Visions of the Past: Exploring Chippewa County with Bernie Arbic

Bernie Arbic, CCHS: I just

love looking at a picture.

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of, people who are long gone.

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But they were here in this community,

maybe temporarily, maybe this was their

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home, building a community that really,

um, would not be here without them.

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Cliff Duvernois: Hello everyone.

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And welcome to total Michigan, where

we interview ordinary Michiganders

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doing some pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.

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I'm in Sault Ste.

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Marie.

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And one of the things that I

absolutely love more than anything,

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if you've been a listener of the

show for a while is I love history.

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And I love when people in Michigan take

the time to work very hard to, to not

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only preserve the history of Michigan,

but to also make it come alive for the

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newer generations that are coming up.

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And today I'm at the Chippewa

County Historical Society.

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And in this interview, I got fortunate

enough to have Bernie Arbic as a guest

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on the show today, he is a board member.

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But you probably would

know him as the photo guy.

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Ladies and gentlemen, please

welcome to the show, Bernie.

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Bernie, how are you?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: I'm doing very well.

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Thanks.

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Cliff.

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Happy to be here with you.

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Cliff Duvernois: Excellent.

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Why don't you tell us a little

bit about where you're from?

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Where did you grow up?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: All right, I,

I'm in my, ninth decade of living

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and I, my family lived on Sugar

Island, which is a very large island

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just to the east of Sault Ste.

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Marie in the St.

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Mary's River when I was born, they both

taught school in one room schoolhouses in

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So when I was born, the first three years

of my life, I lived on Sugar Island and

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then the family moved up to the Soo.

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So I grew up in the Soo,

graduated high school here.

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I've certainly lived in other places,

traveled around, but my roots were here.

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And shortly after I got married,

I brought my wife back here.

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And I spent my career teaching mathematics

at Lake Superior State University.

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Cliff Duvernois: Now the

question I got for you, so you

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had your career teaching math.

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How did you start to get involved with

the Chippewa County Historical Society?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Well that goes

back to Sugar Island as well actually.

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I saw a very interesting book,

done in Canada, uh, in a small

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area east of the Soo, where my

maternal grandmother grew up.

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And I thought, boy, this

is an interesting book.

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I want to read the book

about Sugar Island.

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And I looked around, there was

no book about Sugar Island.

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So I thought, well.

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I'm going to write one.

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So that's what I did.

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That was the first book I wrote.

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It's called The Sugar Island Sampler.

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And I found out in the process,

I love old photographs.

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And uh, I love digging and

researching in history.

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I was approached by someone at

the historical society saying,

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maybe you'd like to join us.

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And I've been involved ever

since, developed more and more,

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attachment to photographs.

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For example, one of our photo archives

is unbelievable, is about a thousand

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eight by 10 glass negatives of the

construction of the power canal and the

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powerhouse that has run through canal,

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So you think glass negatives, I mean,

that's, that's quite a collection.

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Cliff Duvernois: Now, I know

that there's probably some people

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that are listening to us that are

wondering what is a glass negative?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Yes.

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Well, yeah, I mean, in the era of

digital photography, most people

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don't even have to deal with

negatives of any kind anymore.

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But when I was growing up, anybody

anywhere near my age, cameras had film.

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And when you shot a picture, it

was exposed on a negative and had

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to be developed, in a dark room.

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And then the negative is printed

as a positive, let's call it, by

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a process, a chemical process.

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With these glass negatives, and

the equipment available today, we

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were able to scan the negative and

digitally, produce a, a positive

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of it, and we can display that.

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We can make prints of it, or we can

display it on the computer screen as

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a picture that people will recognize.

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But the negatives, still

retain the fidelity so well,

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better than any print would.

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and the larger a negative is,

the better a print can be if it's

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especially going to be enlarged.

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And so, it's a very rich, rich source.

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Cliff Duvernois: And when you're

talking about it being a glass

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plate, yes, the negative literally

is printed on a glass plate.

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS:

Well, yeah, not printed.

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I mean, it's a cat was a chemical

process, but the negative is right

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there in on the surface of the glass.

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Okay.

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The photographers used to have to.

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This is my understanding.

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I never saw it done.

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They used to have to carry chemicals

around with them, put a coating on

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the glass and, more than one probably.

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Everything being done in the

dark and then get, we've probably

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all seen at least in movies.

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a photographer slams a negative

into a big box camera and then it's,

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ready to be exposed for a picture.

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When they built the power

canal and the powerhouse, the

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company hired a photographer

to document the whole process.

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So, it's, it's just an incredible,

piece of work that we were given this

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collection by what was then the Edison

Sue Electric Company about 20 years ago,

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and they said, yes, you can have these

negatives, but if we ever need them.

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For whatever purpose we have the

right to, to ask to see them.

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And then Edison Soo was sold to what

is now our, our electrical utility

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here, Cloverland Electric Cooperative,

and they, provided us with a stipend.

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And some manpower to scan those

negatives, produce digital images,

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which they got a set and we have a

set of digital images now, but the

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negatives are, are a backup, right?

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Yeah,

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Cliff Duvernois: because I remember

when you were talking about the glass

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types, I was remembering back in, in my

own family history, seeing tin types.

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Oh, yeah.

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You know, when the old process,

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Cliff Duvernois: yes, as well.

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So yeah, when we think about film and

you're talking about before, when you see

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in the movies and stuff, them sliding the,

those big things into those huge cameras.

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So what you're saying is they

were using glass at the time.

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Oh, that's

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: fascinating.

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And there was a man in Marquette,

actually, name of Childs, his last name.

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with two cameras and took 3D shots.

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Oh, that's cool.

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You know, maybe in a mine or even

with some lighting or other shots.

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And then if you wear the glasses, there

was actually a production in the Soo

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by a man named, Jack Deal in Marquette.

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Has a collection of these pairs

of images taken from different

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angles to give a 3D effect.

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And it was done in the Soo Theater.

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of various things.

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So this guy is touring around in the

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type of structure that could be a dark

room and all these chemicals and all

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these glass plates that he creates.

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The plate, the negative on the spot

and then, uh, uses it to, and he

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needs to take, create two for every

image he wants because it took two

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shots, so I'm thinking, holy smokes.

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He carded these things in canoe up

into Canada and just, just incredible.

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Cliff Duvernois: So what I would like to

do is because they're, before you and I

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turn this on and it's absolutely true.

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There's actually like a handful

of historic organizations

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that are in Sault Ste.

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Marie.

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Yes.

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What is a Chippewa County Historical

Society and what makes you different?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Okay, our

organization is probably the oldest.

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our centennial a few years ago.

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Some of the big names of our local

history, like, Chase Osborne, who's

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the only governor of Michigan,

to hail from the Upper Peninsula.

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He was one of the founding members and

a man named, his last name was Steer.

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And he was a judge on the Michigan Supreme

Court at one point, so I just know him

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as Judge Steer, was another founding

member and another judge called, Chapman.

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So some real, real, uh, big names

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group that founded this organization

with the mission to help preserve

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the history of not just Sault Ste.

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Marie, but Chippewa County.

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And so they would give, uh, they would

have speakers and that sort of thing.

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Then the organization went dormant

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uh, as these men got older and it

was literally men, back in those

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days, I'm sort of went dormant.

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it re emerged in 19 mid 50s, the

centennial of the first lock in Sault Ste.

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Marie.

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the state of Michigan.

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Now the locks are run by the federal

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that first lock, and the Chippewa County

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Historical Society was very active in

celebrating that, huge event, and it came

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back to life and, was, More active for

another 20 years, maybe, and then it went

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dormant again, and fortunately there were

two women, um, I'll even mention their

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names, Florence, Caffey and Rita Freeborn,

who kept the organization alive on paper.

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It was very important because

there were some assets.

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that belonged to the society, uh,

accumulated over the years, uh, financial

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and papers had to be filed and that even

though the organization wasn't doing much.

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Right.

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a group of people got it back.

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into a more active organization.

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So it's been about 30 years that

it has been now again an active

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organization that holds meetings

regularly and owns a building now.

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For most of the life of the

Chippewa County Historical

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Society, we did not have a home.

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People stored our things in their

own homes or rented a storage area

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because we have an awful lot of stuff.

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Those old pictures.

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That's what I guess maybe I did say

that's when somebody said, Hey, why

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don't you get involved with a society?

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we've got some photos and you could

do what you kind of like to do.

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So

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Cliff Duvernois: For our audience,

we're going to take a quick

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break to thank our sponsors.

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When we come back, uh, we're going

to talk a little bit more about the

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Chippewa County Historical Society and

what you can expect when you come here.

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We'll see you after the break.

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Hello everyone.

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And welcome back to total Michigan,

where we interview ordinary Michiganders

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doing some pretty extraordinary things.

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I'm your host, Cliff Devenois.

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Today, we're talking with Bernie

Arbic, board member, photo guy.

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Of the Chippewa County

Historical Society and Bernie.

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So we're talking about things that

are going on in history and before

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the mics went hot, you were sharing

something with me that I thought

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was really actually kind of cool.

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And I think very unique

when it comes to Sault Ste.

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Marie and you made the comment

to me about how if it wasn't

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for the GI Bill, Sault Ste.

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Marie would probably look a lot

different than it does today.

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So why don't you share with

us a little bit about that?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Sault Ste.

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Marie has a long military history.

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We have Fort Brady was built on the river

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British were just to the north in Canada.

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We're right on the border,

of course, with Ontario.

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And the British were maybe encroaching a

little on trading and that kind of thing.

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And so the U.

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S.

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government built some forts along

the northern border to say, hey, this

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S.

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Even though it's Indian territory, it's U.

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S.

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And so that's the beginning of Fort Brady.

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It was on the river.

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pretty valuable and, the fort was

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moved further south and up on the hill.

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So there really is a second Fort Brady.

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and where Fort Brady on the river

was, there's now a Brady Park

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and our, um, our city hall is

built on a piece of that land.

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But originally that was called the

Federal Building that was built there.

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And so the fort up on the hill.

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through and it was important, protecting

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the locks, which was a strategic, uh,

asset to our nation's infrastructure, and

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especially during World War II, it was

thought to be a potential target because

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so much of the iron ore made the steel

that built tanks and jeeps and so forth,

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that iron ore from Minnesota and Upper

Michigan passed through the locks, headed

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to the steel mills on the lower lakes.

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But at the end of the war, the fort

was clearly going to be closed down and

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a, a very visionary man in Sault Ste.

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Marie who was the editor of the, uh,

Soo Evening News named John Zabelka.

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thought, hey, what are we going to do?

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This is a huge, enormous, uh,

economic impact when that fort closes.

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Maybe when all those G.

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I.

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s come back from World War

II, a lot of them with the G.

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I.

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bill are going to want to go to college.

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And there's going to be a lot of them

that want to go to the Michigan College

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of Mining and Technology, which is

200 and some odd miles west of here,

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in Houghton, Michigan, a very fine

engineering school, they're going to

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probably have a surplus of applicants.

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Maybe we could talk them into

setting up a branch campus on the

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grounds of Fort Brady on the hill.

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to make a long story short, there was

a delegation that went to Washington

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and they convinced the, uh, the U.

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S.

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government to, donate the land to the

state of Michigan for the purposes of

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setting up an educational institution.

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Amazingly, in, in November of

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Michigan Tech sent faculty to Sault St.

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Marie.

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Nice.

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Yes.

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hands-on, I mean, they

painted some of the rooms.

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They put up Blackboards, . Yeah.

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It was a real amazing thing.

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And the families in those days,

typically, uh, they lived in duplexes

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that were once called Officers Row.

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Then they became faculty row and those

buildings are still there, up on the

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campus of Lake Superior State University.

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When I've sometimes given some, I act as

a step on guide to bus tours that come

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to the Soo and we go up on the campus

and I have the bus driver stop, and

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I like to tell the story, I say, this

institution with a lot of, of course, new

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buildings probably would not be here had

it not been for what the GI Bill bill.

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produced, in terms of those G.

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I.

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s needing a place to go to school

at the end of World War II.

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A lot of that first class

in 46 were, in fact, G.

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I.

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s.

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Cliff Duvernois: You're a volunteer here.

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I met a lot of the other

volunteers that are here as well.

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You're working very hard

to preserve the history.

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So I guess my general question

to you is why is this important?

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Why is it important to, to keep all

this, to create all this history

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and to try to get just the public in

general, to care about the history?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Again, my, my big

interest is photography, not taking

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pictures, but I shouldn't say photography.

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It's, it's the images, the

historical images that we have.

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I just love looking at a picture.

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Of, um, people who are long gone.

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But they were here in this community,

maybe temporarily, maybe this was their

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home, building a community that really,

um, would not be here without them.

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And so a picture helps to, tell

their story in a way, uh, and

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especially of course for young people.

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our mission statement says basically

that to preserve and educate about, the

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history of the area, mostly at Sault Ste.

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Marie, simply because it

dominates Chippewa County.

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But we do do something once in

a while outside of the city.

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And so we have offered, um, Summer

programs for youngsters, especially,

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to try to get them interested in the

history and appreciating who came before.

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I remember when I was young, I couldn't

believe that there was very much

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around before I was born, you know?

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Kind of a self centered way to look at it.

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at it.

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People look at an aerial photograph

of that and they all say, my gosh, I

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didn't realize how big that place was.

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I've heard of it, but I

had no idea how big it was.

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And the same comment for the

other big, uh, industry was,

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uh, Union Carbide, same thing.

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Whew, how big that is, or was.

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trying to convey that idea of, where

we have come from and, and who played

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a role in literally passing on to

us what we have, as part of it.

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And, you know, there's a lot of

interest in genealogy, these days.

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People looking at their personal

history, where they came from,

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literally where they came from.

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But I feel like what we do in a

way relates to, it's, it's sort

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of the genealogy of Sault Ste.

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Marie.

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Why has it evolved the way it has?

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Cliff Duvernois: For the historical

society, you are open to the public.

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Very definitely.

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Yes.

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So what can people expect

when they come here?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: One of the really big

attractions that those open houses is a

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literally fantastic model railroad display

that several people involved with your

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organization have built up over the years.

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And it probably occupies if you took

a four by eight sheet of plywood,

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which is the base for these.

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I bet there is, Six or eight

four by eight sheet plywood.

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It is huge Yeah to uh to accommodate

all of these, railroad tracks trains,

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but more, um unusual perhaps is

all of the model buildings which

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One man in particular really, uh,

took off on and tried to build

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little, uh, models of, of buildings

that are very distinctive looking.

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One of them, for example, of a

business that's been around for a

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hundred years called Soo Builders.

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It's painted a very bright

golden yellow with blue trim.

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Well, anybody who's been by it,

then they look at this railroad

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display, oh, there's Soo Builders.

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And that power canal that I talked

about, they've got, it's not real

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water, but they've got a power canal

embedded, that looks like water.

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in their display and

bridges that go across it.

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some of the well known downtown buildings

are on it, the railroad depot, of course.

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and it's all well coordinated

with software, so.

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When kids come in before Christmas, you

know, like the best possible, audience

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you can imagine is a bunch of ten year

olds looking at this and I mean their

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eyes are like saucers and wow, this

is really, really, it's active, you

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know, it's not a static kind of thing.

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There's noises, there's a, they've

got a, I guess it's a real railroad

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whistle on the second floor.

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You wouldn't want it on the

first floor where this is.

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It would break people's eardrums.

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There's a rope coming through the

ceiling and kids are allowed to

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pull that rope and it sounds off

that whistle on the second floor.

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So that's a big hit, of course.

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It is.

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And, and they have set up often,

um, a, I don't know if you call it a

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scavenger hunters, look at this display,

find, where does a steam engine get

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its water and that kind of thing.

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and then you get a, maybe

a classic engineer's hat if

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you answer six questions.

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It's really very, very, uh, friendly

for youngsters, but youngsters that

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are 70 years old also talk about it.

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It's really quite impressive.

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Cliff Duvernois: I loved you talked

before about being active, but it's

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also interactive because there's buttons

around the display that kids can push

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to turn on lights and crossing signals,

which I thought was, uh, was really

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clever, but also to, and you kind of

hinted about this before, and that

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was, it was like capturing Sue St.

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Yes.

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So a lot of the displays that are

down there, like the, like Paul,

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um, the gentleman you were talking

about earlier made a comment about

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how there's one building there where

they used to create, some kind of

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a wire for the Mackinac bridge.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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And they actually, you can actually see

spools in there with the cable wound

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around it and the crane that would pull

them out of the building and load them.

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Oh, it was so fascinating to see that.

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Yeah, that was

in course the Mackinac bridge is

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built in the mid fifties and the

wire that, many, many, wires that

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were about this size, a little bit.

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Thinner maybe than a, than a wooden

pencil, not the lead in a pencil,

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but the pencil itself were all,

stranded together here in Sault Ste.

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Marie, and, I think, maybe I'm

wrong about that, what was done, but

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the, The operation had an important

part of it here in Sault Ste.

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Marie.

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It was taken down then to St.

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Ignace where those cables, which are

two feet in diameter, pretty much, were

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eventually spun across the straits.

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Cliff Duvernois: Bernie, if somebody's

listening to this interview and

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you know, they want to check out

the historical society, find you

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online, maybe even stop by and

playing with that awesome train set.

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How can they do that?

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Well, online,

our website is cchsmi, that's

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for Chippewa County Historical

Society, Michigan, cchsmi.

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com.

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Okay.

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That'll get you to the website, which

is being revised, I believe, but I'm

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sure there's something out there anyway.

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We have a Facebook page that I'm

pretty proud of that, um, if you go

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on Facebook and search Chippewa County

Historical Society, you should find

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us, but beware, or be careful, there's

a Chippewa County in Wisconsin, and

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there's a Chippewa County in Minnesota.

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So you want the Michigan one.

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You want the Michigan one if you

want us, and, uh, that will show you

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some of our activities and And many

of our photos, uh, like I post one

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every week, uh, throwback Thursday.

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I have a lot of fun with, uh, uh, posting

from our very rich photo archives.

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We have currently about 2, 600 digital

images in a database, searchable.

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If they come to Sault Ste.

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Marie, we're right on Ashman, almost to

the water near the locks, 115 Ashman.

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We have open hours, especially in

the summer, weekdays and Saturday.

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We have quite a gift shop.

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I think we have the best collection

of local history books in the area.

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In the winter, our hours are more Um, more

limited, like right now, there's nobody

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else in the building, except, except us.

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And, and except for those open houses

for the, um, holiday traffic, um, but

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I think we are well worth a visit.

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Cliff Duvernois: For our audience,

we'll make sure to include all those

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links in the show notes down below.

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Bernie, it's been awesome

having you on the show today.

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Bernie Arbic, CCHS: Thank you.

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Well, I enjoyed it, Cliff.

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I like to talk about the history, so

thank you for getting in touch with me.

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Cliff Duvernois: And for audience, you

can always roll on over to total michigan.

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com.

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Click on Bernie's interview and get

the links that he mentioned above.

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We'll see you next week.

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When we talk to another Michigander

doing some pretty extraordinary things.

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We'll see you then.