Gus Weidman

Related or Connected To: George Coutu

Related How: Friend

Related or Connected To: Lyman Buck

Related How: Friend

He is mentioned in several Canadian and American papers including The New York Times on June 19, 1929 for witnessing a meteor falling. Gordon and Frank Kushick also witnessed it. SAULT STE. MARIE,' Ont., June 18 (Canadian Press).-A strange tale was brought down to “The Soo" to- day from Michipicoten Island by Frank Kushick, a prospector, who said a huge meteor “about the size of a ship" fell into Lake Superior close to the island at 10 o'clock on the night of June 11. The meteor illuminated the island brilliantly and created a rumbling noise which was heard at Puckasaw and Pipe River, twenty and twelve miles away respectively, for two minutes after it fell. Kushick's story is supported by his brother, Gordon, and Augusta Weidman, camped about two miles away on the island. The meteor fell between the island and the mainland, and there appeared to be two balls of fire, either following the meteor closely or attached to it. The air was full of sparks, he said. Quite a sea arose after the meteor struck the water. The rumbling noise is believed to have been caused by boiling water. A copy of an article in the Morning Leader, Regina Sask is sourced below.

He's been described as very strong. "It is interesting that in at least three separate interviews, reference is made to his being able to lift a 45 gallon barrel weighing some 400 pounds. (Buck, I,i, 517-578; Coutu, II,iv, 63-86; Morden, I,i, 315-388). But one occasion he was bested by another and Layman. Buck recounts a wrestling match between Weidman and George Coutu: "And then this George Coutu was a very wiry man, oh just, well as I say a snowshoe man, and all that kind of stuff. And they got into the store one night, and I guess maybe a little firewater got involved. They got talking about who could throw who out the door. Gus was a big strong man and George was a wiry little fellow. So they had a bet on, who would go through the door first." The account continues with a description of the bout and the finale with Gus being ejected and having to pay $100 for the broken door (Buck, 1,1, 517-578; Coutu, II,iv, 2 0-4 2)

There is a story of a time Gus rode on the back of a moose swimming in the water. Lloyd Morden adds another story to the growing anthology narrating an account of the times when large yachts such as the Sylvia, Seaforth, and Seventeen would anchor in Otter Cove and, using their motor boats: "They would take him down., when they seen a moose coming into the water on one side or other of this cove, and as soon as it got swimming he would get on its back and he would swim all the way across the cove. Like he would ride the moose and they would take pictures of him all the way across, eh. (Morden, I,i, 295-314)."

Olie Bjornaa recalled, "Gus Wiedman stayed at Otter HeacS twenty-two years. He weighed about 220 pounds, solid muscle and bone. He always had a gun. Every one was scared of him. There was this Indian lad came aboard the LENORE. His nickname was Bear walker; he was smart/ and he was very strong. He got into it with Gus Wiedman and I thought Gus was going to throw him overboard. "There were two French guys, both trappers and very nice people, who stayed there at Otter Cove at Swallow River. They had tame groundhogs which they would call and they would come in and sit at the table with them. But Gus would scare the hell out of the French guys... He was very sympathetic to communism, but he kept up on all world affairs. "The last time I saw Gus I think he weighed scarcely 100 pounds. Another German took him down to Milwaukee where they operated on him for cancer. He returned up to Red Sucker Cove a at Pic River, where he didn't weigh more than fifty pounds when he died there."

Places: Pic River

Mike Krezek recalled memories of Gus: "He came (escaped?) from the U.S. He had nothing when he came, but he got in with the Kushick brothers who were kind/ and good trappers. They placed him at Ghost River/ which kind of killed their grounds there. So Gus moved from there to Pukaskwa, and moved into Otter Cove where he was for many years. Gus always lived alone. Finally he got pretty well crippled, up and moved up to Black River where he built himself a nice cabin. I think there he kind of went off the deep end. "At that time that was a very remote area, under the Fort William jurisdiction. Everyone said that Gus was an outlaw, that he didn't believe in any rules. No one bothered to go in there. They figured he was trapping on Michipicoten Island, which was abreast of Ghost River. And that was a reserve, not open to trapping. The conservation officer, Jack Boisseneau, pulled a gun on him, and Gus just clobbered him, got back in his boat and took off. They chased him all over, but he knew that country, and he could live on nothing."

Places: Ghost River

Harold Lund recalled: "Gus Wiedman lived at Otter Cove, as long as I could remember. He was quite a man. He could speak more languages, and good, too. Swedish, Finnish, French, and Indian, especially. But I think he was Lithuanian. His trapline was eighty miles, up to the White River. And he went the ten or fourteen miles over to the end of Michipicoten Island, and. poached that. "The Kushick brothers had a trapline that adjoined his territory, and they'd stop in to see him about once a winter. They travelled by dog team or snowshoes. One spring they found him in his cabin. He had sat down and put his head back, and got pricked by a dirty or rusty nail, and got an infection. He stayed right there until he wasn't even able to get out. So Gordon and John Kushick packed him out of there and sent him off to Thunder Bay, where he was in the hospital quite a long- time. When he left the hospital he kind of retired and came down to the Sault and stayed with me. He was some man, really tough. I called him Tarzan."

Places: Michipicoten Island, White River