How did this beautiful ferry, the Chi-Cheemaun, get its name to become the iconic ship of the Great Lake of Huron? Well, the man who named the Chi-Cheemaun ferry passed away, but even the Big Canoe remembers him every year. Donald Keeshig died in a nursing home in Lion’s Head, near the Bruce Penisula, at the age of 86 in February of 2016. But every year, he is remembered.
In 1974, the province held a contest on what to name the new ferry that would cross from Tobermory to South Baymouth on Manitoulin.
Keeshig suggested Chi-Cheemaun which is Ojibway for Big Canoe. Keeshig was a passenger on the ferry’s maiden voyage 50 years ago.
As a salute to Keeshig, the Chi-Cheemaun sounded its horn on its first voyage in the Spring of his passing as it made its way to Tobermory.
During a typical May, the Chi-Cheemaun ferry sails from its winter exile in Owen Sound to its dock in Tobermory, where it provides seasonal service to South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island.
During that journey, it blows its horn while passing the Neyaashiinigmiing Lighthouse at Cape Croker every year in memory of Keeshig.
Keeshig, a construction worker and industrial painter, and his family were deeply involved in community life on the Neyaashiinigmiing 27 reserve.
Keeshig promoted the preservation of the Ojibwe language, bringing together a group of elders to speak it and spread its use. He coached hockey and organized a Boy Scout troop.
On Christmas Eve, he visited families as Santa Claus.
His wife, Keitha, served as a band councillor and school trustee. Unlike most of Keeshig’s siblings, he was not sent to a residential school—according to the family, he was hidden away with his grandmother to avoid this fate.
By the early 1970s, a larger ferry was commissioned by the provincial government to replace two smaller ships, the Norgoma and Norisle. When a contest to name the new ship was announced, Keeshig contemplated submitting an Ojibwe term. He felt “Chi-Cheemaun,” which translates to “big canoe,” was a surefire winner.
Keeshig gathered his family members to discuss his idea, hoping one of them would enter the contest. According to his’s daughter, Lenore, when Keeshig discovered nobody had entered, he was upset—he believed they were blowing a chance to win the $100 prize.
When Keeshig learned he won, he initially thought he was being telephoned about a 50/50 draw. He sailed on the ferry’s first trip to Manitoulin and when the Chi-Cheemaun celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1999, he served as grand marshal of a celebratory parade in Tobermory.
In the 2016/17 annual report for current Chi-Cheemaun operator Owen Sound Transportation Company, president and CEO Susan Schrempf noted that each year, on its annual journey from its winter home in Owen Sound to the dock in Tobermory, the ferry would turn its bow to where Keeshig last viewed the ship and blow its horn “in honour of Donald and his gift of wisdom, reminding us always of our responsibility to care for the Big Canoe and the people who ride within her.”
Congratulations and HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHI-CHEEMAUN!
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