“An Interrupted Picnic Dinner.” from the September 22, 1900 Advocate
An Interrupted Picnic Dinner.
A ride through the northern part of this county is a very enjoyable experience just now, and such an excursion was taken last week by Mr. and Mrs. Y. V. Dreutzer, Mrs. Geo L. Pittenger and D. S. Crandall of Sevastopol, the district, attorney supplying the motive power. The party went to Baileys Harbor on Monday, remaining in that village during the night and proceeding northward on the following morning. When they left the harbor the weather was fine, and it so continued until noon when the sky became overcast, notwithstanding which the excursionists continued on their way, believing, like the antediluvians, that “there wasn’t going to be much of a shower.” They discovered their mistake a little later when a heavy rain drove them for shelter to the lee side of a barn, where they were weather bound for half an hour or so. Then the elements took a rest, and thinking the worst was over the party proceeded to Europe Bay, which is at the extreme northern end of the peninsula and in sight of the islands in Death’s Door. A few rods inland from the bay is a small body of water variously known as Europe Lake and Lake Isabel. Here it had been determined to have a picnic dinner because some previous visitors had talked themselves hoarse in proclaiming the beauties of the lake, and had exhausted the entire vocabulary of adjectives in its praise. While dinner was in progress the clouds assumed a more threatening appearance, and a few minutes later the wind suddenly changed from southeast to north and blew with great violence, being accompanied by a deluge of rain. The party did not wait for the dessert, but made a mad rush for their covered carriage, where they were well sheltered from the storm but were surrounded by trees that swayed dangerously in the fierce wind. Presently a large hemlock was broken off about ten feet from the ground and came down with a crash like thunder within three rods of the carriage, and still nearer to one of the horses that was hitched to an adjacent tree. It was indeed a close call for a slight difference in the direction of the wind would have sent the hemlock across the carriage. It is certainly a curious coincidence that at the very moment when the life of Mrs. Dreutzer was thus imperilled her brother Hans Hanson was also in a dangerous situation, as is narrated elsewhere in our paper today; and strangely enough they were not more than two or three miles apart, it being about that distance from Europe Bay to the Plum Island channel in which Mr. Hanson was riding on the keel of his capsized boat.
The hint given by the falling hemlock was not lost on the excursionists, who immediately harnessed in their team and started for Sister Bay, ten miles distant. Their ride was made dangerous by other uprooted trees and by gusts of wind that nearly upset their carriage, but they reached Sister Bay before dark, thankful that they had passed without serious disaster through the worst storm that has visited this region in many years. They returned home on Wednesday evening well pleased with their trip, and bringing with them a fine lot of photographs, taken by Mrs. Pittenger, who was the “staff artist” of the expedition, and whose camera has done much to make the season interesting to those who spent the summer down at Shoreside and at Spring Grove Cottage.
Aside from the storm episode the excursion was a grand success, the participants returning loaded with pleasant reminiscences of their tour. They were fortunate in having Mr. Dreutzer as their host and pilot, for he knows every inch of the ground and every inhabitant along the road, his long residence in the county having made him familiar with every part of it.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Weather-related posts
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/weather-related