- There's no doubt Michiganders are a productive people, a few billion cars here, a few dozen breweries there.

And for living in a state that beckons you to slow things down, we have found no shortage of ways to keep ourselves busy.

And in this episode of Destination Michigan, we're gonna meet some folks from around the state that are keeping busy so the rest of us can take it easy.

For example, who doesn't enjoy the sights on a ferry ride to Mackinac Island?

But who's gonna build you a vessel like that?

Well, in the case of our first story today, it's a crew of Michiganders.

Say you wanna enjoy a lakeside sunset with some Michigan made spirits, you're gonna need yourself a handy Cooper to make you a sturdy barrel.

Grand Rapids got one of those.

Need to escape the rat race and recharge your batteries?

Look no further than a postcard perfect farm near the lake shore.

We found one just like that one near Petoskey.

So stick around because we have all of that and more coming up on this installment of Destination Michigan.

(upbeat music) Our adventure today starts at the straits of Mackinac, where the iconic ferry boats make trip after trip day after day.

Carting passengers and parcels to Mackinac Island.

And for many Michigan families, taking a ferry ride to the island has become a tradition that spanned generations.

Many of the boats have been in service for decades, but now a brand new state of the art vessel has been added to the lineup, that's sure to make many more Michigan memories for years to come.

We now head to Mackinaw City to meet the Shepler family and their newest addition the William Richard.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] On this morning, like countless others, anxious visitors to Mackinac Island board one of the many fairies that cross the straits each day.

But this morning is special.

This morning, the William Richard newest addition to the Sheplers Mackinac Island Ferry fleet is making its maiden voyage.

But even with the years and years of service lying ahead, this vessel might never have been if it weren't for the years and years leading up to this brisk October morning.

To begin this tale, we need to go back over 70 years.

(gentle music) - Our history dates back to 1945 when my grandfather started this company with a six passenger speedboat.

All hours of the night he would get up, start the boat, all sorts of weather and take them to Mackinac Island.

So that's kinda how it started.

My grandfather was a fisherman so he'd had his captain's license.

- [Announcer] The young Sheplers literally grew up here on this pier jetting out into the waters of Lake Huron, where their boats are still docked today.

Paradise in the summer for sure.

But the winters on the straits, not so much.

Maybe even worse when your house is a tiny trailer on a windy dock.

- Yeah, I remember times that we had to get out on the lee side of the trailer, because the windward side of the trailer was covered in two feet of ice when we'd have storms that come through here that would it would freeze the trailer shut basically.

- [Announcer] Chris along with his brother and two sisters were put to good use on the docks by dad and grandpa taking in everything they could about the business boats and life on the Great Lakes.

(gentle music) - Fortunately, for me, I was around at a time where my grandfather was still alive.

He had so much time and experience on the Great Lakes all over the Great Lakes.

He's one of the reasons why I am a captain today.

- It was ice cream cones in between trips, it was swimming in between trips, it was riding the boat because that's what I did.

That was my summer camp.

And everyone said you go camping in summer I said no, my camping was was right here on the shores of Lake Huron in Mackinaw City.

- [Announcer] As time passed, the family grew and mountains of memories were made, and not just by the Shepler family, but by the countless other families that started their Mackinac Island adventures with a ride on one of their vessels.

William H. Shepler passed away in 1988, and leadership of the business turned to his son, William R. And in 2014, it was time for the third generation of Sheplers to take the helm.

- It's been a heck of a 75 year run, third generation we're into right now, which is, I think, pretty impressive.

They always say the first generation creates it, the second generation takes it to the level that it's at right now.

And then the third generation spends all the money and messes it all up.

So myself and my siblings are doing everything in our power to not let that happen and carry on the tradition of Sheplers Mackinac Island Ferry.

(gentle music) - Miss Margie was built in 2015.

The next earliest boat was 1986, the Capt Shepler.

I was fortunate enough to bring that boat up along with my father and my grandfather up the Mississippi River, which is a trip that I'll never forget.

But in going along and that trip and other boats that we've had that have come up the river, we haven't had much involvement with as far as planning and or design and or production.

- [Announcer] With the success of the Miss Margy a few years prior, the Sheplers decided it was time to build another boat.

Something custom that would serve the particular needs of ferry travel to Mackinac Island.

But this time, they wouldn't need to head down the Mississippi River.

They'd only have to go as far as their own backyard.

(upbeat music) They teamed up with Moran Ironworks, just down the road in the town of Onaway.

Their massive shop more than adequate enough to build an 80 fleet ferry boat.

- The toughest part I feel is going through the planning process.

Especially working with a company like Moran Iron Works that has such a forethought, meaning that they're looking down the road more at the end of the project before the project even starts.

When they get those plans they spend about a month to two months of detailed work.

From there, it goes into production where the first arc that is laid about seven months later, there's a boat.

So the process from conception to the planning phase, that took us about two years.

The process from the detailing phase to production takes about seven months.

Our business has grown the industry in our area has changed with that has come along with increased traffic.

Accessibility is becoming an issue there's more need for accessibility.

Technology has changed so much to make the boat become quite a bit more efficient.

That's the driving force too.

- [Announcer] So now that we know how we got here, it's time to take a closer look at the finer points of the William Richard.

- 81 feet long.

She's gonna hold 210 passengers.

She's got 3,200 horsepower, and it's all jet drives, which is completely different than the propulsion units that we have on our other ferryboats, which are all propeller driven.

- The Hamilton jets.

It's a new avionics control system.

It's the first commercial application in the United States.

So we're pretty proud of that.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Just as the first coats of paint were being applied to the ferry, the proverbial roof caved in on the project with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Production was impacted significantly but thankfully, the delay didn't stop them from being able to get their new ship in the waters of Lake Huron.

In July 2020, they launched their new ferry into the water for the first time.

Years of hard work and painstaking attention to detail, culminated with a collective sigh of relief.

- We got about 11 hours on it with various captains, which we just had a (indistinct).

But at that point in time seeing it in the water, all of that is I don't wanna say a heavy weight on (indistinct) but just like, oh, man, I hope it works.

I hope this all works, please let it all work.

And then the processes that you go through after it gets put in the water that and then the first engine gets started and then it starts doing things that it's supposed to do.

It's, thank goodness.

So it's a great feeling.

- [Announcer] Now that they knew it would float, the next step was to take it up to Mackinaw City and park it in their paint Bay, where the William Richard would wait to be adorned with the signature Shepler blue.

So the stage that it's in right now is we're probably 85% finished with it.

As you can see the superstructure is completely done.

And then from there, we'll start to install seats, we'll start to install carpet.

But we plan on sometime the end of September 1st, part of October getting her into the system, getting her on the run with passengers and freight to find out what her capabilities are.

- [Announcer] Before the final touches get added and she's put into service, Chris takes us on a tour of the nearly completed vessel.

- Yeah, we're down here in the Engine Room of the William Richard, we have four engines, they're yanmar engines.

They're a little different than our other vessels.

They're 804 horsepower a piece.

These are all run shaft run right to pumps.

And those pumps are for the jets that just grab the water, compress the water, and then it gets shot out the back.

- [Announcer] After the engine room, we head to the barren pilot house where we find one of the smallest yet undoubtedly coolest pieces of tech onboard.

- We run the boat went in and around the dock with the toggle, we're coming into the harbor where then we push this button that activates this, deactivates the steering wheel.

Whatever you wanna do with the vessel, you just do.

With this boat, we're gonna go sideways.

Just walk in the boat sideways, which we can't do now and that's simply doing this.

- [Announcer] Such an impressive vessel deserved a fitting name.

Former boats in the Sheplers fleet had been named after sailboats from the 17th century, like the Welcome and the Wyandotte.

But with their newer boats, they decided to keep the names in the family.

- We started it with the Capt Shepler back in the late '80s named after my grandfather.

He was still alive, got to ride on the boat.

And then came the Miss Margy, my grandmother had passed away and we were trying to decide what we should name the boat and Miss Margy, absolutely, that was really easy to do.

This one was just as easy.

And so instead of naming it, the Billy Dick, we thought that it would be better to be a little more formal with the William Richard name and my dad was very happy that we thought of that as children to honor him and his legacy here at Sheplers.

- [Announcer] The real life William Richard Bill Senior, is now in his '80s and can still be found greeting guests and directing traffic on the dock.

And when we asked him what keeps him coming back to work on the pier each day.

- What else am I gonna do for crying out-- I can only play so much golf.

No, I enjoy being here.

It's been my life for 75 years.

- [Announcer] But this day wasn't like any other day.

This day in October, Bill was in for a real treat as he got to man the helm of the boat that bears his name.

- It's a sincere treat, I'm so proud.

So proud that somebody is here to take over.

'Cause I took over from my mom and dad and manage the business for about 50 years.

They're enthusiastic, they're proud of the business, and they're making it go.

They have great ideas, so we should do fine.

(gentle music) - If you'd like to learn more about the William Richard and the entire Sheplers story, information can be found on their website, sheplersferry.com.

Making Northern Michigan your home in the summertime seems like a no brainer for most of us.

But it takes a special kind of person to wanna make a home up north during the winter months.

One person who was up for the task was Kalin Sheick, owner of Sweetwater Floral.

For her it was just another adventure in embracing the beauty of that region and being able to share it year round with everyone who crosses your path.

(upbeat music) - So we moved to Petoskey in 2015, in the winter of all times to move to a new farm.

We had never seen it in the spring or the summer.

We just knew, we knew it was the place.

I don't know we just had a feeling about it even though there was snow on the ground.

- [Announcer] Petoskey in the winter, a totally different kind of beauty.

But no matter the season, whether there's snow on the ground or fields are in bloom, this is where Kalin began to grow her business Sweetwater Floral.

For making flower arrangements to hosting workshops, there's a lot happening here on the farm.

- So Sweetwater is a little crazy to understand.

I think the simplest way to get it is my goal in life is that flowers make people happy, they do.

Being outside makes people happy.

Being creative, makes people happy.

And so everything we encompass is about getting people to enjoy flowers, plants, being creative and just sort of packing away the rat race for some time.

(gentle music) It's beautiful, it's relaxing.

When I get to teach classes to people in person that gives them like a two hour window where they don't have to think about anything else other than learning a new skill and being creative.

And then we do wedding flowers.

We do a lot of weddings.

- [Announcer] Northern Michigan is a premier wedding destination.

Not much tops the lush green landscape and picturesque backdrop.

- Oh my gosh, look at it.

You have water, you have green you have trees and we have a lot of amazing amazing venues up here.

You can get married in the woods.

You can get married in a field, you can get married at a farm.

We have vibrant, incredible wedding industry in northern Michigan with some insanely talented people.

- [Announcer] And for Kalin, she's found the perfect combination for creating literal works of art with her colorful creations.

- There is a secret.

There is, it's this weird system that I came up with called focal filler and flare.

So focal are like your big flowers go first, the things that are gonna weigh down your arrangement a little bit.

Your filler is the medium sized blooms that fill in your holes fill in your gaps.

They aren't the stars of the show.

And then your flair is what the difference maker is, I like to say.

So flair is the dancey dancey above the top.

That's what we teach in our workshops.

Like you can take grocery store flowers, you can go to the farmers market and grab flowers and make them, anyone can make them into something beautiful.

I say it's the most rewarding medium to work with because it's living and it's breathing and it's so fleeting.

It's like if you are a painter, and you make a painting, that is your painting forever.

Flowers, you only have it for a couple days.

So it's pretty cool to sort of create something and then it's gone.

- [Announcer] Kalin wasn't always in the flower business.

In fact, she quit a career she spent most of her life preparing for.

Now she's also helping others find and follow their passion.

- Owning a business right now is super trendy.

Because anyone, this is the coolest part about the time that we're living in, if you have a computer, you can start a business, if you have a phone, you can start a business.

And so having that ability to just dream up something and then make it something is so empowering.

And then I think there's this big gap between people who are gonna really make it something and then people who are just dipping their toe in the water.

There's not any right place to be.

But I love supporting women who decide that this is what they wanna take a stab at.

And if it fails, it fails.

Like failure is one of my big things.

I love it, it happens, I think if you're not failing 20% of the time, you're not trying enough new things.

So I do coach and mentor and help a lot of people sort of develop businesses and grow their idea into something that hopefully blooms the right way for them.

- [Announcer] Pursuing your dreams can take you down many roads or up to Northern Michigan in the winter.

- I don't think there's anywhere else in Michigan where you can come to a really cute farm in a beautiful part of the state Petoskey is incredible, and learn a creative skill like floral design and disconnect from the rest of the world and have fun.

Our workshops are entertaining, they're not sleeper.

This isn't a serious, we're not serious people we have fun, and really leave feeling like fulfilled.

Hopefully you found a new passion and florals.

But if anything, you just forgot about all your problems for a couple hours.

And that's whether you come here for a workshop or whether we're downstate and you go to a workshop or Grand Rapids wherever we are, we will bring joy that is what we do.

(gentle music) - If you wanna learn more about Kalin and all the happenings at Sweetwater Floral, you can find more information on her website, sweetwaternorth.com.

Now we're trading in one barn for another as we venture south to Grand Rapids.

Built in the 1850s, what used to be an old apple storage building has now been brought into the 21st century and you're never gonna believe what's being made inside.

Courtney Jerome is here to introduce us to Michigan's only cooperage at Croze Nest.

- I'm Joe Smith, I'm with Croze Nest Oak Barrels out of Grand Rapids, Michigan and we are a boutique cooperage.

And we handcraft oak barrels for the micro and small distilleries that are around the state and the country.

It's been a journey in engineering and math and, frankly, quite a bit of art, just figuring all this out.

In the 17 and 1800s when they were building barrels with hand tools a good Cooper could do five to seven a day just using their hands.

I'm using machinery, and I'm barely at five to seven.

So they were really artists in their craft when they built this.

Way back when there were journeyman schools and a process you had to go through to be a master Cooper.

I'm completely self taught, a lot of trial by fire, I guess I'd say.

- [Announcer] Joe's Cooperage called Croze Nest is the only cooperage in Michigan.

In fact, there are less than 30 cooperages in the country right now, ranging from smaller boutiques like his two large facilities that make 100,000 barrels a year.

But by being boutique Joe's able to offer a personal touch to his brand, and that's certainly paid off.

If you like bourbon and have been to a Michigan distillery, odds are you've tasted a spirit that's aged in one of his barrels.

Do you recognize any of these locations?

Detroit City Distillery, Ironfish Distillery in Thompsonville.

Trevor City's Grand Traverse Distillery.

Ethan Algae in Elk Rapids.

American Fifth in Lansing.

Grand Legends Sanctuary Spirits.

Okay, ill stop name dropping on Joe's behalf.

You probably wanna know why he turned from a corporate career man to Craftsman and create this cooperage.

- I have absolutely fallen in love with this.

And it's just really, really fun.

It's a mix of the, I get to work with my hands and I get to use my mind to figure out okay, what toasts level does this need to be to create these flavors and direct contact with the distillers to really create special things.

(gentle music) December of 2014 there was an article that was in the Wall Street Journal about this big barrel shortage that had happened.

And it's interesting if you look at why that barrel shortage happened in 2014, it actually dates back to the recession of 2007, 2008 when the housing market dropped, forestry stopped.

And when forestry stopped, oak trees weren't being harvested.

So it took until 2014 for the supply of available oak for barrels to basically be used up.

And at the same time craft distilling was seeing this massive boom.

- [Announcer] A huge need for barrels and no wood for barrels, equaled a perfect time to explore the idea he'd been brewing.

Joe's exploration led to a trip to Kentucky, where he knocked on a door of a large cooperage and straight up, ask them how a barrel was built.

- And I went in there and they had massive equipment, and , I mean they were building three to 400 barrels a day.

And so I just wanted to see the process.

And at all, throughout this I was still working my corporate job.

So I was using vacation time to learn how to build a barrel.

- [Announcer] His vacation time was well spent.

Learning how to build talking to distillers and wood suppliers, preparing to get his hands dirty and get to work.

- I went, I have to take the leap and at least I have to build one barrel or I'm gonna be mad at myself.

My first barrel delivery went out on April 15 of 2017 and the business has been growing since.

Just about every distillery I'd say in the state at least has one of my barrels.

And now I've got distillers that are winning awards in national and international competitions and the spirit is coming out of my barrel and that's how I really know now I built a good barrel.

My grandmother, who has since passed, she was asking me what I was doing for work.

Working on trying to build barrels.

I want to be a Cooper.

And she goes that's really interesting, you said that, I've been doing the lineage.

And she found that in 1620 is when the Smith side came over on the Mayflower and my 10th grade grandfather was the master Cooper on the Mayflower.

So I know on the Smith side, there was some coopering in the blood and it just took 10 generations for one of us to pick up the hammer again.

- An interesting note about the barrels, is that it adds 100% of the color and up to 80% of the flavor in any spirit.

You can learn more about what our favorite Cooper is up to by going online to crozenest.com.

For our final story today, we're going to switch things up and pay a visit to our friends at the Clark Historical library on the campus of Central Michigan University.

There will hear the harrowing tale of a raging gas will fire that ignited in northern Michigan.

And the legendary firefighter they brought in to put it out.

- I am Bryan Whitledge and I am the archivist for university digital records here at Central Michigan University.

Today we're looking at the Dick Bolton slides of a 1976 natural gas wall fire in Otsego County near Gaylord.

So in late May, May 27 of 1976 there was some seepage of some flammable materials into the well and it ignited and caused the the cap to blow and there was a fire.

So Dick Bolton was a journalist.

He worked for the Michigan Oil and Gas News among other things, he taught journalism here at Central Michigan University.

When he heard about the blowout made his way up to Otsego County to document what was going on.

And some of his slides which we hold, show flames are reaching as high as 200 feet.

And so in these old Kodak ektachrome slides you have this rich color of an orange blaze reaching way into the sky with black smoke all around it.

The color is as vibrant as anything you would find today shot with a digital camera.

It continued to rage for several days to the point that they had to call in the biggest of the big guns in terms of people who could put it out.

And that was a gentleman named Red Adair.

Red Adair had a very good reputation by that point as an oil well firefighters.

And Red Adair was famous for, in the early 1960s, putting out a major fire in the Sahara Desert in Algeria.

It was serious business if you had to call Red Adair in.

So the first several days that Adair and his team were here, they were planning how to put the fire out.

That meant doing inspections of the fire.

The crew used tens of thousands of gallons of water to more or less douse him and the area around him as he walked into the fire to get near the well to view how best to extinguish this fire.

To extinguish oil well fires the best way is to suffocate it.

Something that rapidly consumes all the oxygen like an explosion, So they would use an explosion near the cap, consume all the oxygen and thereby extinguish the flames.

Natural Gas Well was finally capped in June 29 of 1976.

The fire has gone by many names, just simply The Blowout, The Crawford Well Holocaust or the Gas Gusher.

- And just like that, this episode of Destination Michigan comes to a close, and from all of us here, thank you so much for sharing this adventure with us and we'll catch you next time.

(upbeat music)