Mike Sonnenberg, Author at Lost In Michigan

A Light In The Storm

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses .

For those of us who have lived in Michigan a long time we know not to rely too much on the weather forecast, especially if they say it is gonna be nice a sunny tomorrow. Inevitably tomorrow gets here and the weather is less than ideal. When I am up north and it’s cold and raining I like to go ” into town ” and on this particular day I took a trip to Charlevoix. The light at the end of the pier is probably not the most ascetically pleasing of lights on the Great Lakes, but I imagine to the sailors caught in a storm, seeing the beacon shining on a gloomy day was a welcomed sight. I take a lot of photos of lighthouses, and my favorites are pics on stormy days. I figure that is the purpose of a lighthouse, and it’s the friends that stick around on those not so perfect days that you can rely on.

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I’m Back, I Hope

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Uncategorized .

I have been in the process of moving my website to a different server. I think I have everything up and running again. It was a long and nerve-wracking process but hopefully, It’s over and I can get back to posting on a regular basis.

This is my first post on the new server and if you got your email then it’s working. Thank you all for subscribing and I hope you enjoy getting your email. I do my best to post random stuff from around Michigan that I think you will find interesting.

If you are wondering about the pic in this post it is an old barn near Lupton. It has nothing to do with the post, I just liked the photo.

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The Other Sister

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ships and Boats .

Most people are familiar with the S.S. Badger car ferry that traverses Lake Michigan from Ludington to Wisconsin. few know that she has a twin sister the S.S. Spartan that is tied up in Ludington near where the Badger loads and unloads vehicles in Ludington. It was built in 1950 along with its sister ship. C&O Railroad that owned the ferries usually named them after cities such as The City of Milwaukee but they decided that fewer feelings would be hurt if the twin ferries were named Spartan and Badger, after the mascots of Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin.

by the late 1970s ferry service was declining and C&O was going to lease the Spartan to the Ann Arbor Railroad to sail out of Frankfort but the harbor was too shallow for the large ship. Since 1980 she has been tied up to the slip in Ludington and used for parts to keep the old steam-powered Badger running.

If you are in Ludington and the badger is sailing across Lake Michigan you can always see her twin who is faithfully waiting for her sister to return.

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Eaton County Courthouse

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in courthouses, Michigan Historical Markers .

The Eaton County Courthouse Square is a rare Michigan example of an intact nineteenth-century government complex. The showplace of the square, the stately Renaissance Revival courthouse built in 1883-85, was designed by D.W. Gibbs & Company of Toledo, Ohio. The interior features several marbleized slate fireplaces, stained glass and native butternut trim. A cast zinc statue of Justice crowns the building and towers above the city. On July 4, 1894, fire destroyed much of the courthouse. The structure was rebuilt almost exactly to the original plans. The 1873 Second Empire sheriff’s residence, built with an attached jail, is one of only a few of its age remaining in the state. The courthouse square is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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Earhart Manor

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses .

Oil tycoon Harry Boyd Earhart and his wife Carrie built this mansion near Ann Arbor. The house was completed in 1936 and featured Pewabic tile created for the Earharts by Marry Chase Perry Stratton. The Lutheran Church ~ Missouri Synod purchased 234 acres of the Harry and Carrie Earhart estate in 1961 to construct the campus of Concordia College. The four-year liberal arts college opened in 1963. The manor initially served as a student activity center and housed faculty offices Although. Much of the original house remains intact, including decorative plaster, hardware, crystal chandeliers, and the Pewabic tile elements: two “medieval” family crests, a metallic-glazed tile fountain, and the master bathroom.

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Muskegon Women’s Club

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers .

The Muskegon Woman’s Club was founded in 1890, and dedicated to the intellectual “improvement and development” of women. The Chicago firm of Weir and Perry designed this neo classical structure, built in 1902 with funds donated by Minnie Smith, the widow of Muskegon attorney Francis Smith. The club lobbied the city to hire the first police woman, held performances and worked with charitable groups such as the Red Cross and the Council of National Defense.

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The Ghost Town of Porter Michigan

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

I like traveling down roads that run next to a river, and while I was traveling along next to the Pine River in southern Midland county I came across what looks like an old service station. When I checked on Google maps, it had the name of Porter at that location which is the name of the township in Midland County, and according to records, there was a post office located somewhere near this old gas station. Maybe this was the post office at one time, but I am not positive about that. In 1869 Lewis K. Brewer became the first postmaster after holding an election at his home to form the township. The post office operated for almost 40 years until it closed in 1907. I guess the old farm implements and gas pump tells part of the story and the rest of the story remains lost in time.

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Rolling Uphill in Michigan

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Haunted Places .

Michigan has a road where you can defy gravity and your car will roll uphill. Known as “Gravity Hills” they are hills where gravity seems to work in reverse. Near the town of Rose City, there is a road where you can stop and put your car in neutral, and you will swear you are rolling uphill. I had to check out the gravity hill on Reasner Road northeast of Rose City. I was not sure what part of the road the hill was on until I came near the end of the road, and saw a sign that said ” Do Not Stop, Do Not Go Backwards” well they put up a sign telling someone not to do it, I could not resist the temptation of going to jail just to try out the gravity hill. I figure the deer on the side of the road would not mind either, so I put the jeep in neutral, and it sure felt like I was going uphill. Now I know gravity does not work backward, and its more of an optical illusion, but it sure seemed like I broke Issac Newtons Laws.

I can’t tell you to do it, because you are probably breaking some sort of motor vehicle law, but I thought I would share my experience with you, I hope there is wifi in jail if they come to arrest me so I can keep posting more pics.

P.S. If you do attempt to defy gravity. I recommend you turn your car around so you are at the bottom of the hill and then put it in neutral so you are rolling forward.

If you want to know more about this place and other strange places around the Mitten State take a look at the Lost In Michigan books ON SALE at Amazon by clicking HERE

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The Old Engine 4 Firehouse in Detroit

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Fire Houses .

I had already taken pics of the oldest church in Michigan (Ste Anne De Detroit, you can see my pic HERE) on a previous trip to Detroit and did not plan on taking more but when I was in the neighborhood I saw the twin steeples of the church looking out over the trees and the houses and decided since I was near there why not get a few more pics. I headed over there from a different direction than last time, and that is when I saw the old firehouse sitting near the church, as if the tall steeples were watching over it, and protecting it all these years. The numbers 1897 displayed between the doors gave away the year it was built but I found out the DFD stopped using the old firehouse in 1976. It’s still standing with its magnificent brickwork like you will never see on a new building. Looking at it, I can only imagine the firefighters going from a horse-drawn apparatus, to an early primitive motorized firetruck, and then on to a post WWII truck with the fireman riding on the back, but the station was passed by in the 70’s before it could get a new modern fire truck.

P.S. thank you to all the firefighters who answer the call for help, It takes a special kind of person to run into a burning building.

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The Museum Church

Posted on June 23, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches .

I see many old churches, especially in a town where the population has declined, for sale or abandoned by their congregation. It is nice to see one repurposed and saved from the wrecking ball like this church that now serves as the Elk Rapids History Museum. The historical marker in front of it reads:

In the late 1850s traveling pastors began to conduct Methodist services in Elk Rapids and nearby communities. First Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in the early 1870s. Services were held in a former school and then a former courthouse. The Rev. John W. Hart, who became pastor in 1899, decided the church needed a permanent building. In 1901 the congregation purchased architectural plans created by Benjamin D. Price and his son Max C. Price, Philadelphia architects who contracted with the Methodist Episcopal Board of Church Extensions to design a variety of plans for small, rural churches. These plans were made available to congregations nationwide through mail order catalogues. The church purchased the land for its new building in August 1901

Construction on this auditorium-type church began on October 29, 1901, with a cornerstone-laying service. Locally made yellow brick forms the walls. The Kinsella Glass Company of Chicago produced eight of the 13 Gothic stained-glass windows, which also served as memorials to early church members. The total cost of the building and lot was $8,250. On August 10, 1902, the Reverend William Dawe of Detroit dedicated the church building. In 1971 the church was renamed First United Methodist Church, a name it bored until it closed in 2011. The building was then donated to the Elk Rapids Area Historical Society, which converted it into its headquarters and a history museum. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

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