In the summer of 1916, with school out, Ernest Hemingway and a friend traveled to the northern woods of Michigan to camp and fish. A steamer brought them to Frankfort, and from there they hiked to Bear Creek. After having luck there, they rode trains to the Boardman River and then on to Kalkaska. From there they hiked to the Rapid River for their last fishing, and then returned to Kalkaska. Hemingway remembered the Kalkaska area, and years later he created two stories set in that area, The Light of the World and The Battler.