The following news story and photo was taken from Kathleen Firestone’s book, “Suttons Bay, Peshawbestown and Bingham Shores of Grand Traverse Bay.”
Lars E. Bahle never forgot his schooner O.M. Nelson. She had left Suttons Bay in November 1888, when she was sold to buyers in Wisconsin. On June 4, 1899, the Nelson was stranded off Pilot Island, 2 1/2 miles south of Plum Island Light Station on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, during a southerly gale and fog. The captain, his daughter, and all crew were rescued from the bowsprit where they fought fiercely to keep from being washed overboard. The Plum Island Light keeper and his surfmen, who rescued those aboard the O.M. Nelson, took them to Plum Island where they were given dry clothes. During the next two days, surfmen retrieved the anchor, chain, sails, and all the running rigging; but the boat that Lars E. Bahle had built was a total wreck.
Lars E. Bahle received word of the June fourth wreck, presumably by telegraph, and by June sixth, he was in Milwaukee. Maybe he had hoped to received parts of the vessel that were being salvaged, or it could be that money was still owed him from the sale of the Nelson.
