As Summer Sails Away, Puzzle By the Bay

by guest blogger, Elmer Prather

My latest puzzle is a five-hundred-piece puzzle titled By The Bay. Before I spend the time putting a puzzle together, I must have a connection to the puzzle picture. The picture of this puzzle has a busy scene. What caught my eye was the lighthouse on what looks like an island off a large body of water.

When I put puzzles together, I research the scene shown in the puzzle picture. I could not find the exact location shown in the picture, but it reminded me a lot of Mackinac Island, Michigan. While on a trip to Michigan, I once visited Mackinac Island. When I stepped off the ferry that transported me to the island, I felt like I had just stepped into an old postcard. There were no cars, just horse-drawn carriages, bikes, and horse taxis. Carriage tours of Mackinac Island officially began in 1869. One of the carriage tour companies on the island is the oldest and largest horse and buggy livery in the world. It has approximately one hundred freight and passenger carriages powered by over four hundred horses. The island is home to the world-famous Grand Hotel, where island visitors can stay during their visit.

While on this trip to Michigan, I took an hour and one-half boat excursion over to South Manitou Island. At one time, this was a busy island made up of farmers, woodcutters, and fishermen. Much of the sand and gravel was used to rebuild Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871 was provided by the Garden City Sand Company. The company bought land on South Manitou and sent barges to transport the sand and gravel to Chicago. Today, the island has an abandoned schoolhouse, the remnants of some of the homesteaders’ farms, and a decommissioned lighthouse.

When I first saw this puzzle, the ornate lighthouse caught my eye. I am enthused by lighthouses and have visited and climbed to the top of many where climbing was permitted. Over the years, many of them have been declared unsafe to climb. Years ago, it was easier to climb these old lighthouses without any restrictions. I have been fortunate enough to have climbed several of the ones on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, many of the ones in Florida, and I especially enjoy climbing the one on Tybee Island, near Savannah, Georgia, which is approximately three hundred miles from where I live in Georgia.

In closing, in the end, no matter how many times you have watched the sun set behind a lighthouse, there is something undeniably magical about the island light. It is a place that seems to exist out of time, a portal to a bygone era that still resonates with the heart of the modern world.

By the Bay 500 piece by Alan Giana