“Fourth of July Celebration Breaks Record; Crowd at Presque Isle Yesterday is Estimated At 15,000; Fine Weather” read the Mining Journal headline on July 5, 1928. The article boasted, “With a clear sky and an abundance of sunshine, Presque Isle yesterday was the stamping ground for what is believed to have been the largest crowd of people ever assembled in Marquette county.”

The state police, who assisted the city police with parking and crowd control, monitored traffic crossing the Dead River Bridge. They reported 5,910 automobiles headed to the Island. Discounting those making multiple trips, up to 3,500 cars brought visitors to the Island. Another 5,000 people traveled to the celebration on the Marquette City and Presque Isle Street Railway.

Attendees arrived as early as 7:30 a.m. The planning committee encouraged families to pack a lunch for a noon picnic and then stay throughout the afternoon and evening. Organizers provided ice cream, coffee, and soft drinks.

A variety of entertainment began at 2 p.m. “with a presentation of aquatic sports in the Shiras pool, which included a log rolling exhibition, fancy diving and swimming by four Chicago girls, and water ‘stunt’ contests by Marquette swimmers.”

H.W. Gossard Co. float in the Ishpeming parade 4th of July 1926. (Photo courtesy of Marquette Regional History Center)

Local youth provided entertainment in the amateur aquatic games. Some of the winners of these events were: Tube race – Gleason, Fagen, and Catherine Landry; Umbrella race – Pascoe, Betts, and Jane Landry; Canoe tilting – Geill and Grawn; Greased pole – Catherine Landry, Paul Gleason, and Robert Larson; Two-inch plank walk across channel – Eleanor Ragassette, Mary Herron, and Rosilind Glesregen.

Four young ladies from Chicago put on an extraordinary show exhibiting ‘fancy diving’ and short and long-distance speed swimming. Concluding the program was Wisconsin and Minnesota champion birler (log roller) Wilbur Marx, who performed unbelievable feats, including skipping rope on a spinning log. When the Shiras pool program concluded, several thousand people moved to the shore of Lake Superior for the boat races.

The motorboat races, the first of its kind in the area, followed the Shiras event.

Well-known U.P. names, such as Longyear, Kingsford and Vierling, were among the participants. On a triangular course set by the Coast Guard, the races began with a free-for-all between three racers – Ted Kingsford, Mr. Cudlip of Iron Mountain, and Carl Tauch of Marquette. Cudlip started out in the lead but had to withdraw when his engine stalled during the first lap. Kingsford and Tauch continued the race rounding the course neck-and-neck. Tauch led on the straight portions of the course with Kingsford catching up rounding the corners. Kingsford won in a “hair raising finish.” Races in two classes, 2- and 4-cylinder engines, followed.

Between the races, Mr. Vierling gave the first exhibition of surfboard riding in Marquette. Similar to modern wakeboarding, Vierling rode a board pulled behind Jack Longyear’s boat. “Twice he ‘spilled,’ but his ability to stay with the tiny board, traveling in the swells of the boat, traveling at a speed of about 20 mph, was uncanny.”

Music reigned across the Island into the evening. A 25-piece band from Gwinn provided music throughout the day and an orchestra drew dancers to the dance floor at the pavilion, which remained crowded until the end of the evening.

Guizetti's Music Store float, probably in the Negaunee parade 4th of July 1925. (Photo courtesy of Marquette Regional History Center)

The fun-filled celebration concluded with a fireworks display, which was “larger and more elaborate than any exhibition of its kind seen in Marquette before.”