Saginaw River Marine Historical Society Membership

* = The inspiration for the name,"Modoc Whistle," the newsletter of the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society, is explained in the following article that appeared in the Spring 2015 and Spring 2025 issues of the "Modoc Whistle."

 

What IS a Modoc Whistle?

By Don Comtois, SRMHS Historian

 

It seems every few years we are asked, “What is a Modoc Whistle?”

 

Well, in the lumbering days of long ago when lumberjacks were butchering the old growth forest of Michigan, the hungry mills were eating those logs up so fast we had to import logs from our Canadian neighbors in Georgian Bay in the form of rafts.

 

Some of these rafts would contain over a million feet of logs and stretch out over a quarter mile behind the tugs. If it were foggy other vessels would run into these rafts and break them open, letting out the logs to play havoc with other vessels. Something had to be done to warn other vessels that a log raft was being towed.

 

To warn other ships, a whistle about 3” in diameter with a steel plug that would move up and down when steam was applied was used – sort of like an old slide whistle we had when we were kids. Many people said it sounded like the war cry of the Modoc Indians and the name stuck.