Manitoulin Island
A Keeper of Spirits
One weekend in August many years ago
we rented a red Cadillac and drove to Manitoulin Island.
Native people call it Manidoowaaling."Cave of the spirit."
And it has been sacred to the indigenous people of north America
for more than 10,000 years.
We drove up along Lake Huron on the Canadian side
and disembarked from the ferry the next morning.
We found the island windblown. Maybe haunted.
Except for a couple of tourist shops
that were curious sparkling gems of the past
holding an era that no longer existed.
Inside one we found scraps of Danny Dodge.
A famous man.Widely covered in the press.
His death. Possibly reckless.
Yellow newspapers rolled into plastic wrappers
telling a story not belonging to ten thousand years of sacred history.
As we drove on, the gray clouds let loose and soaked the goldenrod
growing alongside the silent roads spinning circles
out to the parameter of people decades earlier that had tried plowing
and planting. Then unable to grow anything of significance
that far up, got up and left their houses behind
abandoned, empty, and ragged in that raw wet wind.
2026 Jan Darrow / Photo: Paul James
