Taken from the 2005 MIPCA History Book. Updated 2026

THE DERLETH COTTAGE (# 42)

Shareholders have included:

1910 Earle Parker
1953 Dr. Paul and Jane Derleth
1975 Robert J. (brother) and Frances M. Derleth
20XX Anne Derleth Fraumann and James Derleth

Earle M. Parker began the original cottage on this site on Decoration Day, 1910. Mr. Parker was a Professor at Northern Michigan College. Dr. Elliot Downing, then head of the Biology Department of the Normal School (as the College was then known) assisted Mr. Parker in laying the sills and joists. Dr. Faught, then head of the Mathematics Department of the School, aided in erecting the roof. The balance of the work was done by the owner and his friends. In 1914 the living room was enlarged by an addition 8x14 feet, the porch was taken into the living room in 1916. Running water and a bathroom were added about 1928. A bedroom wing was added in 1930 and the exterior of the cottage was covered with logs. The original camp burned on Labor Day, 1939, evidently that result of lightening.

The loss of the cottage left a very empty place in Mr. Parker’s life, so he decided to rebuild. In the summer of 1940 Bob Derleth cleared the rubble from the site and rebuilt the foundation from stone quarried on the site. During the summer of 1941 the fir floor joists were laid from material salvaged from a wooden penstock at the Marquette City Light Plant, which had been dismantled. Otto Kaupanen of Negaunee constructed the log walls and roof and the logs were cut from the Charles Market farm near the County Airport on U.S. 41. The elaborate roof material was left over from the roofs of the Ford and McCormick cabins at the Huron Mountain Club. Mr. Parker, assisted by several students at the College, did the interior work on the cottage.

Although Mr. Parker lost all of his prized possessions and furnishings when his original cottage burned, among the choicest of his varied collection was a very large Regina music box with a wide variety of metal disc records. This was a gift of the late C. E. Lytle and was over fifty years old.

Mr. Parker was always a canoe enthusiast. He originally built a boathouse on the beach near Presque Isle, but in 1933 he had it moved to the beach east of the Greene cottage. Two teams of horses owned by Simon R. Anderson were employed to drag it up the beach. The boathouse was later moved to within the mouth of Campeau s Creek still housing Mr. Parker’s Old Town Canoe.

A dock was built below the cottage in 1912 and was redesigned and rebuilt several times throughout the years. The concrete steps leading from the cottage to the dock, replacing the original wooden stairs was the idea and work of Mr. L. O. Gant, former Registrar at the College. They were laid by him in the summer of 1917.

Mr. Parker was always most generous in loaning his cottage to his friends. More than a dozen newly-weds have spent their honeymoons at the Cottage.

The name of the Parker cottage was “Santa Lucia”, after the patron saint of the Neopolitan fishermen. The name was suggested by the similarity of the rocks at the Point with the Neopolitan shores and in memory of days spent about the bay of Naples.

Before Mr. Parker’s death in December 1952 he had placed his stock in joint ownership with Dr. Paul E. Derleth and he became the sole owner when the transfer of stock was made in July 1953.

Paul and Jane with their sons, Dave and Tom, spent part of every summer vacationing at the cottage and Bob Derleth with his family were regular vacationers.

Paul and Jane Derleth, with their sons Dave and Tom, spent most of the month of August every summer vacationing at the cottage and enjoying the many friends they made and the congenial informality of Middle Island Point. They felt it important to continue Earle Parker’s practice of preserving the natural beauty and avoiding changes to the cottage and its surroundings that would diminish the view of neighbors and other Pointers.

Most of the youngsters at the Point who have jumped off the rocks around the Derleth camp know about “the foot.” While helping his father repair some steps, Tom decided to fill a small crevice in the rocks with some extra concrete to make a diving platform facing west. As a proud 11-year-old, he then left his mark by pressing his bare foot into the fresh concrete. That was in the mid-1950s, and the print is still visible.

When Paul retired, he and Jane decided to move to Washington State to be near their sons and their families. While it was a difficult decision for them and meant giving up “camp” and their many friends at the Point, they settled in Port Townsend and were neighbors of former MIP campers Corbyn and Jane Hamby, the former of whom passed away in the summer of 2001. Paul and Jane traded sailing on Lake Superior for the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the inland passage off the coast of British Columbia. Paul and Jane passed away within a few years of each other in the late 1990s.

Paul s younger brother, Bob and his wife Fran, became stockholders and owners of the camp in 1975. They and their children, Anne, Bob, Doug, and Jim, had enjoyed visiting their aunt and uncle at camp over the years. This Derleth family continues the tradition with their children and grandchildren. Bob retired in 1982, and he usually opened camp in early May and stayed on through October, which allowed extended family and friends to visit over the years. Two special events at camp have been the Derleth family reunion in 1982 and their children’s surprise celebration of Bob’s 70th birthday in 1992.

Early Labor Day morning in 1978, 39 years to the day— nearly to the hour — lightening struck the cottage again. Bob, daughter Anne, husband Bill, and their young daughter Ellen were spending the long weekend at camp, and lightening struck the roof just a few feet from where Anne was sleeping in the loft. The lightening bolt blew shingles off the roof, sent burning debris from two windows, and knocked out the telephone service. After some anxious moments while it was uncertain if the camp would catch fire, the Derleths had lightening arrestors installed the following summer.

As with most Pointers who own camps on the rocks, the original MIP post-electrical lifestyle prevails at the Derleth camp. Everything, including luggage, groceries, firewood, furniture, and appliances, has to be packed over the trail, so the camp sometimes is referred to as Yagottawanna.” However, the vision, enthusiasm, and work that went into building such a unique log cabin on such a spectacular site continues to be appreciated.