The Detroit Women’s Aquatic Club made heroes and headlines on Aug. 13, 1927, when it hosted a 24-mile swim for amateur female swimmers from the Old Club on Harsens Island at the northern edge of Lake St. Clair to the Detroit Yacht Club on Belle Isle.
The first two finishers were Aquatic Club members and twin sisters. Twelve of the 17 swimmers failed to finish the grueling route that was then called the St. Clair Channel.
The winner, 19-year-old Edith Fehr, spent 11 hours and 22 minutes in the water. Weak upon finishing, she was carried to a dressing room in a stretcher made from a blanket. Fehr’s sister, Evelyn Armstrong, who recently had a baby, was close behind Fehr the entire swim and finished seconds later.
With this extraordinary athletic feat, the swimmers invited the fame afforded to international sports hero Gertrude Ederle, who swam across the English Channel the year before (only a 21 mile swim).
Source : Liz Rohan, “Free Press Flashback: Meet the women who swam 24 miles across Lake St. Clair in 1927”, Detroit Free Press, August 13, 2023.