Name/Title
Green Gill Net BuoyDescription
Wooden buoy painted green with (likely) sassafras wood stave and canvas flag.Collection
1845 Fishing, commercialCataloged By
Winthers, SallyLocation
Building
Saugatuck's Historic Demerest ShantyCondition
Notes
Tear in canvas flag has been secured with cotton fabric and acid-free, water-soluble paste.Interpretative Labels
Label
From "Pieces of the Past" 2017 at OSH
Gillnet Buoy
Saugatuck’s golden era of commercial fishing
This tall, green buoy is one of a pair that would have secured and marked the location of a gillnet, a style of fishing net that hangs vertically in the water like a curtain to snag fish as they swim by.
This buoy was likely manufactured in Saugatuck. The thick wooden part of the buoy is called the bowl and many were shaped on a lathe. A heavy anchoring object, like a section of chain, was attached to the buoy’s lower shank. The upper staff was typically made of cedar and was topped with a flag. Each fisherman used a unique color to mark his buoys.
According to local fisherman Demy Demerest, in the 1940s and 1950s a dozen or more fishing tugs were working in Saugatuck. The season lasted from March/April until the ice became too hazardous around the end of January.
Fishing tugs set off before dawn. Once the crew reached the nets, ideally at sunrise, they spent the next hours hauling up the nets and untangling the fish. Delicate fish like chubs and whitefish would be dressed (gutted) immediately. Perch and walleye would be iced whole. Returning to port, the fishermen sold some fish —fresh or smoked — directly to locals, the rest went to businesses that trucked fish to markets in Chicago and Detroit.
The introduction of sport fishing breeds, like salmon, that decimated the smaller lake fish combined with concerns about water pollution brought an end to Saugatuck’s commercial fishery.Create Date
August 29, 2021Update Date
August 29, 2021
