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Interview with George & Goldie Johnson

For more than twenty summers, between 1950 and 1978, members of the Johnson family gathered on South Manitou Island, staying at what the park has traditionally called "the Johnson house." That house, with its distinctive pyramid-shaped roof, is ordinarily the second structure that comes into view as boats approach the bay. In the summer of 1972, Grandson Keith Johnson had the foresight to record this very interesting interview, and he has been kind enough to share it here.

George A Johnson was the son of Norwegian immigrants, Benth and Gesine Johnson. Born in Whitehall, Michigan, he came to the island with his family in 1890, as a one-year old. In Keith's interview, you'll hear George, at seventy-three, talk about what it was like for a boy growing up on South Manitou Island, and about the life and times of islanders in the early part of the twentith century.



Audio Quality Note: This is a digitization of 38-year old audio tapes. Although every effort has been made to restore the audio quality, some segments, unfortunately, remain unintelligible.

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Portrait courtesy of Nancy Marie Johnson
Audio restored using ClickRepair™, DeNoise™, and DeNoiseLF™, provided courtesy of Brian Davies, and "the Levelator"®, provided courtesy of The Conversion Network.