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Bloomfield Blossoms: p. 030-031

Smith, Kay, 1925-

Bloomfield Township Public Library

Ice storms -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township

Bloomfield Township (Mich.)

Blake, Chesley

GB01a017

part of 'Bloomfield Blossoms' by Kay Smith

text, image

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BLOOMFIELD'S CLIMATE, AND A BICENTENNIAL ICE STORM The climate of our area, as the climate of all Michigan, can be summed up in one word --changeable. Few citizens reading this book will ever forget the ice storm of March, 1976, or the tornado which touched down just west of our border in our sister Township of West Bloomfield. An experience all shared was the terror of standing by the window watching and hearing great trees crack under the weight of the ice and come crashing down in all directions. In 1821 Captain Hervey Parke underwent a similar terror, although in that case it was the wind which created the same scene. 'During the sub-division of town 9 north, range 6 east' he wrote, 'we encountered the most terrible gale of wind I ever witnessed in the woods of Michigan. The trees cracked and fell in all directions close around us. It was the same night the 'Walk-in-the- Water' lay off Buffalo, deeply laden for Detroit. The captain, after discovering the opening seams of the steamer, and realizing the impending danger, very properly gave the order to slip the cable, releasing her, and she went on shore.' The 'Walk-in-the-Water' was the first steamship to ply the waters pf the Great Lakes, and some of our pioneer families were on her when she beached that stormy night of November 21, 1821, just three years after the 342-ton vessel was launched. Many sister ships carried passengers and cargo to Michigan, notably 'The Superior' and 'The Michigan.' The captain of 'The Michigan' Chesley Blake, who had been among the crew of the 'Walk-in-the-Water,' later settled in Bloomfield, buying property next to Amasa Bagley on the Saginaw Trail on May 26, 1823. The great large man, over 6-foot, 3-inches and possessing a deep voice and commanding manner, was a familiar figure in early Bloomfield until his untimely death in the cholera epidemic of 1854.