Here is the start to the island library.  So far themes include art, science, literature, americana, island life, maps, wood and stone working, adventure, preservation, and, well, Paris.   Andrew did a bang up job with the bookshelves, no?  Several more books are on their way via post and we’re working on rustling up the titles recommended via our FB page.  If you have other suggestions see this related blog post or visit our Facebook.

Last night, at around 9pm, I found myself taking the quick fifteen minute trip from Houghton to Calumet. Chris Bathgate’s “Salt Year”, a pack of maverick 100s, and the abandoned mining buildings kept my company. I was on my way to meet with Dr. Rob Gorski from New York, who recently purchased a 90-acre island off the coast of the Keweenaw, and a sense of worry washed over me. I think native yoopers always get worried when someone from the city decides to start meddling with their turf. But, he wanted to grab a beer at Schute’s. At least he has good taste, right?

I’m only five steps into the building and I catch eyes with a man and woman at the bar.

“Steven?”

The next two hours seemed to go down faster than the beers in our hands as I listened to Rob talk about Rabbit Island, its geography, everything it took to get him here, his fascination with subdivision and the island’s complete lack of it, and his vision for the islands future. It didn’t take long for my northerner instincts to realize Rob has them too, and that, ultimately, we all want the best for the Keweenaw.

So what is Rob doing? Well, right now, at this moment as I type, he’s out on the island looking, planning, deciding. He intends to have anything that is built done so in a way that it can be undone without scarring the land in a day. Preservation rings loudly through the island’s beautiful and inspiring waves, forests, and wildlife, and Rob wants to harness all of those things to create a space for artists to go and experience the raw beauty of undivided, uninhabited, and (near entirely) undeveloped land.

So why do we care? Because it’s awesome. Rob has his head in the right place, and he’s doing something that could really help drive and inspire local creation. If everything goes according to plan, I will be heading out to the island a couple of times during the next few weeks shooting video of their construction process, Rob talking about the island, and hopefully even musicians performing out there.

-Steven Michael Holmes, www.mostlymidwest.com

**Update: Steven did end up making it out to the island along with several musicians who had just played Graham Parson's Farm Block Festival.  The spontaneous quintet of guitar, fiddle, voice and percussion recorded a few tracks and some videos a la Vincent Moon on the rocks beside the lake as the sun got low.  (Some photos: *  *  *  *  *)  I can’t wait to see the video spots after Steven edits them and there is a 100% chance one of the audio recordings will be on the Rabbit Island Mixtape which is due out in the next few weeks featuring what else:  northern Michigan music. 

Have a look!  Photographs from the end of July and early August out on Rabbit Island are right here.

Andrew sent word from the island yesterday that a northeast wind had kicked up on the lake making it impossible for him to get back to the mainland because of rough seas between camp and the peninsula three miles away.  What would you have done?  (This also illustrates well that when you are alone on an island you had best leave word of where you are heading… just in case.)  

You can read the entire update as posted on our Kickstarter page here. The first few weeks on the island this summer were pretty amazing. Stay tuned for more soon. And again many, many thanks to everyone who supported the project via Kickstarter and to those who continue to offer support in countless other ways (gifts of thimbleberry jam, offers of used outboard engines, solar panel expertise, artists interested in the residency, like-minded people with projects of similar underpinnings around the country, musicians who made wonderful guitar and fiddle music on the island, northern michigan music bloggers, and many more). While we were on island our communication was very limited and our projects many. Since coming back we are trying to catch up on tons. The idea is taking off in ways we never imagined.

We’re making final preparations to live on the island for several weeks and the idea of Sisu keeps coming to mind.  The descendants of Finnish immigrants in the Keweenaw know what we’re talking about.  For the next several weeks we’ll be three miles offshore and at the mercy of the elements, exposed to the will of the lake as we go about our business.  We’ll do our best to send updates of our work and life on the island but aren’t sure if that is a luxury we will have.   

“The literal meaning of sisu is equivalent in English to "having guts”, and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu. It is similar to equanimity, except the forbearance of sisu has a grimmer quality of stress management than the latter.“ 

If you’re unfamiliar with the idea read up some more on it here.  It is a nice part of the Finnish culture and is strong in the Copper Country.

84% of the fresh water in North America is contained in the great lakes.  Only the polar ice caps contain more.  If you zoom in on this photo you can see Rabbit Island–it is the small speck of land just east of the Keweenaw Peninsula.  The scale of Lake Superior is incredible.  Its fish, water quality, winds, waves, ice, snow and folklore isolate and dwarf the island’s 91 acres.  Rabbit Island is as fine a place as any to witness the changing temperament of this amazing body of water.