- Date
- 2000-01-29
- Kind
- Rescue
- Where
- Hat Island
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- winterboatingemergency-responsepersonal-history
- Within
- Beaver Island archipelago
Summary
On January 29, 2000, according to a later participant account, a Beaver Island snowmobile expedition crossed thin or broken ice near Hat Island while traveling toward Waugoshance Point. The rider fell into Lake Michigan and was pulled out by Ernie and Buddy. The account says the group later marked the location and recovered the submerged snowmobile during a spring dive expedition.
Evidence limits
This record is based on a detailed twentieth-anniversary recollection posted by a participant, not a contemporaneous incident report or official rescue log. The event location is approximate, and the later recovery date and details are not independently verified.
Sources
- The participant’s twentieth-anniversary account says he fell through Lake Michigan ice while snowmobiling with Bud Martin and Ernie near a route from Hat Island toward Waugoshance Point, and that Ernie and Buddy helped him out. It also describes a later spring recovery of the submerged snowmobile. This is a detailed retrospective participant account, corroborated only by contemporaneous forum replies recalling the story; exact coordinates, dates of the later recovery, and every navigational detail are not independently verified.forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 14 · t014966
Added 8 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island snowmobile rider survives ice breakthrough near Hat Island, 2000”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-snowmobile-ice-rescue-2000/, accessed [date], citing Gillespie, “20 YEARS AGO TODAY!,” Beaver Island Forum, January 29, 2020, topic 14966..
Last revised 2026-08-08. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Beaver Island snowmobile rider survives ice breakthrough near Hat Island, 2000”RIS for “Beaver Island snowmobile rider survives ice breakthrough near Hat Island, 2000”