Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 59

Sunday 1 Pag 5F JANUARY 13, 1991 1 Thomas BeVIER Divers ruin state goal to preserve wrecks Lake Huron faplLJ I area TsRogers City nawayir68pC Presque If1315 Isle N( County tariff overcomes Tl the 6s meter tbin I t' i I I i I rr i rr I I j' I i 11 I I im I 3 if I --M- Jt I I I i Ii vi A i I jrp ji flow far will some go to preserve an old 'northern Michigan landmark? Try fund raising with the aid x)f two celebrities hose working toward a renovation i oi Manistee grand old Ramsdell Theatre have enlisted the comic magic of Harry Anderson, the judge on TV's 'flight Court, and the heavy-tim-bred voice of James Earl Jones, thetx-convict detective on Gabriel's Fire. Anderson's and Jones' ties to Manistee are a bit tenuous. Anderson spent a couple of his childhood years there. Jones grew up in nearby Brethren and once ap- npnrerl in nlnv nt thp tVipntor It's yet another example of the extremes people in northern Michigan will go to preserve an old landmark building. Suggest abandoning the Cheboygan opera house, the Sault Ste.

Marie or Bellaire courthouses, or hotels in Traverse City or Petoskey, and bond issues pass, private drives start, civic wake up. -Often as not, what needs to be Tphe'gets done. And so Anderson should not come as a Jones, who also has starred on stage (Great White Hope) and in movies (Field of Dreams) will provide voice commentary to a fund-raising slide and audio pre-r sent ation. Anderson has agreed to sferve-as honorary chairman of the effort, which will Spread out in phases over the next "djecdde. can only wonder how Thomas Jefferson Ramsdell, the Isterin, philanthropic attorney and patron of the classics who build theater for the town in 1903, i.tvould react.

Probably positively, thinks "Ruth Cooper, general manager of Manistee Civic Players, which is leading efforts to restore and Modernize the classic Victorian ujlding. It has become rundown through the years, and there have proposals to tear it down. It is stall used for plays and other rjevents, but Cooper thinks it could serve as a regional cultural center. "It was called Ramsdell's Folly when he built it," she said, implying that surely old T.J. would un- Iderstand you do what you have to do, even if it means making a bla-Hant appeal to common tastes.

At the turn of the century, Manistee was reputed to have 17 millionaires, most of whom had j-'ifiade their fortune through lum-t'befmg. Ramsdell didn't quite Inmate the millionaires' list, but he jcanfe close enough to do pretty much what he wanted. iii ii i i Mjneoiineiningsnewaniea most-was a first-class theater, one Approaching the quality of those iiinNew York and Chicago. He came" close to getting it. The -building has a 500-seat theater on wone side and an huge assembly hall on the other.

ij'Vi'i Through the years, Manistee gone through fits and starts of -ripf 6serity, but it still is a place with too little to offer people like Anderson and Jones. 10! Maybe someday, though, the theater is fixed up, it wptfld worth their while to at least fiddling Film: The premiere of folk film maker Michael Louki-heh's newest documentary, Medi- cihe Fiddle, will held Saturday in Ste. Marie, Ontario. The Northern Michigan University sociologist has won national awards for his previous fjlms, which include two on Finn-1 jsh-'American culture in the peninsula and the classic Good Man in the Woods (1987) vftbout the life of a woodsman, "trapper and commercial fisher-1'trjan. "i Medicine Fiddle, which cost and took four years to portrays the blending of the 1 musical traditions of the French and Irish and Scottish trappers and lumberjacks with native, people of the upper Great Lake's region and northern Great 'Plaitjs.

TfOukinen found that the sic, which features fiddle playing i artcf step dancing, has survived in isolated places, particularly I among Indian families. The pre- miere showing in the Canadian -Soawill be at 7:30 p.m. at Korah Collegiate school. Thomas BeVler's mailing ad-" dress is P.O. Box 5145, Traverse City, Mich.

49685-5145. 11 Montmorency County Alpena THE DETROIT NEWS cratic leader and Skyles is a Republican. She said, however, that she is not disappointed Skyles got the job, partly because "it's good for the sisterhood." "I do not expect Brenda will have problems with the black community," she said. "And all those people who have a desire to be sheriff that are running around stabbing each other in the back should realize who the real enemy is. "The real enemy is the dope addicts and thieves who are breaking into houses.

If we didn't have them, we wouldn't even need a sheriff." Among her goals, Skyles said, is to improve the investigative branch of the department. She said a full-time detective will be named, a position the department has not had. "The department has gained a lot of respect in the last few years," she said. "I expect to improve it more. I know there will be a lot of people that will run against me (in the next election), but I'm going to win.

"I want to be here until I decide to retire." and by agreement with private landowners. The latest projects: A Charlevoix developer, Cedar Shores has agreed to give up development rights to 175 acres on a subdivision site near Susan Lake and gave the conservancy another parcel that includes 240 feet of lake frontage as a public nature preserve. The owner of undeveloped shoreline near Aloha, on the eastern side of Mullet Lake, donated 20 acres with 400 feet of lake frontage to the conservancy and agreed to sell an additional 600 feet of frontage for less than its appraised value. The owner of 14 acres in Harbor Shores donated the site to a network of more than 300 acres of parks between Petoskey and Harbor Springs. By Paige St.

John ASSOCIATED PRESS PORT SANILAC, Mich. The Coast Guard cutter Mesquite, which went aground more than a year ago, is today a stripped hulk on the bottom of Lake Superior victim of raids by underwater pirates. The Coast Guard gave its crippled cutter a burial at sea last July, dropping it intact to the bottom of Lake Superior for reincarnation as a scuba diving attraction. The ship was stripped of every-thing removable within two months. "I am appalled at what happened," said Michigan archaeologist John Halsey in Lansing.

"It was like a feeding frenzy. We're talking in hours, in days." Charles Feltner, an engineer for Ford Motor has seen the feeding frenzy, too. Feltner discovered the 1856 wreck of the brig Sandusky in the Straits of Mackinac. He dove on it awhile in secrecy. Then he made the find public.

"People stripped the thing in a couple of months," Feltner said. "Things like dishes, tools, all the blocks, belaying pins, deadeyes, you name it." Against the law in most waters and under it in some, unscrupulous divers are looting Great Lakes shipwrecks as fast as they are found. Enforcement officers from Michigan to Ontario say the laws to stop such looting are impossible to police. There are too many wrecks, too many divers. But today there is a counter effort to leave the wrecks intact as underwater time capsules for future divers and archaeologists.

Feltner said he hopes efforts of divers like Sanilac County Sheriffs Sgt. Garry Biniecki will make a difference. Biniecki and the three school teachers he dives with bring back nothing more tangible than exposed rolls of film and scribbled measurements. They have a new ethic: What goes down stays down. "We want to keep our artifacts down there," says high school science teacher Jim Stayer, who, along with his wife, Patricia, Biniecki and science teacher Tim Juhl, make up Marine Explorations Inc.

The Great Lakes hold immeasurable wealth. More than 5,000 ships have gone down somewhere in the inland seas. Less than half have been found. Where the water is deep and cold, and decay is arrested, each wreck is a snapshot of its moment of history. And when Biniecki starts talking about his best find, the mystery ship Regina, his mood darkens.

Biniecki lost his best buddy, Wayne Brusate, over the Regina. The two friends and a third diver found the fabled package freighter in Lake Huron in 1986. It carried a department store's wealth when it went down in the Great Storm of 1913, a six-day blow that took out 10 ships and killed 235 seamen. The upside-down shipwreck was, Biniecki says, "a virgin." Its goods included crates of unopened champagne capped with gold foil and bottles of fine scotch. Without Biniecki's knowledge, Brusate filed a salvage claim with the state of Michigan.

In a storm of mistrust, anger and lawsuits, Michigan granted Brusate the permit. Brusate and a Canadian salvage company began the legalized looting of the Regina. Brusate has defended his work on the Regina, arguing that the ship is decaying on its own and even if not salvaged will not remain intact. Cannons thief gets jail BAY CITY A former Michigan man was sentenced last week to 14 months in a federal prison and fined $4,000, for removing two Civil War cannons from a Gladwin cemetery. Robert L.

Pratt 47, formerly of Brohman in western Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland. A federal grand jury indicted Piatt in February 1989 on a charge of interstate transportation of stolen property. The cannons, called "12-pound howitzers" for the weight of the ball they fired, were taken from Highland Cemetery in August 1988 and shipped to a California collector.

The purchaser returned the cannon to Gladwin when he learned the cannons were stolen. Piatt was arrested Feb. 21, 1990, in Winter Haven, Fla. Badge of trust: Lake County picks jail administrator to head department. By Thomas BeVier THE DETROIT NEWS BALDWIN Among the first to congratulate Brenda Skyles on being appointed Lake County sheriff the first woman sheriff in the Michigan since 1931 was Ted Nugent, known around here not so much as the Motor City Madman but as an avid bowhunter.

Rock star Nugent has a hunting camp in the county and spends considerable time there. He sometimes plays a role in local politics. "I was glad to hear from him," said Skyles, 38, who started work as a dispatcher in 1983. "He offered to speak in our high school drug education program." But the call had other significance. It meant Skyles had been recognized as a star player in the rural western Michigan county's often rock 'n' roll political scene.

The slightly built 5-foot-2 mother of two was chosen over six male candidates for the job, assuming office Dec. 21. There have been only four other female sheriffs in the state's history, the Michigan Sheriffs' Association reports. They were Emily McGuiness of Sanilac County (1923-24), Illea Henkel of Montcalm County (1926-28), Sylvia Meyers of Gladwin County (1927-28) and Jane I. Cutter of Berrien County (1931).

Most were appointed to complete the terms of their late husbands. Not only did Skyles successfully combat what she calls "the gender thing," but also she overcame the disadvantage of being an Alabama-born outsider who had lived in the community for only a decade. She and her husband, who works at the state's boot camp for youthful offenders at Freesoil, had been working at various jobs in Flint and vacationing in Lake County before they decided to make it their permanent residence, initially earning their living by chopping wood. "I just love politics," she said, "and I've worked hard to prepare myself for this job." She knows some people are unhappy but she thinks that, given a chance, they will come around to her side. She hopes Nugent's call is an indication.

Nugent was a supporter of former Sheriff Robert "Bulldog" Blevins, who gave Skyles her first job with the department. As his nickname would imply, he was known for a confrontational style that sometimes brought unwanted media attention to the county. Blevins seven years as sheriff were marred by lawsuits. The department was at odds with the county's black community. Lake County's black population is the largest in northern Michigan, accounting for 18 percent of the county's 8,500 residents.

Local black leaders were critical of the sheriffs department after a white deputy killed a well-known black man he was arresting on charges of drunkenness. Lake County officials, hoping to polish the department's image, worked in 1986 to elect Peter Loucks, a retired Michigan State Police supervisor, as sheriff. Loucks resigned for health reasons, and last month Skyles was appointed to replace him by a three-person commission composed of three top elected officials, In brief Mush ado about winter tourists MACKINAW CITY The first annual Mackinaw City Mush, a two-day dog sled race Jan. 19-20, is expected to attract 150 teams and up to 2,000 spectators, according to Gail McBride, executive director of the Mackinaw Area Tourist Bureau. The event is hoped to herald Mackinaw City's birth as a winter tourist attraction.

This winter, eight motels, three DALE G. YOU NGThe Detroit News Sheriff Brenda Skyles, an Alabama-born Republican, is being touted as a rising star in Lake County politics. There have been only four other female sheriffs in Michigan's history. 32? i i I 1 "I don't have a personal problem with Brenda," said John Hankins, one of those who quit. "I just think that any person in that position (sheriff) should have practical police experience." Among those who stayed was the undersheriff, Gary Krause, who was one of the candidates for the top job.

"Politics was never my bag," he said. "Brenda likes it and, let's face it, it's a political job. We can work together to continue improving the department. And when she runs (in 1992), I'll support her." Yates Township Supervisor Audrey Bullett has lived in Idlewild since 1951, when her parents moved there from Chicago and she went to work as a cocktail waitress in the Flamingo Club, a well-known nightclub that is now closed. Bullett was among the 30 Lake County political leaders Skyles approached for support for the sheriffs appointment.

"I told her I couldn't support her," Bullett said. "I'm not in the habit of supporting Republicans." Bullett is an influential Demo 36,000 responses, said Tuesday that 84 percent of those believe ORVs should be restricted. Such a bill passed the state House late in the last session but died in the Senate. A similar bill is expected to be introduced this year, the group said. Protected areas grow HARBOR SPRINGS The Little Traverse Conservancy has designated three new projects in northwestern Michigan involving the protection of more than 230 acres of lakeshore and forest land, as part of its continuing effort to protect scenic and environmentally sensitive areas from development.

The conservancy is a private organization that attempts to protect designated areas through purchase the county prosecutor, county clerk and probate judge. Skyles rose through the ranks under Loucks, eventually becoming jail administrator. "We worked hard to establish agood relationship with the entire community, and especially in the black community," she said. Loucks put her in charge of the jail, a particularly sensitive post. She helped establish new procedures and regulations for all phases of the 25-person department, which includes seven other women.

And she took nearly every in-service training course available ranging from small jail management, arrest disposition and suicide prevention to marine safety, CPR and Aikido. She became a certified correction officer by taking classes at West Shore Community College in Scott-ville. She is now working toward certification as a patrol officer. The lack of certification rankled some of the department's officers when she was named sheriff and four of them resigned. restaurants and other shops are remaining open.

In the past, only a half-dozen businesses remained open during the winter. Mackinaw City Postmaster Dennis Godzik noted that the city houses 6,000 residents in the summer but drops to 450 in the winter. The goal of the tourist bureau is to add a new major event each winter. Next year, the bureau plans a crosscountry ski event along with a longer dog sled race. Off-road limits urged LANSING Most outdoor enthusiasts support restricting off-road vehicles to designated trails and scramble areas, according to a survey done by Michigan's largest conservation organization.

The Michigan United Conservation Clubs, which received more than.