St. Michael Missions Trip Pt. 10 Boardwalk

You might think I am talking about a space in the game of Monopoly. Not. Nothing close. Navigating around St. Michael is done mostly on foot. If you don't have a 4-wheeler or a truck, you get to walk. Since everything is easily within walking distance it's not too inconvenient. Who built these boardwalks is an unknown. When they were built is also unknown. I saw a picture in the local government building where we were given free showers by the generosity of the local people in charge there, of young native men putting up "new" board walks by salvaging material from "old" board walks back in the 1930's as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (in case President Obama is reading this, it is pronounced "core" not "corpse" as in Marine Corps). So board walks have a lengthy history in St. Michael. It is a necessity not just a niceity. The board walks keep you from disappearing into the mud of the landscape. Yes, the landscape looks like a green carpet but do not be fooled, that is only a creative covering for bottomless mud. It's not like quicksand but more like "slowsand". Everything does sink that sits on the ground very long. If a person were to walk in the same place day after day, say like on the way to up dump, it would quickly become a muddy trench where water collected and never dried up. The ground here is at the water table pretty much, even on the sides of the hills around the village. Even on top of the hills it is in the water table. There will never be a forest fire in St. Michael as first, there are no trees anywhere, but more to the point, there is way too much water for anything to burn.

It must have been some time since the board walks were built as some of them, in particular, the ones in from of the church are in pretty rough shape. If you were not watching your step, you could easily twist an ankle or break a leg or at least take a nasty fall. It gave rise to an idea that on a return trip to St. Michael we would make repair of the board walks on the block that the church is on a priority.
As you can see, the boardwalks are not just for walking, but really a hard somewhat level surface where people can meet and the children play. It would be nice for the church to have boardwalks that people could do these things without the dangers of falling through the holes.


I made an interesting discovery one day when wandering through the weeds. The board walks have evolved over time. I found in the tall grass older, smaller board walks of two side by side planks that were apparently no longer used and overgrown. These meandered all over, most likely places previous residents often went. Now, they are slowly becoming part of the earth again. These older board walks seemed a little more pragmatic, not really laid out in an organized fashion but purpose built to go to specific places as directly as possible. For the most part these board walks stayed closer to the little bluff above the beach and offered a scenic walking tour of the beautiful vistas that surround St. Michael.