This old schoolhouse sits a few miles northwest of Reed City. From what I found on the internet is that it was the Rosenberg Schoolhouse. It looks as if it ha been a long time since any students learned their three R’s in it. I wonder if that massive pine tree that stands next to it was a little sapling when the school was built. Like the schools students it is all grown up.
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It is said that when an iceberg is floating in the ocean you can only see about ten percent of it sticking out of the water. That is the case for the giant boulder that is sticking out of the ground in northern Michigan. No one knows for sure how large the “big rock” is that protrudes from the ground, but it can be seen on M-32 between Gaylord and Atlanta. At on time a lumbering community was settled around it and was given the name Big Rock for obvious reasons. Nothing remains from the old sawmill town but the rock and a couple of signs describing it.
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At one time Michigan had several lookout towers for rangers to watch the forests for fires. The Udell Lookout Tower is the only remining lookout tower still standing in the Lower Peninsula. It reaches 100 feet into the sky and was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1936. It was used until the 1960s when airplanes were used to spot forest fires. The first set of stairs has been removed and no one is allowed to climb the tower but it is nifty to look up at it and wonder what it must have been like to sit up there all day looking for signs of smoke. You can get to the tower from M-55 down Fire Tower Rd.
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This old fieldstone building stands in the small town of Elwell west of Alma. Built by Dr. Charles H. MacLachlan it was known as the MacLachlan Sanitarium. Dr. MacLachlan was born in Canada and studied in Cincinnati and came to Elwell in the 1880s. He was an early proponent of “physiological therapeutics,” a treatment of chronic diseases without the use of medication. He built a small wooden building to treat patients in 1883 and about two decades later in 1908 he added the two story fieldstone building.
The MacLachlan Sanitarium in 1912
Dr. MacLachlan treated chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, rheumatism, and nerve and skin diseases. The building was also used as a local hospital. After the doctor’s death in 1920 the Sanitorium Closed. After that, it was used as a boardinghouse, bar, restaurant, dancehall, and private residence. I am not sure what it is used for today but it still stands as a reminder of one doctor’s compassion to treat patients in a rural community. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1981 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
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A while back I took a photo of this old building in Pequaming in the Upper Peninsula. I thought it might have been a general store, but I was mistaken. While doing research for my recent Lost In Michigan Ghost Town book, I came across a photo titled Pequaming Odd Fellow Hall.
I recognized the building Instantly, The front porch has changed but the arched front window on the front and the windows on the side matched the building that still stands today. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political, non-sectarian international fraternal order like the Masons. At one time the town of Peqauming was owned by Ford and had several employees to operate the sawmill located there. The hall must have been a popular place to hang out and socialize in. Today it sits empty and is a reminder of a time when automobile bodies were made of wood.
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A few miles east of the town of Free Soil is a large building surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire. The words CAMP SAUBLE are above the front door. It was part of the Michigan state prison system and was a camp for troubled youth. It was constructed in 1960 and closed in 2005. It is currently being used as a haunted attraction in the fall.
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Michigan in early springtime can be rather gray and gloomy with brown grass and bare trees. I needed to get away so I headed to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. No not the one in France but the one in Michigan a few miles north of Big Rapids. John Parish arrived in the area in the 1850s and platted the village in 1865. It was at first named “Parish” after him, but the name later became Paris.
The County park in Paris was the site of the second fish hatchery in the state of Michigan. The Paris Fish Hatchery opened in 1881, and from 1913 to 1938, salmon and brown trout fingerlings were shipped in trains in milk cans painted a distinctive red color. The hatchery operated until 1964. in 1972 it was acquired by the Mecosta County Park Commission and the land converted into a park. In 1980, Using old bed frames stored in one of the buildings, welding students from the Mecosta-Osceola Career Center in Big Rapids built the 20-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.
If you want to get away to see the Eiffel Tower and you can’t afford to travel to France, be sure to check out the replica in Paris, Michigan.
P.S. behind the tower is a trout pond. It was closed when I was there, but I will have to go back when it is open and the grass is green.
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Several school children learned about the universe from the planetariums made by the Trippensee Planetarium Company in Saginaw, Michigan
Alexander Laing patented a solar system model in 1897 to show how the earth revolves around the sun and tilts on its axis for the change of seasons. Laing built the planetariums on Grand River Ave. in Detroit. In 1905, the three Trippensee brothers purchased Laing’s company and continued production of the Laing Planetarium. After making improvements to the original design replacing the strings and pulleys with chains and gears the brothers began producing the planetarium as the Trippensee Planetarium. In the late 20s or early 30s the company moved to Saginaw and continued to prosper eventually moving into the building at 301 Cass Street.
Over the years the company continued to improve on the design of the planetarium, producing one with an electric lamp in the sun and a motorized base to move the arm. They also made milky way models, celestial globes and acrylic globes of the earth. It was not uncommon the find a Trippensee planetarium at a school where it was used to teach children how the moon passed in front of the sun to create a solar eclipse.
The company was purchased by Science First in 1999 and they moved production to Buffalo New York. With today’s computers, I would imagine most teachers play a youtube video to show how the solar system works, but for many generations of children, myself included, I learned how the universe works with a Trippensee Planetarium.
P.S.I worked at the Trippensee Planetarium Company in the early 90’s shortly after graduating from high school. I did drafting in the corner office on the third floor while I was going to collage at Delta College.
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The small town of Vickeryville is located in the central Lower Peninsula west of Carson City. It was plated in 1857 by John Vickery in Bloomer Township. The town was originally called West Bloomer but its name was changed to Vickeryville. The little town thrived at the turn of the century, ( yes I mean the early 1900s) but over time the little town declined. By 1953 the post office closed and not much remains of the little town today. A few houses and some old buildings. The most prominent building is the old grain elevator. It still has a faded sign that reads: CENTRAL BEAN AND GRAIN.
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