd be bats
everywhere, and it was, Yeah,

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it was terrifying. I had no
idea. I didn't. I mean,

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I know, the house to this
day kind of has two parts, but

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I didn't know, and I can
certainly see how that'd be terrifying. So

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so Mike, you run the city
crew, you're the city foreman. Give

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me a day of light for the
city crew throughout the seasons. Right now

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we're in we're in our third month
of spring, I think because winter,

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although it never showed its ugly face, now it won't move on to warmer

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weather. So what are you guys
up to right now? So right now

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we are working on the spring clean
up, clean the streets. There's some

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grounds and you know that kind of
stuff that needs to be picked up before

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the tourist season kicks in. And
the maintenance apartment has vehicles subcompact tractors that

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we use pull trailers around to get
everything cleaned up, opened up and you

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know, ready for the tourists right
on. Now, do you guys pretty

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much have this down to a science? At what day need to have this

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done by? What day they have
to have that done by? Or is

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a weather constantly messing with you?
Well, this year the weather seems to

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be well, since we didn't have
winter, the weather is good, so

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we're getting a lot done earlier.
Generally when we have winter, there's right

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now usually about eight to ten inches
of ice on the road right, So

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it's just about impossible. And we're
always under the gun trying to get things

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finished before May one, when we
kind of have to disappear, and you

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know, the trash cans all need
to be out and the town needs to

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be ready to go. Yeah,
that's something probably a lot of our our

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tourism friends don't know that. You
go around, you take all the garbage

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cans in for the season and kind
of clean them up, do some maintenance

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on them. I guess that said, why don't you give us kind of

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like a day and life of the
maintenance crew, spring, winter, you

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know, fall, every tell us
what you do seasonally each day. Okay,

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we'll start with the with a spring
day. The crew comes in,

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you know, we get together,
I give them their marching orders for what

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needs to be done. They head
out work all day on various projects from

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just cleaning the grounds to I mean
there's brush trimming, there's you name it.

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We're doing it in the wintertime.
Well, we come in in the

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morning. If we have winter,
I start the day by plowing. No,

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we have plows and snowblowers that hook
up to our tractors and we go

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around and clear the city sidewalks for
everyone and spread sand and sand. No

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salt though, no, no salt, only sand, which you know in

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the spring we have to clean up. We put out about twenty yards of

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sand throughout the winter season and in
the spring, well it's got to get

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picked up and that's pretty much by
push, broom and shovel. Oh wow,

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how many Let me interrupt real quick? How many crew do you have

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in the winter versus the summer.
If you're fully staffed in the winter,

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there's two of us, myself and
my assistant. In the summer, I

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have anywhere from six to eight employees, depending on budget. And you know,

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if I can find people. Sure. Now, in the summer,

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you guys you take care of the
grass at Turtle Park. And then I

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think you have one person just dedicated
to the cemeteries. Is that correct?

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So I have one and a half
really dedicated to Turtle Park and the cemeteries

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because the cemeteries are a bear to
get cut and you know, to maintain

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them. Well, everyone's dying to
get in there. Well, of course

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they're And I never get tired of
that joke. I'm sure you've heard of

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speaking to that. Let me interrupt
your your seasonal progression. Here, you

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are, You're the You're the You're
the digger. You're the last guy someone

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sees heading out of this world at
the cemetery. Is that correct? You

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kind of head up putting the hole
in the ground to get someone six feet

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under. Yeah, I am the
sexton for the cemeteries. The fancy word

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for digger. Okay, well I
didn't know that word, but I guess

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everyone gets to say goodbye at some
point. To you, huh, I'm

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usually the last one to let them
down. There's probably too many jokes about

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that, but use anyway, Let's
get back to seasonality. What what you

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folks do? Sure, plowing snow, working with the state park to keep

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everything, you know, the roads
everything groomed, remove the excess, and

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then and you know, spread sand, plants, icy and take care of

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the various We have indoor projects in
the winter, mostly woodworking, and you

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know, building railings and redoing you
know, whatever's rotted, which is usually

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everything around here. So you actually
you're kind of the circle of life guy,

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because not only you the digger at
the cemetery, you put the Christmas

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tree up on Main Street too.
Is that isn't that correct? I knew

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that was gonna come up. Yeah, every year we set up the Christmas

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tree on Main Street. It is
a labor of love to get that tree

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up every year, thirty to forty
strands of LED lights. Now we use

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LED lights. We got to hang
the rope across the center of the street

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to get powered down to the tree. And despite what Amazon will tell you,

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our lights didn't come from Amazon,
but came from Ace Hardware, oh

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right there in right from local town
st Ignes. So let me ask you

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this question, because we get this
a lot at News and Views. Where

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does the tree come from? It
does not come from the island generally,

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where where does it come from?
So in the past we did get We

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did harvest trees from the island with
the help of Edison Seoue now Cloverland.

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They have a digger truck and had
the equipment to do it. But now

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for the last i'd say probably seven
or eight years, we've been getting trees

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from the Dombrowski family by Sheboygan.
By Sheboygan right, They pick a nice

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tree for us, send it over
and then I figure out how to set

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it up. Is there a lot
of tree criticism. Do you hear much

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like, oh, they didn't get
a very good tree, or that's a

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Charlie Browner or as generally everybody just
go with the flow on that one.

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Everyone seems to love the trees that
we're getting. Now. It used to

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be kinda we get we get a
little complaint here and there when we used

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to harvest them from the island,
you know, because they came out of

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people's yards. And you get what
you get, right yea. Anyway back

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to seasonality. In the summer,
what are you folks up to besides cutting

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grass? So in the summer,
when the crew gets in in the morning,

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you know, same thing, give
them their orders for the day.

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Once a week they go around and
cut the grass and you know, fix

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up the fix up the grounds.
But every morning, first thing they do

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is they go around and they check
the trash cans. Downtown. There's thirty

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eight odd trash cans from Saint Anne's
Church clear down to the windowmere. Oh

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no, actually they go clear to
the school now school now, yeah,

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and on Market Street. So they
go around to make sure that they're not

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overflowing and change what needs to be
changed until the service company carriage tours can

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come around and pick up the bags
and you know, try to keep trash

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from spewing out all over the street. Sure, I'm guessing when there's an

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overflowing can, your phone is blowing
up first thing in the morning on that

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one. Well, as you know, my boss will call me if there

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is a can that's overflowing and give
me the you know, kid, we

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got a problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, unfortunately, some

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folks just can't send an email to
the big boss. They have to call

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her and and sure be a lot
easier if they would just call the shop,

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I guess, but that's the way
we do it in this town,

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folks. So, Mike, is
every day different pretty much with your crew?

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Or does it get pretty monotonous seasonally? You know, every day there's

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something different. If it's not just
the humdrum doing the grounds and you know,

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plowing snow, you know, a
light fixture breaks, a toilet plug

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somewhere. There's always something that we
have to deal with, and you know,

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right this minute, sure get taken
care of. I can't take the

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amount of times we've had problems at
the fire department, roll up doors,

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et cetera, and we call the
city crew, and those guys jump right

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on it and get us back in
business. So that's certainly appreciated. Let

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me switch gears a little bit,
and I don't mean to put you on

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the spot, but you may have
heard of my opening monologue. Let me

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talk about the ghost and the spiritualness
of the island. Do you have any

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thoughts on that or any positions on
the haunts of mcinas per se? So

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I will agree that there is definitely
some sort of energy that's here, right.

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I mean, since I was a
kid spending my summers here and sometimes

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in the winter I would come up. There is definitely a feeling of being

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on mcin Island that does feel to
me anyway. And I'm sure to you

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that this is home, right.
It's always felt like home, you know.

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To expand on that a bit,
some people ask me, do you

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ever do you ever feel isolated on
that island? And I always think to

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myself, you know, when the
gangplank gets pulled on that last ferry leaving

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the island at the end of the
day, at that point, I don't

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feel isolated. I feel relief that
last boat leaves down and I kind of

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go ah safe for another night.
And and I've never never felt the isolation.

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I want to speak for yourself,
but no, I can't say I've

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ever felt that isolation either. It
is a relief, you know. Sure,

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Well when the boat does stop,
it's one of my favorite times.

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Oh. Absolutely. There's just a
peaceful there's a peacefulness to this place that

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it's hard to express some words.
Yeah, No, I can't imagine being

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anywhere else. No, it is
hard to express in words. And that's

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why we're doing this podcast. And
for those who have been following along,

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they'll probably start to notice it's going
to take hours and hours and many many

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conversations and interviews to try to pull
out exactly what is this magic of mackinaw.

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And then for our listeners who aren't
quite familiar, when Mike says,

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you know, they take care of
the buildings and grounds. You have the

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city hall building, the police department, which is in the old city hall

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building that used to be the city
hall, and that building was built in

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the eighteen thirties I think, wasn't
it, Mike. And then they have

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two fire stations they have to look
after, the public library, the little

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city park. There's there's a lot
more to it. Than a lot of

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folks might know. And these guys, I think do a great job.

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Mike, I've been I've been asking
some folks kind of along. Do you

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have any favorite celebrity sightings here in
the island? Is there one you said

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I got to see so and so. Did anybody jump out it to you?

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Well, I did get to see
Kid Rock at the Pink Pony and

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that was pretty neat before the brew
haha happened, but allegedly allegedly I recall

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that day. I was not there, but I recall, uh. And

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I also always ask folks that we
talked to, what is your your favorite

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season? I think you kind of
touched that you really like after the boats

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quit, but touch on that little
bility. It's definitely winter late January,

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you know, February when we get
that kind of bitter cold, but there's

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that stillness in the morning. Yeah. Oh, you can't beat that.

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Yeah, it's tough to be kind
of miss it, miss it this year

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and most last year, and certainly
everybody has heard me complain in the last

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six or seven episodes that we just
didn't have winter this year, and sure

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looking forward to next year. Oh, I am too. I hope it

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hits us. Yeah, the more
snow the better, and the colder it

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gets the better. Not many people
probably say that, but that's that's my

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feelings. But well, anyway,
Mike, I'm glad you're able to carve

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out five minutes to sit down with
us and kind of update our listeners what

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the city crew has been up to, because we're getting close opening day is

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well, there's such a thing as
opening day. I mean, the island

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is open or year round. This
isn't the theme park, but I think

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that everyone kind of agrees the opening
day is the day of the Grand Hotel

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drops the rope, and I think
that is Friday, May third, if

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I'm correct, I believe so.
Yeah, and so we're bearing down on

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that, folks. Three weeks and
change and everything will be opened back up,

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and if the weather doesn't change,
it'll be trying to enjoy an ice

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cream cone. Well, it's thirty
eight degrees outside, so let's hope for

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better days. Mike, thanks a
lot for being here. Oh thank you,

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Jason, And this is once again
the Mackinaw Island Moments Podcast with lifelong

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00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:06.359
islander Jason Saint. On Good Day