Time Line I: Magellan had recently circumnavigated the world, Queen Elizabeth the I was on the throne of England and Michelangelo was still alive. And just south of Pentwater, a segment of a cone from a white pine started to grow. No easy thing. All of the trees around were very tall. Maybe a dead tree fell, maybe a fire came through, but somehow the new tree started.

Time Line II: Now, Edison was alive, FDR, Churchill and Stalin were infants, Lenin wasn't even a teenager and President Garfield had just been assassinated. (“May he be the last!”) Our tree was now very, very tall. A dozen or more growth rings to the inch. Sunlight was only available at the very top of the tree. It had to grow up “the old fashion way”; very slowly. There were tree cutters around Pentwater now, and the lumber company of Nickerson (older brother of the soon-to-be-innkeeper) & Collister harvested our tree to the ground. But it never made it out of Pentwater Lake. Stuck in the mud? Too heavy and didn't float high enough? We don't know how, but we do know where.

Time Line III: Since approximately 1881, the log was stuck in the soil under where the PYC building now is. For years, when the water was right, you could hear the log bumping around. In 1999, as part of repairs on the deck area (“May they be the last!”), the log was brought out. Knowing what he was looking at, Tony Sisson asked for the log, with the promise that something would be made out of it for the Club one day. So the log “followed Tony home” and was milled in Tony's yard and the lumber stored there.

Time Line IV: Now, it's 2002 and the floor under the then-current bar was removed and what was found underneath was - not much. Rusted metal, soaked wood: The bar had to go. For those who read the last Newsletter, you know that a lot was going on then. Jack Patterson, Arnie Samuel and Tony joined in saying to the Commodores, “We'll take care of the bar and it will be ready in the spring.” And so it was.

Time Line V: Now, it's spring, 2003. Take a look at the wood in the bar. Take a look at the workmanship. Notice that the top of the bar is flat, but that the bottom is not! (The floor “waves“.) Notice the end-section from the log, which has the log “mark (or marque)” of the letter “N” for “Nickerson”. Take a good look at a great product of member initiative, skill and participation. Bravo.