| Remembering Harold Guhl. He arrived in this world on 3 July 1905 eldest child to Mr. William John Guhl and Katherine (Vader) Guhl. And his grandparents, Wm & Mary Pflughaupt Guhl (both born Germany) lived in the same household in 1910, New Buffalo. In about 1927 Harold wed Georgiana Nemecek. (1905 to 1981) They had one daughter, Dolores V. born 2 June 1928, she wed Rodney Roderick on 15 June 1963. She died 3 November 2009 and is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, New Buffalo as are many of the Guhl family members, including her parents. Harold's known siblings were: Mildred, Gladys, Raymond and Marjorie. In his early years as a young man he worked as a brakeman and conductor for the Monon railroad for about 15 years. Being born and raised in New Buffalo, as was his father, William, Harold turned his interests to boat sales . In 1947 he and has father started renting 2 boats in the Harbor. Having a great spot in New Buffalo on the Galien River and close to the mouth of the river and Lake Michigan he opened a simple hot dog and soft drink stand and it grew into a bait shop and drive in where you could get the best hamburgers. This was a major treat to us. And after a day of boating we'd drop by the stand and get burgers. Mrs. Guhl also was known for his boat sales and dock space. Mr. Guhl was always heavily involved in community affairs and held a few offices within the New Buffalo region. Being no Coast Guard in the immediate area, Mr. Guhl helped in many emergency situations. I can remember one of these situations, that as a 9 year old spectator seemed quite humorous. Mr. Guhl was notified by a fellow boater that there was a boat stuck on the pilings just outside the left side of the harbor, as one would head out to the lake. From earlier years there were old piers that had long rotted off with just the posts sticking up and some below the water line. Everyone in the area knew to stay to the right to avoid them with the exception of a few inebriated boaters who thought they might fly over the pilings. Wrong!!!! So there went Mr. Guhl to save the boater who thought he'd fly over the pilings. Upon Mr. Guhl's return, he stood and shook his head. It appears that the boater was standing in his boat and yelling, "I'm going down with my ship". To which Guhl replied, "you fool, that's not a ship, it's a boat. Get in my boat now." He successfully saved this "wanna be" captain. By the time Harold decided to concentrate on other things, Louis Sima and Paul Oselka also had businesses as what would become known as Snug Harbor. In July of 1966 a fierce wind blew the roof off of Guhl's business. And then the final straw was at the end of November of that same year, an early winter storm hit and Lake Michigan with its high waves dammed up the Galien River and Guhl s and other businesses were damaged and many of the boat docks too. The flooding took the river about six feet above normal. As of this writing , I am not sure why the pilings existed just outside the harbor. They may have been the remnants of the old lighthouse pier built in 1839 and by 1957 deteriorated due to the ever shifting sands and lake shore line. In fact until they were later dredged and removed, many boats fell victim to them. And keeping both harbor entrance and marina opened, was a never ending battle until late in the 20th century when a corp. of engineers used huge man made boulders etc. lined the harbor entrance to keep the sands from blowing in. |