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Event

Bite of Beaver Island, 2007

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeEvent
Date2007-10-06
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Event
Date
2007-10-06
Kind
Celebration
Where
Holy Cross Parish Hall · The Shamrock
Carried out by
Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce
Followed by
Bite of Beaver Island, 2008
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
celebrationcommunitytourismeconomy
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

The 2007 “Bite of Beaver Island,” Saturday October 6, expanded beyond Holy Cross Parish Hall for the first time on record: growing attendance and demand for more vendor booths than the Hall could fit led the Chamber of Commerce to add street-fair-style tents at the Hardware corner and past the BITA building, plus gourmet food sold inside the Shamrock.1 An Apple Pie Contest ran again this year, and the same morning’s Island Boodle 5K, started by John Works firing a Civil War cannon, saw Alex Cannon finish well ahead of the field.23

Program

The October preview describes the added tent location across from the Chamber office and Municipal Marina, alongside the established Parish Hall site, plus the Apple Pie Contest.2 The November recap confirms the expansion happened as described and frames it as a response to demand: “ever-growing attendance for the Bite of Beaver, and more booths sought than would possibly fit in the Parish Hall,” this year’s event “expanded into a kind of street fair” with tents at the Hardware corner and just past the BITA building, plus gourmet selections available inside the Shamrock.1 The recap singles out the Beaver Island Wildlife Club’s venison sandwiches and salmon kabobs as particularly praised among the offerings, and reports Deborah Harwood as the person who “first presented the idea” for the Bite of Beaver, without giving a founding year, alongside rumor that the following year would add tents on both sides of the street.1

The Island Boodle, run the same foggy morning, started when John Works “cleared the skies just enough” by firing his Civil War cannon; the route passed the Whiskey Point Light and along Gull Harbor. Alex Cannon finished so far ahead of runners-up Bill VonMatt and Matt Hohn that the recap jokes he could have circled the block three times first. Boodle women’s division top finishers were Linda Freisinger, Amy Grodin, and Meggan Heller. Five dogs and four baby carriages took part, and Carol Burton finished next-to-last, paced the whole way by her 27-month-old daughter Olga.3

The same weekend, the Ann Arbor folk group the Chenille Sisters, on Beaver Island for a school visit the day before, walked in the Boodle Saturday morning and ate at the Bite of Beaver that afternoon before flying off-island to perform at Central Michigan University’s Gillingham Auditorium that evening. This CMU concert is not part of the Bite of Beaver program itself and is recorded here only as evidence of the festival weekend’s broader draw.4

Significance

The recap’s framing, that growth forced a physical expansion off Parish Hall grounds, is the clearest evidence in the held record that the food festival had outgrown its original single-building footprint by 2007. The pairing of the Bite of Beaver with the Boodle 5K, run the same morning by the same organizing weekend, and the drawing power to bring an already-booked touring act (the Chenille Sisters) through both events before their own off-island concert, together mark 2007 as a year when the event functioned as an anchor for the island’s broader October tourism weekend rather than a single self-contained food festival.

Evidence and limits

Eleven Beacon issues mention this year’s event (January, February, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November 2007), the fullest single-year Beacon coverage in the held run; most of the earlier ones are repeated calendar-listing entries rather than independent reporting, and one (January and February 2007) gives the date as “October 7th” where every other located source, including the event’s own frontmatter date, gives “October 6th” — a discrepancy this article does not resolve. No Charlevoix Courier scan for 2007 was checked against this event in this pass.

Open questions

  • Did the tent expansion (Hardware corner, past the BITA building) continue in 2008, or did the Community Center overflow tables recorded that year replace it?
  • In what year did Deborah Harwood first present the idea for the Bite of Beaver Island?

See also

Footnotes

  1. “THE BITE OF BEAVER,” Beaver Beacon, November 2007. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. “Bite of Beaver Island” weekend events, Beaver Beacon, October 2007. ↩ ↩2

  3. “Run, Run, Run… or Walk, the Boodle Island,” Beaver Beacon, November 2007. ↩ ↩2

  4. “The Chenille Sisters” concert and “The Irish Return,” Beaver Beacon, November 2007. ↩

Sources

  1. The Chamber's reminders advertise the October 6 Bite of Beaver Island and Island Boodle 5K/run-walk, noting expanded seating in Holy Cross Hall and a new Main Street tent. This is an institutional advance notice and does not establish attendance or proceeds.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 00 · t000970
  2. Beaver Beacon calendar listing, September 2007.
    Fixes the date: "Bite of Beaver Island and the Island Boodle 5k/Run/Walk - October 6th." No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2007-09_Beaver-Beacon
  3. The held forty-four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2007-09_Beaver-Beacon
  4. "Bite of Beaver Island" weekend events, Beaver Beacon, October 2007.
    Adds a second location — a tent across from the Chamber office and Municipal Marina — alongside the traditional Holy Cross Parish Hall site, plus an Apple Pie Contest. The Island Boodle 5K/run-walk registers at the Shamrock, benefiting the Sports Boosters club; entry noted at $25/$40. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2007-10_Beaver-Beacon
  5. The held forty-four-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2007-10_Beaver-Beacon
  6. "The Chenille Sisters" concert and "The Irish Return," Beaver Beacon, November 2007.
    The Ann Arbor-based Chenille Sisters, on Beaver Island for a school visit that Friday, walked in the Boodle Saturday morning and fed at the Bite of Beaver that afternoon, before performing that evening at CMU's Gillingham Auditorium off-island — an adjacent booking, not part of the Bite itself, documented here for the weekend context. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2007-11_Beaver-Beacon
  7. The held forty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2007-11_Beaver-Beacon
  8. "THE BITE OF BEAVER," Beaver Beacon, November 2007.
    Recap: "ever-growing attendance" meant "more booths sought than would possibly fit in the Parish Hall," so the event expanded into "a kind of street fair" with tents at the Hardware corner and just past the BITA building, plus gourmet selections available inside the Shamrock. Boodle women's top finishers: Linda Freisinger, Amy Grodin, and Meggan Heller. States that Deborah Harwood "first presented the idea" for the Bite of Beaver, without giving a founding year, and singles out the Beaver Island Wildlife Club's venison sandwiches and salmon kabobs as especially praised. Also reports rumor of tents on both sides of the street the following year. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2007-11_Beaver-Beacon
  9. The held forty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2007-11_Beaver-Beacon
  10. "Run, Run, Run... or Walk, the Boodle Island," Beaver Beacon, November 2007.
    Boodle race recap, printed adjacent to "THE BITE OF BEAVER": John Works started runners and walkers with a Civil War cannon on a foggy morning; the route passed the Whiskey Point Light and along Gull Harbor. Alex Cannon finished well ahead of Bill VonMatt and Matt Hohn (overall/men's results; the women's top three are given in the Bite of Beaver recap above). Five dogs and four baby carriages took part; Carol Burton finished next-to-last, kept pace by her 27-month-old daughter Olga. This is the same November 2007 issue and adjoining pages as "THE BITE OF BEAVER," treated as a companion source for the shared event weekend rather than a separate citation of a different event. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2007-11_Beaver-Beacon
  11. The held forty-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 2007-11_Beaver-Beacon

Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Bite of Beaver Island, 2007”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/bite-of-beaver-2007/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Chamber of Commerce, “The Bite & Boodle Comming October 6.,” Beaver Island Forum, September 21–October 2, 2007, topic 970. (and 8 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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