My Mom: Miss Missaukee at Mackinac
Timeline 3 of 3: June 28, 1958
The official itinerary for Saturday, June 28, had the drivers
waking up at 5:30 am and departing Kinross for Sault Ste. Marie at
6:00. The queens and chaperones were to awaken at 6 and meet the
drivers at 6:30; I can imagine how everyone must've felt after about
four hours of sleep! Breakfast was at 7 in the Knights of Columbus
Hall, and the motorcade once again departed for St. Ignace at 8.
There each car was joined by a Cub Scout from Petoskey. All the
queens from Lower Peninsula counties crossed over to the Mackinaw
City side, while the Upper Peninsula queens remained on the north
side. Then they joined separate military parades that took place on
each peninsula.
At 11:00, Miss Michigan and her car led the Upper Peninsula queens
down from St. Ignace to the Bridge's north anchor block, where they
met the Lower Peninsula queens (who had been led by Mrs.
Michigan) coming up from Mackinaw City. Below are some photos of the
Bridge that I think Faye must've snapped from the back seat of her
convertible:
(full photo; note the deckle edges)
(detail)
(full photo)
(detail)
After everyone was assembled on the Bridge, two trucks with spools
of long green ribbon attached to their side mirrors departed from
opposite sides of the Straits. Upon reaching the anchor block, the
ends of the ribbons were detached from the trucks and tied to both
sides of the speaker's podium. During the formal ceremony (which
began at 11:30) these two ribbons were tied together to symbolize the
joining of the two peninsulas that had been accomplished with the
completion of the Mackinaw Bridge. Later each driver got to cut off a
foot-long piece of the ribbon; Mr. Iverson gave his ribbon to Faye,
and it is still preserved in her scrapbook.
Several 5- or 10-minute speeches were given by various political,
military, and clerical leaders, as well as by leaders of the
companies who designed, built, and financed the Bridge. After a
nearly two-hour ceremony, the queens walked back to their
convertibles, ate a catered box lunch, and were then free to depart
the area. The Iversons drove Faye home by way of Traverse City, where
they stopped for dinner before finally arriving home around 8 pm. It
had been a wonderful experience for her. The rainy weather had paused
that weekend, and Faye said "...the Chamber of Commerce couldn't have
chosen more congenial folks than Mr. and Mrs. Iverson to accompany me
to the Bridge festival."
Not far off was the 4th of July. Faye was invited to be a part of
the parade in Lake City, and later at the carnival grounds she spoke
to the festival-goers about the Bridge ceremony. The local paper
announced it thus:
I believe much of the text in Faye's scrapbook (some of which I've
posted on these pages) is from the report that she gave on July
4th.
Eventually, all the convertibles were returned to local Oldsmobile
dealers, who presumably cleaned them up for sale. Sometime after the
dedication, the dealer for Missaukee County (Sprik Chevrolet in Lake
City) sent Faye the commemorative license plate that had been on her
car.
The "57" refers to Missaukee's position in an alphabetical list of
Michigan's counties.
I'll close this page with the ending paragraphs of an article that
appeared the day after the dedication in "the Herald" (which looks
like it was a "big city" newspaper, but I don't know where it was
published):
I thought that was pretty insightful. Because, sure enough, today
most of us do take the Bridge for granted.
From here, you can view a page with some
interesting examples of phone numbers, mailing codes, postage
stamps, and advertising from 1958. Or, I've scanned and posted a
couple other newspaper photos here
and here. Or, follow
one of the links below...
Page created 06 May 2002; last updated 13 May
2002.
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