Marty Reay Gets a New Birdhouse For Christmas – And It's Very Special

Remember the story we told you last year about the old truck door that Tim found in the woods many years ago? And kept it for decades, because, well, that’s what we do.

That door and the truck it belonged to – owned by Old Mission Peninsula pioneer Chum Reay – has a long and storied history on the OMP, and it led us to interview Chum’s son, Marty Reay, who told us more about the origins of the door and the Reay family.

Read Tim’s interview with Marty here. It not only tells the story of the door, but also of Chum’s ice-cutting business and a lot of OMP history, weaving in many pioneering families through the years. Oh, and of course, the door was returned to its rightful owner – the Reay family.

Marty’s son, Matt Reay, runs a trucking and snowplowing business in Portland, Michigan, and he had some signs made and adopted the original logo into his business.

And Marty’s granddaughter, Belle, even painted a picture of the door for me and Tim, and we couldn’t have been more excited to get it.

Well, the story of that door continues on as we head into 2020. Around Christmas, I spotted a picture of Marty that Matt had posted on Facebook. “Look!” I yelled at Tim. “Marty got a birdhouse for Christmas, and it’s the truck with the logo!”

It was indeed a birdhouse shaped like the Reay truck, and it had that “M. Reay & Son” logo on the side of it – just like the door Tim found in the woods decades ago.

And so, the story of the iconic Chum Reay truck door continues to give us all joy into the new year. And we’re pretty sure the birds who get to use it will be super happy about it, too.