The White Lake Maritime Festival would have been a huge local event, given its status as the first edition of the previously annual celebration since 2012, even if noted marathon swimmer Jim "The Shark" Dreyer wasn't going to be swimming up to Goodrich Park towing 250 cannonballs during Saturday's events.
Dreyer's swim, though, will certainly add to the celebration as he commemorates the United States' 250th anniversary by completing one of his most ambitious swims yet: A 22-mile excursion with his sizable cargo, which will be attached in dinghies fastened to his ankles. He estimates the swim will take 26 hours, with a targeted Goodrich Park arrival at around 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8.
"I'll say this, the training has been more arduous than any training I've ever put myself through, and that's saying a lot," Dreyer said. "I trained pulling a 20-gallon bucket underwater and a cannonball on my back. You're fighting for every inch. There's zero glide, so every inch you're fighting for, and the cannonball is pushing you lower in the water.
"When I say 26 hours, there are breaks for nutrition, but when you're swimming, there's not even a split-second break. There's no glide. There's no reprieve."
How difficult the swim is for Dreyer will come down to weather conditions. The adventure swimmer has experienced enough to know that, as he put it, the best of man can't overcome the worst of Mother Nature. If all goes well, he said, his training, which included a rehearsal swim last week that also lasted 26 hours, will be more difficult than the actual swim.
The swim is intended to raise awareness and funding for a memorial honoring U.S. combat veterans, which will be located in Whitehall. The 250 cannonballs, of course, represent this year's historic anniversary, and the swim will last 22 miles, as 22 is the number most commonly associated with daily veteran suicides. The weight of the cannonballs, Dreyer said, represents the weight of war that combat veterans carry during and after their service.
The channel next to White River Light Station is five miles from Goodrich Park, so Dreyer and a support team will go 17 miles into Lake Michigan so he can begin his trek Friday afternoon.
The project is personal for Dreyer, whose late father Jack was an Army corporal and served during World War II. One of the 250 cannonballs he is towing will be on his back to represent his father.
Upon devising the idea, Dreyer was understandably meticulous in selecting which West Michigan municipality would be its host. (Originally from Grand Rapids and a current resident of Ferrysburg, Dreyer always wanted the memorial in his home region.)
He contacted six West Michigan municipalities - Montague was also one of them, along with Ferrysburg, Saugatuck and others - but he heard back first from Whitehall and Grand Haven. Whitehall City Manager Dan Tavernier, who served himself for 20 years in the Coast Guard, got back to Tavernier barely six hours after Dreyer sent out his email at, he said, 2 a.m.
"I responded pretty quickly because I loved the idea," Tavernier said. "We arranged a time to meet, and he came here, and we have a whole bunch of infrastructure projects going. I'm retired military as well, and I think that helped sell it to him. I was so ecstatic about it, and I think my enthusiasm was a help."
Dreyer said he had a great feeling about Whitehall after the meeting, though he continued to go through the process. A meeting with his hometown Ferrysburg also went well, and they were on the doorstep of getting the memorial when, Dreyer said, it fell apart at the 11th hour. When that occurred, Whitehall stood as his clear choice.
"Things work out the way they're supposed to," Dreyer said. "I've met so many good people in the White Lake area, and so many people have stepped up, that there's no doubt this is the right place for the memorial."
Another sign in Dreyer's mind that Whitehall was the best place for the memorial came when Tavernier asked if there was a chance Dreyer might be able to time his swim to the Maritime Festival. It turned out that was the time Dreyer was targeting to complete his swim anyway.
Part of Dreyer's support team during the swim will be White Lake resident and WinBerg Construction founder Brad VanBergen, who is supplying his and wife Erika's boat to accompany Dreyer. A recent engine issue requiring repair put some stress on his involvement, but with some help from Walstrom Marine in Traverse City, VanBergen said Monday that it looked as though it would be ready for the journey.
"They really need our boat for a support boat because I have all the electronics and navigation, and plenty of room for the team," VanBergen said, adding with a chuckle, "I can't believe how I get myself into all sorts of stuff, but I have a hard time saying no to good people."
"I'm using it as an example of what a great guy Brad is, what a great community Whitehall is and how they've embraced the memorial," Dreyer added.
Dreyer is a noted adventure swimmer - he's famously still the only person to ever swim from Wisconsin to Michigan, accomplishing the feat back in 1998, and he's participated in any number of swims since, including an Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Relay Swim last year in honor of the 50th anniversary of the famous shipwreck (he said a film is in production about the swim). However, he describes this swim as "a true legacy project" - a special one even by his remarkable standards.
"Being a patriot, this being America's 250th birthday...We're celebrating 250 years of freedom, but how can we celebrate it without honoring the ones who fought to win and preserve that freedom?" Dreyer said. "This will outlive all of us. This memorial will always be there, tied to the 250th, and be in Whitehall.
"There will be other memorials around the country tied to the 250th, but it's safe to say Whitehall will have the only one made of cannonballs."
The memorial will be financed by donations to reserve a cannonball in honor of the combat veteran of the donor's choosing. Each cannonball can be reserved for $750 through Dreyer's website, jimthesharkdreyer.com/cannonball-memorial-swim. The same site offers fans the chance to follow Dreyer's progress when he begins the swim around 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7.
"Thank you to the people of White Lake for all your support," Dreyer said. "I'm honored to be doing this, and anyone who's at the finish line at Maritime, I hope I'm coherent enough to converse with you."
