Two For One

Masonic and Town Hall

Date Visited:  August 3, 2019

Stop:  #33

After getting our “Rock On” at the School of White Rock, we continued our journey southward on M-25 heading towards Port Sanilac.  The clock told us it was a few minutes after noon, so I immediately started doing the math in my head.  Let’s see; on the road for 2 hours, we have hit 4 historical marker sites, that leaves us with 13 more to see, and 5 wineries to visit (according to our original plan, laid out in our blog for Stop #29).  It did not look very promising that we would accomplish our plan.

Just as I was trying to figure out how we could salvage the plan, we approached a roadside park and scenic lookout.  So instead of passing it so we could keep any hope alive for hitting all our objectives for the day, we stopped instead to watch the big freighters on Lake Huron pass by.  One of my favorite childhood memories was taking a family drive on a warm Sunday afternoon out to Algonac and watch the great freighters sail up and down the St. Clair River.  Those memories flooded back as we stood at the wood fence along the overlook and watched 3 huge freighters out on the horizon.

 

This was the Four Mile Scenic Turnout, honoring Cary Rouse, and is located 8.3 miles south of White Rock at M-25 and Mills Road.  The scenery was beautiful, and I relished the opportunity to watch those big ships out on the lake, even though they were quite a distance out.  We spent about 15 minutes there taking pics, watching the ships, and just enjoying the perfect weather.  But it was time to get on the road so we continued heading south towards our next target, Port Sanilac.

Port Sanilac is another one of those beautiful historic towns that dot the shoreline along M-25 between Port Huron and Bay City.  It is located 19.8 miles south of White Rock and about 11.4 miles north of Lexington.  With a population of 584 (as of 2017), Port Sanilac is actually a village, and like many of the towns and villages in this area, its roots sprung from the lumber industry in the early 1800’s.  It originated as a lumberjack settlement and was known as Bark Shanty.  Through the late 1840’s and into the 1850’s, the settlement grew adding a sawmill, a schoolhouse, and a general store to the community.  In 1854, the first post office opened.  After shipping docks were built into the lake, Bark Shanty was renamed Port Sanilac in 1857.  According to local legend, Sanilac was the name of a Wyandotte Indian Chief.

In 1886, the Port Sanilac Lighthouse opened.  We have visited that lighthouse, but that was another quest in another time.  Offshore is the Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve, which is a popular scuba diving area for exploring shipwrecks, many being the victims of the Great Storm of 1913.

The purpose of our stop in Port Sanilac was to visit the Masonic and Town Hall historical marker.  As we cruised into town, we blew right past it, mostly because the sign was obscured by a big old tree as we entered town from the north.  It is located on the east side of North Ridge Road (M-25) about 205 feet north of Main Street.  You cannot park on North Ridge Road, so we just parked in the parking lot behind the Dollar General store located across the street from the Masonic and Town Hall building.

The sign commemorates its namesake, a rectangular, two-story red-orange brick building sitting on a fieldstone foundation.  Masons started meeting in the area in 1866, and in 1868 the Sanilac Masonic Lodge was organized.  There were 15 members at that time.  Lodge members met in rented rooms in the area through the early 1880’s, and in 1883, they began discussing the possibility of building a new Lodge and sharing it with the township.  Christopher Odfield, a Mason, donated the land, and the cornerstone for the new building was laid on July 1, 1884.  Because of the many devastating fires that tore through the area during the preceding decades, the foundation of the building (constructed by the township) was built with three-foot thick walls to serve as a place of refuge in case of any future fires.  The building (constructed by the Masons) was completed and opened in 1885.  It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The Masons no longer meet in this building.

Anxious to get back on the road, we took our requisite number of pics, including a couple of pics with Sarah being a goofball (see image below, lower left), then made our way back to our car.  We had another two markers to hit before we would get to our first winery (and some much-needed food), so time was a-wasting.  Onward!!!

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