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A flat-bottomed boat lazed along the river's bank on a summer time day in 1860. An observer may be forgiven for not realizing the lone occupant was a youth who would develop to dominate two Michigan industries, log towing and sugar manufacturing and foster quite a few corporations in other industries that would add immeasurable wealth to Michigan's establishing economic climate.
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The skiff bobbed within a ceaseless to-and-fro motion, influenced by waves that washed against the bank after which receded in accordance with the motion of steamers and sloops that churned the Saginaw River's channel. Its skipper, sixteen-year-old Benjamin Boutell, sighed in sleepy contentment. The rocking motion with the river lulled him deeper into slumber as he basked within the sun's warmth, dreaming of sea adventures in which he was the central figure.

He didn't hear the sounds of sawing and hammering, the hailing of ships from shore, and also other boisterous dock activity common to Bay City, Michigan in 1860. In ten years, the city's population had exploded from a mere fifty souls to a lot more than three thousand, with a lot more arriving every day from Canada or Detroit to take jobs in 1 of fifteen sawmills clustered on the riverbank. Prior to the lumber drew to a close forty years later, thirty thousand people would call Bay City residence and much more than one hundred sawmills lined the riverbanks from Bay City to Saginaw, twelve miles distant.

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His father, Daniel Boutell, owned a single from the hotels situated within hailing distance at the southeast corner of Water and Third streets. Not extended prior to it had been the Sherman Property. Situated across from the Detroit Steamboat Company's landing, it was generally the very first stop for newcomers towards the city. Daniel Boutell had moved his loved ones thirty miles north from Birch Run to take over the hotel, and immediately after considerable renovations hung a new shingle near the entrance. Now it was the Boutell House, a home away from household for Terrific Lakes sailors who were produced to feel far more like family guests than hotel patrons since a lot of the Boutells' nine kids shared the hotel with them

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Fascinated by the stories the sailors told, Ben grew to enjoy the river as well as the terrific Saginaw Bay, the doorway for the Terrific Lakes, a doorway he planned to pass by one particular day. Meanwhile, he earned his way by remaining on call towards the Protection Fire Organization exactly where he served as initially assistant foreman and helped his father in the hotel where he badgered sailors with inquiries about schooners, sloops, barges, and tugboats. An infectious grin and a sincere interest loosened tongues of sailors who enjoyed Ben's enthusiasm; they gladly shared accounts of their adventures and expertise of all points nautical.