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Category Archives: Thumb

The Old House In The Thumb

Posted on by Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses, Thumb .

I saw this old house or school house or whatever it used to be out in the middle of nowhere. It was on a dirt road far from any town but the closest would be Port Hope miles away. I grew up in the big city and whenever I need anything it’s just a few minutes to the store. It would take some getting used to living out in a rural area where the nearest store is miles away by car. I can’t imagine the people who lived in or near this old house. They must have not traveled far from home most of their lives. I imagine it must have been a hard self-reliant life farming in a remote place.

P.S even though a place looks abandoned it is probably owned by someone and on private property. I don’t trespass and take my pics from the road.

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A Barn Find of the Century

Posted on by Posted in Thumb, Train Depots .

An old train depot stands quietly in a park near the town of Kingston. I stopped to take a photo and that is when I read the sign telling its amazing story. The citizens were proud of their little depot, and were excited when it was completed in 1893. It put the little town on the map now that the train could stop and drop off supplies. Passengers could ride the train to the big city of Caro and beyond. Over time as cars and trucks replaced the need for trains, the little depot was dismantled and stored in a barn near Cass City. A century after it was built, it was discovered sitting in pieces in the barn in 1993. Citizens raised money and had the little depot reconstructed on this site in the park.

Next week I will be giving presentations in Caro and Lakeview Libraries. I hope you can stop by and see me.

Caro Area District Library Tuesday, October 9th at 6pm

Tamarack District Library in Lakeview Thursday, October 11th at 6pm

I will have books and calendars for purchase after my presentation, if you can’t make it I hope you will consider ordering books from my website HERE. 

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The Extraordinary Old General Store

Posted on by Posted in Forgotten Places, Thumb .

Roaming the back roads of Michigan I find some interesting places, but I think the old general store in Kilmanagh has to be one of my favorites. It looks like it’s from a movie set with its wooden porch. You would think John Wayne tied up some horses in front of it.  The town of Kilmanaugh or whats left of it is kind of between Sebewaing and Bay Port. It was first called Thompson’s Corners, for Francis Thompson, an Irish homesteader who arrived in 1861. The name Kilmanagh was first used to describe the nearby Shebeon Creek, which would overflow each spring. A post office named Kilmanagh operated from February 1873 until June 1904. maybe even in this old General store. It’s believed the store was built sometime in the 1870s and operated by Richard Martini. In the 1890’s he sold the store to John Rummel and Albert Woldt.  In the early 1900’s Alberts son Clemens P. Woldt took over the business naming it C.P. Woldt & Co. Growing the store and even became a John Deere dealership and possibly the first John Deere dealership in Michigan. by the 1960s the old general store had fallen on hard times and closed sitting vacant for many years.   The current owner is in the process of restoring the old building you can learn more about their efforts on their facebook page HERE .

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What is That Brick Structure in Port Hope?

Posted on by Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Thumb .

port hope chimney

From a distance, this tall structure in Port Hope looks like lighthouse since it is so close to Lake Huron near the tip of the Thumb, but after you get up close to it you realize it is something different. Thankfully there is a historical marker next to it that tells you what it is and its significance. Maybe I am one of the few people that bother to read the signs but I appreciate them. In this day and age of google sometimes a plain old sign still works extremely well.

Here is what the sign next to the chimney reads.

This chimney was built in 1858 by John Geitz. It is all that remains of the lumber mill established that year by William R. Stafford. Port Hope grew up around the mill. For a score of years, this town was the center of lumbering in the Thumb. It also became an important producer of salt. In 1871 and again in 1881 the mill, the docks, and possessions of hundreds of people were destroyed by fire. This chimney is a monument to those pioneers who by their courage and industry developed this area.

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The Beer Drinking Bear of Quanicassee

Posted on by Posted in Thumb .

Quanicassee bear

Standing in a field on Old State Road, near the Quanicassee River, is a monument with a bear drinking from a bottle. If the monument could talk it would have an interesting and sad story to tell. Frank Vanderbilt owned a Hotel and resort in Quanicassee and as a way to attract visitors, he had a small zoo. Sometime around 1910 he purchased a bear cub for his little zoo and named her Jennie. He left her chained up to a nearby tree stump and the visitors to his resort would feed her treats and candy.

One day someone gave her a bottle of beer and she gulped it right down like a thirsty lumberjack. It was not long after that, Frank began selling beer to tourist to give to the little bear. she would climb up to the top of the tree stump and open the beer and drink it down. Her fame grew as word spread of the bear that enjoyed the frosty beverage and people came from all around Michigan to see Jennie. I wouldn’t say life was good for Jennie, but she had her daily routine and the admiration of visitors.

Everything changed in 1920 when Prohibition became law and alcohol was illegal for Americans to own or sell, and that included Jennie. When she was no longer able to get any beer, she became agitated and angry growling at visitors and swiping her paws at Frank. The gave her bottles of pop and other beverages but she was not interested in them since she was addicted to alcohol. A group of men from Detroit were hunting in the thumb and they stopped by the old hotel in Quanicassee. They told Mr. Vanderbilt that they would take care of the distraught bear and he sold Jennie to them. It was later that he found out that they used her for their hunting clubs bear roast. Saddened by the loss of Jennie, Frank built this memorial to the bear with the money he got when he sold her.

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The Big Yellow House in Port Sanilac

Posted on by Posted in Houses, Michigan Historical Markers, Thumb .

loop harrison house port sanilac

This Second Empire style mansion was built in the 1870s by Doctor Joseph Loop. A native of New York, Loop moved to Oakland County, Michigan, in 1843. he and his wife, Jane Gardner Loop pioneered this land in Sanilac County in 1854, and after graduating from the University of Michigan medical department in 1855, he opened a practice in Port Sanilac. When this home was built, he kept an office on the lower floor, and serviced a forty-mile circuit, bringing medical care to much of the county. Doctor Loop died in 1903 at the age of ninety-three, leaving the home to his only child, Ada. She and her husband, the Reverend Julius Harrison passed it in turn to one of their sons, Captain Stanley Harrison. In 1964 he deeded it to the Sanilac County Historical Society for a museum.

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Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse

Posted on by Posted in Lighthouses, Thumb .

point aux barques lighthouse

The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse and Lifesaving Station near the tip of the Thumb aided mariners for over a century, beginning in 1847. That year the U.S. Lighthouse Service built the first lighthouse on this site to mark the turning point of Lake Huron into Saginaw Bay and to warn of the shallow waters. Catherine Shook became Michigan’s first female light keeper when she took over for her husband, Peter, after he drowned in 1849. In 1857 the lighthouse and dwelling were replaced with the present 89-foot tower and attached house. In 1908, the brick assistant keeper’s house was built. The lighthouse was fully automated in 1934. Five years later the last keeper retired, and the lifesaving station, made up of 15 buildings was decommissioned.

I posted this slideshow I made on Facebook and thought I would post it here also in case you missed it, or if you’re like my dad, and not on facebook.

 

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The White Rock Lighthouse, Remembering a Great City Lost in the Fire

Posted on by Posted in Lighthouses, Thumb .

white rock lighthouse michigan

The town of White Rock on Lake Huron between Port Sanilac and Harbor Beach has a very interesting story to tell. The town was named after a large white boulder that stood near the shoreline of Lake Huron, and by 1776 it was the largest village in the territory. It  was used as a boundary marker for the northern point of the Treaty of Detroit with the Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot and Potawatomi Native American nations signed on November 17th 1807. In the 1830’s, the town was a thriving port, and in 1856 a lighthouse was built to safely guide ships into port. The community, along with the lighthouse, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871. The great fire also occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, and while Chicago was rebuilt, White Rock never grew to be the large town it once was, and the lighthouse was never rebuilt. In 1996 the privately owned White Rock Memorial lighthouse was built.

P.S. If I ever get the chance to build my own house, I would build a lighthouse, even if it was in the middle of a subdivision miles away from any lake.

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The House of Seven Gables

Posted on by Posted in Historic Places, Houses, Thumb .

the house of seven gables huron city

The house of Seven Gables in Huron City, near the tip of the thumb, is a beautifully preserved Victorian home that sits on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron. It was named by William Lyon Phelps, for the house of the same name in the Hawthorne novel. This is the third house built on this site. The forest fires of 1871 and 1881 destroyed the houses built before the elegant house that still stands on this site.

Annabel Hubbard decorated Seven Gables in 1886 for her father Langdon Hubbard. After her marriage to William Lyon Phelps, Annabel added “modern” bathrooms and updated several rooms in the early 1900’s. Seven Gables has always been owned by family members. The furniture you see is original to the house and major portions of the house still have the original 1886 decorations, giving you a unique view into history.

you can learn more about Huron City at their website HERE

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The Garfield Inn at Port Austin

Posted on by Posted in Houses, Thumb .

Garfield Inn Port Austin
Last time I was in Port Austin, the Garfield Inn was for sale, and the paint was peeling off. It looks as though it has new owners, and they have fixed up the grand old home. I am happy to see someone is taking care of this historic place.

the Historical Marker sign out front reads:

A native of New York, contractor Charles G. Learned helped build New York City’s water-works system and the Erie Canal. Around 1837 Learned and his brother-in-law purchased several thousand acres of pine land in Michigan’s Thumb area. Two years later, Learned and his wife, Maria Raymond, came to Port Austin and bought a house and three acres at this site. Learned’s cutover pine land became a 2,000-acre farm where he prospered as an agriculturalist and dairy farmer. With profits from his lumbering and farming enterprises Learned enlarged and updated this house in the French Second Empire style. In the 1860s Ohio congressman, later president, James A. Garfield, a family friend, was a frequent guest here. From 1931 to 1979 the house served as the Mayes Inn and Tower Hotel.

There were rumors that President Garfield was smitten for Charles Learned’s wife Maria and that president requested that he travel to Port Austin to see her after being shot, but he was not permitted to travel.

You can read more about this place and many other locations around Michigan in my books available HERE

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