July 2017 - Lost In Michigan

The Best Dam Spot In Michigan

Posted on July 31, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Dam .

While I was in the town of Leland, in the Leelanau Peninsula, I stopped and checked out Fisthtown at the mouth of the Leland River. I could not pass up the opportunity to get a dam photo. I am thinking it has to be the most photographed dam in Michigan. I wandered around Fishtown a little bit, but I had Cooper the wonder dog with me and I was limited to where I could go. I do want to thank the Dam Candy Store for leaving a bowl of water out for him to get a drink. I always take water for him when we travel but it’s nice to have some water out for the four legged visitors. I need to take another trip back there soon so I can eat at some of the restaurants in town.

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The Old Shack Along The Road

Posted on July 29, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

I saw this old shack near Thompsonville about 4 years ago and have always wondered about its story. When they are built, every house is new and probably had a nice family that loved their new home. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine it after so many years has gone by. I still don’t know any history about this old house, but my curiosity has led me to start this website and ever since I have been out looking for and taking pics of the old forgotten houses along the back road in Michigan. They say ” curiosity killed the cat” but I think maybe it just wandered off to find new and interesting places.

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The Light In The Storm at Frankfort

Posted on July 25, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses .

The light at the end of the north breakwater in Frankfort is rather peculiar looking than your traditional round light tower. The four sided tower used to stand at the end of the pier until the breakwater was constructed in the 1930’s then the tower was moved to the end of the breakwater. Rather than just placing it on the end a two story structure was constructed for the tower to stand on giving it a unique look.

If you’re wondering, yes I got a little wet taking some pics of the lighthouse, or in this case, just the light since the house is gone now. I don’t mind being out in the storm taking pics of lighthouses and to be honest I kind of prefer it. The purpose of a lighthouse is the be there standing tall and resolute no matter how harsh and unkind the weather may be.

P.S. Just a little update on what I have been doing. I am still working on my book and in the final stages of working with my editor fixing all my grammatical errors, as you probably guessed, there is a lot and it’s taking a little longer than I would have liked. I am hopeful I will have books available this fall. I also am working on getting 2018 wall calendars printed and hope to have them available this September.

P.P.S. Thank you all for following me and supporting what I do. It means the world to me that you enjoy reading my posts and it is especially appreciated when you share my website with your friends.

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The Company Store of Johannesburg

Posted on July 23, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

About 15 miles east of Gaylord on M32 is the town of Johannesburg. I saw this old building painted white and had to stop and take a pic of it. I thought it looked like an old general store or something. later that day I was in the grocery store in Gaylord and they had some old photographs hanging on the walls. I saw a photo of a building with two arches over the windows then it hit me. That’s the building in Johannesburg I saw earlier.

In the late 1800s, the town was built by Johannesburg Manufacturing Co who operated a sawmill in the area. The town and the company were named after Johanna Hanson the wife of one of the founders of the company. The town was given a post office in 1901 with Thorwald W. Hanson as the first postmaster. The company built this store which still stands today. It must have worked out well for the company, they paid their workers and then got their money back when they bought what they needed at the store. I would assume they also lived in company owned houses too. I know the mining companies would pay with company money only good in the company store. I am not sure if that was done in the sawmills or not, but it must have been difficult to leave town as Tennesee Ernie Ford sang “I owe my soul to the company store”

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The Old Ford Sawmill and the Charcoal Briquette

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Historic Places, upper peninsula .

Henry Ford was obsessed with building the Model-T as efficient and inexpensive as possible. To do that he used the process of Vertical Integration where Ford Motor Company created companies that supplied the factory with materials. Ford made their own steel, harvested rubber and built sawmills to supply lumber to the factory.

A few miles south of L’Anse on U.S. 41 is the town of Alberta where Henry Ford built a sawmill town in 1936 to supply lumber to his grown auto company. The town was named after the daughter of one of his executives. The community consisted of a sawmill, houses for the workers and their families, and two schools to educate the children while their parents were working.

Henry Ford saw all the sawdust that was created by his sawmills and felt it was going to waste. At his sawmill in Kingsford Michigan, named for Edward G. Kingsford who worked for Ford managing his lumbering operations, the mill created an enormous amount of sawdust. A University of Oregon chemist, Orin Stafford invented a method for making pillow-shaped lumps of fuel from sawdust and called them charcoal briquettes. Thomas Edison designed the briquette factory built next to the sawmill and Edward G. Kingsford managed it. Ford sold the briquettes at his dealerships and after world war II as the suburbs grew and the Webber grill became popular, the demand for the bags of black briquettes soared. Ford sold the company in 1951 and it was renamed Kingsford in honor of Edward G. Kingsford.

In 1954 the town of Alberta was donated to Michigan Tech and is still used today for forestry education. If you’re in the area they give tours of the historic town and sawmill to visitors.

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The Ghost Town of Iva

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

I found out about the old town of Iva north of Hemlock, in Richland Township, on the corner of Iva and Dice roads and I had to take a trip to see it since I don’t live far away. (Click HERE, if you wanna know where I live). I was expecting to find a few houses, but when I got there, I found this beautiful old building that looked like it used to be a general store. According to records, the post office in Iva opened December 7th 1894 with John F. Shovan as its first postmaster. The post office closed in October of 1904. I could not find any other information about the town, but I can only assume it was another lumbering town that existed until the trees were gone, and then the lumberjacks moved away becoming a farming community. I would think some of the residence of Iva who died are buried in the cemetery on Dice Road.

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The Old School near Standish

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Uncategorized .

I saw this old school house south of Standish. according to Google Maps it shows the town of Worth nearby so maybe this was the school for the town in its heyday. It looks like someone is in the process of fixing it up. It’s just another old country school house that I have found but don’t know anything about it.

I will be giving a presentation to the Arenac Historical Society on July 13th, if you’re in the neighborhood maybe you can come join me and listen to me talk about what I do and I will show some of my photos from Arenac County. you can find out more on their facebook page HERE

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The Land Locked Lighthouse in Clare Guiding Travelers on the Highway

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Uncategorized .

Centuries ago sailors relied on the lighthouses along the shoreline to guide their ships safely around the Michigan shoreline. Nowadays there are not many Michiganders traveling the Great Lakes, but here is one lighthouse that is in the center of the lower mitten that guides motorists heading along the freeway. One of my favorite places to stop for a rest is the welcome center in Clare where U.S. 10 and 27 intersect. I usually need to use the restroom after drinking a 24oz of Faygo Redpop, and when I am done taking care of business, I can check out the brochures and tourist info they have for travelers. I can also get an old school paper map ( compliments of the state of Michigan) which I love to have instead of looking at my GPS. I wonder if the kids can even read a map, that technology is getting to be as ancient as the phone book.

Out behind the welcome center is a lighthouse tower. It may not be an old historic lighthouse that has saved many sailors lives, but it is still a beautiful tower watching the cars and trucks traveling past. There was a tower like this on in Monroe, but it was moved to St Ignace and is now an official aid to navigation. ( you can see my post about it HERE) Maybe someday this one will be called into active duty also but for now, I can stop by a visit it when I am traversing the middle of the L.P.

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The Old Building at Old Mission

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, small towns .

I traveled to the tip of Old Mission Point from Traverse City. I have not been there in a few years maybe even 10 years. I like taking the road that travels along the west shoreline and look at the houses overlooking the bay. and a usual I had to stop and get some photos of the lighthouse. It also seems like there are more wineries since I was there last time. I don’t know why but I never made it over the town, or what’s left of the town of Old Mission a few miles south of the lighthouse. With a peninsula full of fancy wineries and extravagant houses it was this old boarded up building that captured my attention. I am not sure if it was a hotel, a general store or a saloon or maybe all the above but it made me wonder what they people way back then. I can drive up the peninsula in my jeep in less than an hour but I can only imagine how long the journey was by horse and buggy or a sleigh in the winter. I wonder if many a weary travelers stopped here for some rest before heading back down to Traverse City.

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