Event
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- maritimeenvironmentcommunity
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The March 1963 Beaver Beacon uses the “Polar Bear Club” label for two winter incidents involving Archie LaFreniere. In the first, a boat motor launched near Sand Bay sent him into ice-cold water. In the later incident, a truck broke through a soft area of ice and settled in about five feet of water before a winch truck was summoned.
Evidence and limits
The article is a humorous retrospective, not an accident report. It does not establish exact dates for both incidents, damage, recovery method, or whether a formal Polar Bear Club existed.
Open questions
- Can local photographs, insurance records, or contemporaneous accounts date and document the recoveries?
Sources
- Beaver Beacon, March 1963, “Beaver Island Polar Bear Club Holds Annual Outing.”Retells an April 1962 boat launch in Sand Bay that put Archie LaFreniere in the water and a later incident in which his truck settled into five feet of water near an ice ridge; it is a humorous retrospective and supplies no recovery log or damage report.