March 2022 - Page 2 of 3 - Lost In Michigan

The Tortured Breakwater Light

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses .

The Muskegon Breakwater Light stands at the end of the south breakwater. It sits out there taking the brunt force of Lake Michigan waves and wind all year long. It was built in 1929 and has worked in conjunction with the light at the end of the pier. They are like two brothers that work together in guiding sailors into the Muskegon Channel. I wonder if the light at the end of the pier ever feels guilty watching it’s little brother being tortured by the storms of Lake Michigan.

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Deford

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns, Thumb .

Roaming the back roads in the middle of the thumb I came across the small town of Deford. The Grand Trunk Railroad came through the area in 1883 and a station was named Bruce for local landowner Elmer Bruce. Arthur Newton founded the village around the station and renamed it after his friend Mr. Deford. I saw these old buildings in town. I am sure they were not around when the town was first founded but the looked old. The faded hand painted sign on the one building looks like it had the word BLACKSMITH on it.

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The McMillan House

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses .

I saw this old house in the small town of McMillan west of Newberry. I don’t know anything about it but it caught my attention. The community of McMillan was first settled in 1881 when the railroad built a depot named the McMillan Station to serve the area. The station was named after railway executive and future Michigan senator James McMillan.

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Saint Patrick’s

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches .

I pass by this old church near US-23 often and one day I decided to take the backroads instead of the expressway. I came upon this beautiful old church north of Ann Arbor and standing next to it was a historical marker that reads:

Catholicism in Northfield Township dates from the early nineteenth century. In 1829 Father Patrick O’Kelly, a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, was sent to the area to minister to the Irish Catholics who were settling in southwestern Michigan. The first parish church, a log structure, was completed on this site in 1831. Originally named St. Brigid, this is the oldest English-speaking Catholic parish in the state. The present Gothic Revival style church was completed and dedicated in 1878. The parish was renamed St. Patrick’s at that time. The rectory was completed in 1890. In 1917 the church and rectory were badly damaged by a cyclone; however, both were rebuilt in subsequent years. Serving the area for 150 years, the parish continues to reach out to the needs of the surrounding community.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see me yesterday in North Muskegon. It was a lot of fun and nice of the Walker Memorial Library to invite me.

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The Holly Train Depot

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Train Depots .

The town of Holly had two railroad lines and together they built this beautiful red and yellow brick depot. The Detroit and Milwaukee Railway and the Flint and Holly Railroad founded by Michigan Governor Henry Crapo carried passengers into Holly. Probably to the now famous Battle Ally, which you can read my post about it HERE. The two railroads built a wooden depot in 1864 which burned down in 1884. The current depot was constructed in 1886. It had two ticket windows, one for each railroad. The last passenger train left Holly and the brick depot in 1964.

A non-profit group is in the process of trying to move and restore the old depot. you can see thier facebook page HERE

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The Stones on the School

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Schools .

The small town of Leonidas north of Colon has one of the most unique school buildings in Michigan. The shape of the building is a rather ordinary square but it is adorned on the outside with ornately placed fieldstone. The school was constructed in 1935 as part of Roosevelt’s Civil Works Administration. The building was built by two local stonemasons Charlie Blue and Laverne Harmon. They were acclaimed fieldstone builders who were well known in Southern Michigan from the 1920-1950s. The stones came from local farm fields and they were placed on the outside of the building. The patterns on the outside are beautiful and it is amazing to see in person.

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The Striker House

Posted on March 14, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses .

It’s hard to miss this big old green house near downtown Hastings. It was constructed by Daniel Striker in the 1880s. He lived there until his death in 1898 and his wife Sarah lived in the house until her death in 1915. After that, the house was used as the second home for Hastings’ first hospital, then known as Good Samaritan. In the 1960s, it was converted into apartments and became a convalescent home. since then it has been converted back into a single-family home.

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A Memorial to Michigan’s K9 Heroes

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Cemetery .

March 13th, is K9 Veteran’s Day. It was on March 13, 1942, that the Army began training for its new War Dog Program, also known as the “K-9 Corps,” It was the first time that dogs were officially a part of the U.S. Armed Forces. Thank you to all the working dogs and their handlers for their service and dedication.

At the corner of Milford Rd and 11 Mile Near South Lyon is the Michigan War Dog Memorial. The site was set up by the Elkow family in 1936 and known as “Happy Hunting Grounds Pet Cemetery.” In 1946 when the news of how many lives were saved by War Dogs during WWII local residents raised money to install a monument to show their respect to the heroic K-9’s. Present At dedication of the 16-ton granite monument was a doberman pinscher named Sargent Sparks, a Marine Corps scout and messenger dog that carried messages and medical supplies at Guadalcanal and Okinawa. A year after the dedication, someone poisoned Sgt. Sparks near his Rochester home. His master requested that he be buried wrapped only in a blanket, like so many of his buddies at the beaches. he was laid to rest at the base of the monument.

Probably the most famous dog buried at the cemetery is “Blizzard,” one of Admiral Byrd’s lead sled dogs. He was at the Chicago Worlds Fair and was sold to people who lived in Windsor. When Blizzard died in 1937 at 12 years of age, he was buried at the cemetery. Along with Blizzard, is a parrot that was on Admiral Dewey’s flagship that was owned by the city of Detroit when he died at 86 years. (Parrots can live to be 150 years old)

The Final Resting Place for Admiral Byrd’s sled dog “Blizzard”

If a military working dog is killed in action or at home base, there is a memorial and burial with honors; however, if the Veterinary Corps retires a military working dog, and it is adopted out and dies the Michigan War Dog Memorial and Cemetery is a place for a heroic K-9 to be laid to rest at no cost to the handler/owner. There have been several dogs who served from all wars since 1936 that have been laid to rest along with police K-9s and other loyal working dogs.

you can find out more about the Memorial and Cemetery at their website HERE

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Hickory Corners

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

The small town of Hickory Corners sits north of Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. In 1837 the settlement got its name after surveyors found a large hickory while doing their survey. A schoolhouse along with the first house was built shortly after. In 1844 it officially got a post office. It has always remained a small little town in the countryside and I imagine a lot of of people pass through it on their way to the Gilmore Car Museum which is only a few miles away.

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Point Iroquois Lighthouse, A Spectacular Light on Lake Superior

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, upper peninsula .

Point Iroquois and its light near Brimley On Lake Superior mark the division line between Whitefish Bay and the western end of the St. Marys River. It was named for the Iroquois warriors massacred there by the Ojibwein 1662. Native Algonkians called the point “Nadouenigoning”, composed of the words “Nadone” (Iroquois) and “Akron” (bone).
In 1620, French explorers Étienne Brûlé and Grenoble became the first recorded white men to the area. “From that time, Point Iroquois became a familiar landmark” for French explorers, fur traders and missionaries who followed. Sault Ste. Marie was the first white settlement in what became known as Michigan.
In 1853 Congress, which had approved the construction of the first Soo Locks on the St. Mary’s River, and appropriated $5,000 for the construction of what would be the first lighthouse at Point Iroquois.In 1855-1856 the United States Lighthouse Board built a wood and rubble stone lighthouse at the Point; this aid to navigation commenced operations on June 18, 1856. The first Point Iroquois light was a 45-foot-tall rubble stone tower with a wooden lantern deck, outfitted with a flashing white fourth order Fresnel lens. Only eleven years after the first light went into operation, a government inspector was questioning the construction quality of the first light station and preparing the ground for its replacement.
In 1870, after the first lighthouse and keepers’ quarters building were torn down and the second and current Point Iroquois Light was constructed, this time at an estimated cost of $18,000. The present Cape Cod style white brick lighthouse was built and ran continuously for 93 years, guiding ships in and out of the Soo Locks. It has a 65-foot tower height.
In 1885, a bell tower was erected, which incorporated a Stevens automatic bell striking machine. In 1890, the bell tower was torn down, and a fog signal building was built with steam whistles installed. In 1926 they were replaced by Type F diaphone fog horns.
In 1905, a two-floor extension was added to the 1871 building, providing living space for another assistant keeper, bringing the staff to three Lighthouse keepers. At peak operation, the station was manned by a Head Keeper and two Assistant Keepers. The children of the keepers and local fisherman were enough to populate a local school on the grounds for a period.Other buildings on the site included: an assistant keeper’s quarters, fog signal building (now gone), three barns, a chicken house, boat house, oil house, outhouse and well house.
The station was deactivated in 1962, replaced by the Canadian operated Gros Cap Reefs Light, an unmanned buoy-type beacon in the St. Marys River channel.
In 1963, the original lens was sent to the Smithsonian Institution. Currently the lighthouse is now a museum and visitors can climb the stairs to the top of the tower, although the light is gone the view is spectacular.

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