This beautiful old house stands along M-25 south of Lexington. I am not sure about its history but it is now a bed and breakfast.
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Monthly Archives: January 2023
Next to the Bavarian Inn located in Frankenmuth is the Holz-Brücke. German for “wooden Bridge” it crosses the Cass River. Built in 1980 it is not as old as many other covered bridges but being over 40 years old you could probably say it is historic. I remember driving over it with my grandparents when I was a kid shortly after it was constructed. If I remember correctly, back then you had to purchase a token from the Bavarian Inn to cross over it. Now it is open to any vehicle and leads to the parking lot of the Bavarian Inn Lodge and a thrill to drive across.
P.S. This weekend is Snowfest in Frankenmuth. If you are going to be there, be sure to stop at Charlin’s Book Nook in the River Place Shops and say Hello. They carry all of my Lost In Michigan books.
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River Bend Park in Utica sits along the Clinton River. It has baseball fields, soccer fields and a shooting range. Near the middle of the park is a historical marker that stands as a reminder of what the park used to be. The property was originally developed in 1955 by the military as a Nike missile base. Fifteen such bases were placed around Detroit to defend the city in an attack. Ajax missiles were used to shoot down any enemy aircraft that could drop a nuclear bomb on the city.
By the 1970s the Soviets had intercontinental ballistic missiles and the Nike bases were not capable of shooting them down. In 1974 the bases were deactivated. The missile silos were filled in and the buildings were demolished. The property was given to the Michigan DNR. All that remains of the old base are a few foundations from the buildings and one small building that is being used as a storage shed.
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A few years ago I was driving out of downtown Battle Creek and near the railroad tracks, I saw this magnificent Spanish church/castle-like building. I figured it must have been built by the railroad since It was near the tracks but there was no platform for the passengers but the twin towers looked like church steeples. I kinda forgot about the photo I took and now here we are a few years later and I finally found out it was the old Grand Trunk Railroad passenger depot. It was one of the largest depots in Michigan built in 1907 and it was used up until 1971. A grant from the Kellogg Foundation refurbished the old depot, and it is now being used by a nonprofit community group. It is definitely one of the more unique looking train depots I have seen, and I am glad it found a new purpose instead of being left to decay like so other depots around the state.
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Sac Bay is in the Garden Peninsula south of Fayette in the Upper Peninsula. It is a small bay on the shores of Big Bay De Noc and a town of the same name was started in 1853. It was given a post office in 1860, but was closed after a post office was opened in Fayette. This old building stands across from an old farm where the town once stood. It looks as if it was a general store at one time and then it had a metal addition added to it. There is a little county park along the bay and it is a nice quiet place to visit if you are at Fayette.
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The Township of Eden on the west side of the state located in Mason and Lake County is mostly rural farmland. I saw this old school house surrounded by the farm fields, like it is still waiting for students to come through the door. Carved in the stone above the door is Eden Dist No.2 1892. I grew up in the big city and so did my parents and grand parents. They walked to school and growing up in the 70’s I walked to and from school on days when the weather was decent. I could not imagine the kids walking to school in the winter with the winds howling across the empty farm fields. It’s not like they had busses and cars in the 1890’s. I suppose they could hitch up the horse to the wagon. I wonder if they had remote start on the horses back then.
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The Eaton County Courthouse stands in Charlotte southwest of Lansing. Construction started on it in 1883 and took nearly two years to build. about a decade later, On July 4, 1894 fire destroyed a large portion of the courthouse but it was rebuilt to its original plans. It still stands today in Charlotte and is am amazing looking building.
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The McGulpin Point Light, a true lighthouse with a light tower and attached lighthouse keeper’s living quarters, was completed by the United States Lighthouse Board in 1869 at a cost of $20,000. The living quarters were built as a vernacular 11⁄2-story brick structure. The lighthouse operated during the Great Lakes navigation seasons from 1869 until 1906.
The design was so successful that the Lighthouse Board chose to use this 1868 design in the construction of Eagle Harbor Light in 1871; White River Light in 1875; and Sand Island Light in 1881. It is a “mirror image of the design” used at Chambers Island Light and Eagle Bluff light. The design is sometimes called “Norman Gothic” style
James Davenport was the only lighthouse keeper at this light, and served for 27 years. Correspondence files in the National Archives in Washington show that Davenport made weekly trips through the snow to the lighthouse to report on its condition to the District Inspector in Milwaukee. Perhaps more importantly, these letters also show that he may have played a critical role in the opening of navigation every spring by reporting weekly, and sometimes even more frequently, on ice conditions in the Straits. Because Davenport was the only Straits keeper to submit such frequent reports, it would appear that the Inspector used these reports to gain an understanding as to when navigation would be open throughout the lakes.
In 1906, the McGulpin Point Light was deactivated and privatized due to the Lighthouse Board’s judgment that the nearby Old Mackinac Point Light was performing an adequate job of marking the Straits of Mackinac.[9] At some point after deactivation, the lighthouse tower’s lantern room was removed, and the building passed into private ownership. The building then entered service as a private residence
In 2005 the Lighthouse was put up for sale and Emmet County purchased it, now the light is open for tours. It’s a couple miles west of Mackinaw City, I have been to the top of the tower, and I will say, it has a spectacular view of the straights and the bridge.
If you love lighthouses I hope you will take a look at my new Lighthouse book HERE
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Nestled among the trees and over a small creek is an old iron truss bridge. The sign hanging from the top beams reads: MICHIGAN BRIDGE AND PIPE CO. LANSING MICHIGAN. You can see the old bridge from M-25 near Port Austin and it was part of the old sawmill town of Port Crescent. The town started back in 1844 when Walter Hume built a hotel and trading post near the mouth of the Pinnebog River. A few sawmills sprang up in the area around the river and the town was known as Pinnebog but another town upriver had the same name. It was decided to change the name of the town to Port Crescent for the crescent shape the river made as it flowed into the Saginaw Bay.
The lumber town continued to thrive and even survived the Great Fire of 1871. Woods and Company built a large steam-powered sawmill with a brick smokestack that soared into the sky. The town had several houses and even built a large two-story schoolhouse to educated the children. By 1881 the lumberjacks had cut most of the timber, and what was still standing, was mostly destroyed by the great fire that swept through the thumb. Slowly houses and buildings were moved or dismantled and taken to the surrounding towns such as Port Austin and Bad Axe. By 1894 all the buildings were gone and very little remained of the once prosperous town. The trees were gone, but a few people realized the sand was valuable for glass making and copper smelting and began mining and shipping the sand around the Great Lakes.
By the 1930s sand mining operations have ceased and that would have been the end of the land being used for anything. After WWII and the prosperity that followed Michigan families began vacationing during the summer. The state of Michigan acquired the property along the shoreline in 1959 and established the Port Crescent State Park. Little remains of the town of Port Crescent. The old bridge is used for a hiking trail and the foundation for the sawmill chimney stands near the entrance to the campground. Next time you visit Port Crescent State Park, or drive past the sign for it on M-25, maybe you will remember the town and the hard-working lumberjacks who lived there.
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I have some Presentations planned for 2023 and I hope you are able to make it to one of them. Below is a list of dates and locations I have scheduled for this year.
OLLI Presentation at SVSU about my Upper Peninsula travels.
Wednesday, Jan. 25 from 1-2:30 There is a fee for attending this presentation. You can find out more at their website HERE
Seven Ponds Nature Center (near Lapeer)
3854 Crawford Road Dryden, Michigan 48428
Saturday February 12th 2pm. There is a $5 Admission fee for non members. The fee goes to support the Non-profit nature center you can learn more about the center on their website HERE
OLLI Presentation at SVSU Taking Photographs with a phone
Tuesday, Feb. 21 from 1-2:30 There is a fee for attending this presentation. You can find out more at their website HERE
Schoolcraft college Livonia
April 14th 2023 time TBD
Bridgeport library
3399 Williamson Rd, Saginaw, MI 48601
May 3rd from 6-7
Gary Byker Memorial Library in Hudsonville
3338 Van Buren St, Hudsonville, MI 49426
June 6th at 6:30pm.
Reynolds Township Library in Howard City
117 Williams St, Howard City, MI 49329
September 20th 6pm