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The Mason County Quiz, Feb. 21, 2024
Answers
The Mason County Quiz is presented by Lake Michigan Senior Living, located on the bluffs of Lake Michigan in beautiful Summit Township.
How much do you know about Mason County? Click here for the answers.
- In what year did the current Ludington High School building open to classes?
a. 1947
b. 1953
c. 1978
d. 1961
2. What year did the current Ludington High School building become the high school?
a. 1953
b. 1972
c. 1958
d. 1988
In late 1953, the complex on the northeast corner of North Washington Avenue and East Anderson Street opened up as the new Ludington Junior High School. The 31,800 square-feet building was built at a cost of $750,000, which also included upgrades to some of the other city school buildings. The building housed students in grades seven through nine while the students in grades 10 through 12 remained in the old high school, which was built in 1886.
The new building didn’t last long as a junior high school. The Board of Education decided to expand the new building on Washington Avenue and convert it to a high school, sending the seventh and eighth grade students to the old high school on Foster Street. In September 1958, the building opened as Ludington High School with the addition of 63,480 square feet and 24 new classrooms for a total of 32 classrooms. Seven years later, the junior high school students were returned to the complex with the opening of a 105,867-square foot building, dedicated in honor of Oliver J. DeJonge (1898-1994), who served as superintendent from 1940 to 1963.
3. The settlement of Batcheller was located in which township?
a. Amber
b. Hamlin
c. Sherman
d. Sheridan
Batcheller was located near the railroad tracks in Sheridan Township on what is now Sugar Grove Road near Morse Road.
In 1946 William Sommerfeldt presented the history of Sheridan Township on behalf of the Mason Count Historical Society at Elm Flats School. Sommerfeldt, who owned much of the land that was once Batcheller, said the area was homesteaded John Perry in 1879. He explained that the area had two different spellings, Batcheller and Bachelor. Mr. Batcheller, who was a bachelor, was the proprietor of the local sawmill. The railroad adopted the spelling of Batcheller while the post office was named Bachelor. Today, the different names are still prevalent, with the nearby lake known as Batcheller and the church and cemetery known as Bachelor.
“The place called Bachelor was quite a lumbering center in the early and later years,” Sommerfeldt stated. “A sawmill placed on the east banks of Bachelor lake turned out many million feet of lumber and thousands of shingles. A railroad spur was laid from the main Pere Marquette line to the sawmill. In 1891 a forest fire coming from the west under a heavy wind, carried live hemlock punk from standing dead hemlock which soared above the tops of the rest of the forest for two miles through the air, setting Bachelor afire and wiping out thousands of feet of lumber and shingles as well as both mills. It was never rebuilt.”
4. What is the proper pronunciation for Chauvez Road?
a. Show-vez
b. Show-vee
c. Show-vay
d. Who knows?
The proper pronunciation of the road that is located 3.5 miles south of US 10, is “show-vay.” However, locally, most people will say “show-vee.” Both are acceptable. But, it is most definitely not “show-vez.”
The road is named after Francois “Frank” and Paulina Chauvez, who were French immigrants who came to the United States in 1857. In 1888, they bought a 135 acre farm on the northeast and southeast corners of what is now Pere Marquette Highway and Chauvez Road, known one time as Suttons Corners.
Read more here.
5. What was the first year a Free Soil boys basketball team became the Class D state runner up?
a. 1961
b. 1962
c. 1923
d. 1978
During the 1960-1961 basketball season, the Free Soil Pirates boys varsity basketball team went 25-1 on the season and finished second in the state for Class D in the spring of 1961, losing to Marquette Pierce 68-61. The team was known as “Carey’s Comets,” named after coach and superintendent Max Carey. Other team members included Assistant Coach Stanley Schilling, Jim Jackoviak, Dan Malkowski, Jim Carey, Mel Carey, Norm Clausen, Pat Hurd, Tom Maue, Tony Gajeski, Warren Reynolds, Fred Woebbeking, Fred Thomas, Carl Hasenbank (deceased), and David Hurd.
Lake Michigan Senior Living, 4895 S. Lakeshore Dr. in Summit Township, offers beautiful views of Lake Michigan, activities and exceptional care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The facility consists of four housing units on the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan. For more information, call 231-843-9963 or go to www.lakemiseniorliving.com.
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