- Dates
- 2004-08-07 – 2004-08-08
- Kind
- Celebration
- Followed by
- Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 2005
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- celebrationcommunityheritagereligion
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The 2004 Beaver Island Homecoming ran August 7-8, with a Saturday dance, Sunday’s “August Dinner,” and the Bud McDonough Softball Tournament, won that year by a Charlevoix team, Grey Gables’ “Goliaths.”
Program
Softball. The weekend-long Bud McDonough tournament was won by Grey Gables’ “Goliaths” of Charlevoix; the Beacon notes the Island team no longer dominated as it once had, since off-island teams increasingly played in weekly leagues. Island veterans watched from the stands, eating Runberg’s Red Hots, while a younger Island team wore Shamrock-sponsored shirts.
Dance and dinner. A Saturday-night dance and Sunday’s “August Dinner” are both named as recurring weekend fixtures, without further detail for 2004 specifically.
Origins retold. The article restates the founding narrative “since 1932” and separately says Homecoming “was begun on the 100th anniversary of Bishop Baraga’s arrival to convert the Native Americans living on the north shore,” describing early Homecomings as running a full week with a different competitive event – horse races, boat races, sack races – each day, and parties, dances, and concerts each night.
Evidence limits
No venue or organizing body is named for the dance or dinner. The article’s “100th anniversary of Bishop Baraga’s arrival” framing differs from the 1964 Beacon’s own account, which commemorates “Father Baraga’s Church on Indian Point,” not his arrival – the same drift already noted in the hub article’s treatment of a related 2004 “On This Date” column. This article does not attempt to reconcile the two.
Open questions
- Which is the accurate founding narrative – a “Centennial Celebration” for Baraga’s church (per the 1964 original) or his arrival (per this and other later retellings)? The 1964 source and this one disagree.
- Were “early versions” of Homecoming really week-long events with daily competitions, as this article claims? No earlier held source in this corpus corroborates a week-long format.
See also
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, April 2004, calendar of events.Calendar: "Homecoming August 7th and 8th." A separate item notes that Father Herbert wrote to say his new posting would keep him "too busy ... to attend Homecoming." Read in the in-repo data/ tree. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2004-04_Beaver-Beacon
- The held thirty-six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2004-04_Beaver-Beacon
- Beaver Beacon, September 2004, "Homecoming!"Reports the Saturday-night dance, Sunday's "August Dinner," and the weekend-long Bud McDonough Softball Tournament, won that year by "the Grey Gables' Goliaths" of Charlevoix over the Island team, wearing Shamrock-sponsored shirts, with Runberg's Red Hots sold to the crowd. The article restates the founding narrative as "since 1932" and, separately, that "Homecoming was begun on the 100th anniversary of Bishop Baraga's arrival to convert the Native Americans living on the north shore," describing early Homecomings as week-long, with horse races, boat races, sack races, parties, dances, and concerts each night. Read in the in-repo data/ tree. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2004-09_Beaver-Beacon
- The held thirty-six-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2004-09_Beaver-Beacon
- Beaver Beacon, August 2004, "Forty Years Ago" retrospective.Retells the 1964 "Homecoming Issue" origin story, but drifts from it: "Homecoming began as a celebration of the centennial of Bishop Baraga coming to Beaver, the first documented non-Native arrival," where the 1964 original commemorates Baraga's church on Indian Point, not his arrival. This is a 2004 paraphrase, not independent evidence, and is already flagged as drift in the hub article. Read in the in-repo data/ tree. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2004-08_Beaver-Beacon
- The held forty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2004-08_Beaver-Beacon
Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 2004”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-homecoming-2004/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, April 2004, calendar of events. (and 5 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 2004”RIS for “Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 2004”