Page 22 - 2023 LAKE ST CLAIR GUIDE
P. 22
Continued from 14
ORIGIN of the
Minnowfest
Beginning in the 1930’s
until 1976 when The Raft
was born, the building was
owned by several differ-
ent people and was used
from bait to boat rental, to
apartments & bar.
The Raft owners have 1986 High Water
been through several
floods with Lake St. Clair’s to the interior. Cadillaqua at the corner of Meldrum &
every 20 years or so high water cy- Howard is now semi-retired and son M29. (Last was known as Pelle’s and
Jacob runs the bar full time. Most of the has since burned down.) This group
staff has been there for years, including of four included Jerry, Tom Jeannette,
“1990 Wall” highest seniority “B” for 45 years! Sur- Bond Schnoor, and Pat Green.
rounded by this long time steady staff They decided to meet again the fol-
construction
Jacob said, “They are THE BEST of the lowing year on Good Friday, but this
BEST, and a major reason why we’ve time they went up the street to Fair Ha-
been successful for this long.” ven’s Hood’s “Village Tavern” (today is
The Raft Bar is a quaint locals place The Lighthouse). The event grew each
where everyone is made welcome. A year with more and more of their racing
Fair Haven mainstay, they friends attending.
are open year round. One of the attendees, Bill Albrecht
AND NOW! the had been out fishing earlier, and
brought in some plastic worms. As a
cles. Over the years, rest of the Story..... joke, Bill adorned several pitchers of
they’ve been forced to how did this Minnowfest beer with them, hanging the worms
restructure the property really start?? over the sides. So to take the joke a
to stay dry during these So according to Jerry step further, Jerry’s brother Doug, went
events. In 1990, a per- Felster, born in Fair Hav- down the street to Pip’s Bait Store (now
manent wall was built. en in 1942, he was one of torn down) and filled a styrofoam pail
2020, our last high the initial group made up with minnows and then came back and
water cycle The Raft The Raft today with of local APBA hydroplane started putting handfuls of minnows
flooded again, howev- the breakwall race guys who met one into the beer pitchers. Well as the par-
er, this time Howard & Good Friday ty rolled on, you
Jacob had as much protection as pos- in 1972 or Jeff can guess what
sible and minimized the flood damage 1973 for some drinks at the from happened next.
Ohio Over the
next few years
of this new tra-
dition, owner
Bill Hood was
Cont pg. 122
Sunrise on Bouvier Bay
where the
Raft Bar is located.
Page 22 The author, publisher, or seller assumes no liability with respect to the use of information contained herein ROSE MARINE
