Greetings from White Pigeon, Michigan, just three miles north of the Indiana state line. It is a delightful little town that celebrates an interesting and unique past.
The town is named for Chief Wahbememe (White Pigeon) of the Pottawatomi nation. He had been a signer of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 which ceded large portions of Indian homelands to the white colonists who were moving in.
Within a few years after the signing of that treaty, white families were buying land in Chief White Pigeon's own area. By 1930, this land office was selling the fertile forests and prairies of the area for $1.25 per acre. This, the oldest U.S. Land Office in Michigan, now serves as the county's museum.
Despite the influx of whites into his homelands, Chief White Pigeon befriended the newcomers. Sometime around 1830, he was attending a gathering of chiefs in the area of Detroit. There he learned of a plot to attack the settlement in the near future. He left the gathering and ran, without stopping for food or rest, nearly 150 miles back to warn the town of the impending danger. Having alerted the residents of the threat, he died shortly thereafter from exhaustion. He is buried on the outskirts of the town that bears his name.
We found this history interesting, but the past was not the reason we had come to White Pigeon. It is now a town of about 1600 residents and is presently the location of the corporate offices of Quadra Manufacturing Inc.
Quadra manufactures BigFoot. Not the Big Foot that prowls the forests of the northwest United States, however! Quadra's BigFoot is a hydraulic leveling system for RVs. Strong hydraulic "legs" mounted on the four corners of the RV can be activated remotely from a small control panel to automatically level the rig both front to back and side to side. The legs and feet of the BigFoot system are strong enough to lift the wheels of the rig up off the ground if necessary!
It's been getting more and more difficult for us to level our fifth wheel with the "wood pile" of boards we carry in the truck for that purpose. So we had a BigFoot system installed on our rig.
It is our hope that this present-day investment will enhance the future of our RVing life!
Y'all have safe travels and lots of fun!
Bruce and MarySue
