This Former Justice Wanted to Blow Up the Mackinac Bridge

Before Mackinac Bridge was opened on Nov. 1, 1957, Michiganders could find themselves waiting up to 24 hours to get on a ferry to cross the straits. This major inconvenience made the completion of the Mighty Mac one of the most popular feats of civil engineering the state had ever seen.

Despite this popularity, not everyone was sold on its glory.

John Voelker, popularly known by his pen name, Robert Traver, was one Michigander who was not all too thrilled with the bridge’s completion.

A native of Ishpeming and a University of Michigan graduate, Voelker was a highly acclaimed author, attorney, and county prosecutor, and was even appointed to the role of a Michigan Supreme Court Justice in 1957.

Though much of his literary body is made up of essays and short stories themed around the joys of trout fishing in the Upper Peninsula, some of his more famous works include “Anatomy of a Murder,” the true story of a murder in Marquette County resulting in a criminal case in which Voelker was a defense attorney.

The novel became so popular that it was eventually made into a film with actor Jimmy Stewart in the main role (ask your grandma).

Beyond his extraordinary achievements in law and literature, John Voelker was primarily an avid fly fisherman and a devoted conservationist.

He spoke affectionately of the Upper Peninsula for which he grew up on:

“While the lumber and mining barons hacked and cut and blasted the land for years, they did not—perhaps could not—destroy it. It remains a place of wild beauty, Hiawatha's land, a place, with its huge forests and untidy farms and small, primitive towns, much like what the frontier must have been.”

Throughout his literary works, one can sense a half-hearted (and typically comical) animosity toward developers and tourists seeking to disrupt his peacefully remote lifestyle in the Upper Peninsula. He and many Yoopers at the time believed the opening of the Mighty Mac would encourage said disruption.

Given his success as a public figure and a literary voice for the Upper Peninsula, John Voelker became a very well-liked individual in the public eye, such that upon completion of the Mackinac Bridge, he was invited to participate in its dedication.

Unfortunately, John Voelker declined participating in the event via telegram citing a conflict of interest. His comical response read: “Sorry, but I’ve been named chairman of the Bomb-the-Bridge Committee.”

Upon reading his work, one will be delighted to find that it is rich with this same sort of tongue-in-cheek prose.

Though John Voelker passed on to the Great Trout Stream in the Sky back in 1991, his legacy lives on through his body of literary work, his legal accolades, and the John D. Voelker Foundation.

Take some time this summer to celebrate Voelker by wading through one of the countless remote trout streams that Michigan has to offer or sitting down and reading one of his many works on flyfishing.

Just please, leave the Mackinac Bridge alone.