Nels and Alvin Fredrickson planting potatoes by machine in the early 1920’s.
Randa Fredrickson Collection, A History of Leelanau Township.
Before cherries, there were potatoes. Children had a two week “vacation” from school in the fall to help dig them. They were loaded onto wagons and hauled by horses to warehouses near the docks in Omena, Sutton’s Bay and Northport, where long lines waited their turn to get unloaded. Potato buyers ran along these lines shouting their price offerings. Sometimes there was trouble.
Anderson Dock and Warehouse – Courtesy Omena Historical Society
The Leelanau Tribune of September 17, 1875 reported the following, “Monday evening, Mr. E. P. Taylor drove on the south dock with a load of potatoes, and while unloading at the warehouse his horses became frightened and commenced backing off the dock into about 12 feet of water and both were drowned.” In the 1920’s in Omena, A.F. Anderson also bought and shipped potatoes from a warehouse near the railroad depot. His son, Frank Anderson, handled many carloads shipped to Chicago.
Digging Potatoes – Courtesy Patsy Aubuchon at Wikimedia
Stoves were put in the railroad cars to keep the potatoes from freezing. At one time there was a fire in the warehouse and many farmers lost their potatoes. Imagine a warehouse full of “baked” potatoes. Then Frank Kalchik purchased the building and bought and shipped potatoes. However, in the 1940’s potatoes became a glut on the market. The government offered farmers price support, 60 cents ctw, then marked those potatoes with purple dye so they could not be sold for human consumption.
Cows didn’t mind purple potatoes however, so farmers bought back their potatoes for 1 cent ctw. Lake Leelanau Cooperative shipped these purple potatoes out in railroad cattle cars for cattle feed. By 1950 the price support ended and the days of potato cash crops ended.
Courtesy Randa Fredrickson History of Leelanau Township