The Steiner Pioneer and Logging Museum sits along M-33 north of Fairview in the northeast Lower Peninsula. The Old North Fairview School sits on the museum’s property to remind people of a time when kids went to one room schoolhouses. The log school was built in 1895 and it was moved to the museum to save it for future generations to learn about the area’s history.
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The Niagara passing under the old I-75 drawbridge and the new Zilwaukee bridge in the background under construction.
Before the Zilwaukee bridge was opened to traffic in December of 1987 a draw bridge was built over the Saginaw River for I-75. It opened daily for the Niagara nicknamed “The Sandsucker” It sucked sand off the bottom of Lake Huron for the General Motors Iron Foundry and traveled to Saginaw nearly every day. When the draw bridge opened for ships, traffic would be backed up for miles, especially on a holiday weekend. It took nine years to build the current Zilwaukee Bridge. The ironic thing is by the time the bridge was finished, the foundry no longer used the Niagara to get sand and ships occasionally came that far up into the river.
I grew up in the shadow of the bridge in the the township of Carrollton. I still remember the traffic backups as a kid and my dad traveling through downtowns Saginaw to avoid the highway. I still live close to the Z-bridge, but I rarely travel over it because of where my house is located off I-675. I could not even imagine what traffic would be like if the old draw bridge was there today and opened on a holiday weekend.
P.S. An interesting thing to note is how Zilwaukee got its name. In 1854 Zilwaukee Township was formed and as the story goes the village was named Zilwaukee with the hopes it would confuse immigrants coming into New York thinking they are going to Milwaukee Wisconsin.
If you love reading about strange Michigan history or exploring the Great Lakes State, I hope you will take a look at Lost In Michigan books. They make for a great Father’s Day gift. I just released my Lost In Michigan’s Ghost Town book available on Amazon HERE
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Ogemaw Springs sits next to the railroad tracks northwest of West Branch. It was the main source of water for the town that is named after it. The spring was also used as a source of water for the steam trains that were used during the lumbering era of the late 1800s. In 1875 Ogemaw Springs nearly became the county seat, losing to West Branch by only one vote. In the 1890s the depletion of timber in the area led to the town’s decline. Only a few houses and a cemetery remain in the once booming town. It is a neat place to stop and look into the clear waters of the spring. Its not as big as Kitch iti kipi in the Upper Peninsula but it is still neat.
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I saw this old general store in the small town of Oak Grove. It’s located north of Howell on an old mill pond. The town was originally called Chemungville. When the post office was established in 1859 the name was changed to Oak Grove. A few houses and buildings still stand in the small town. It looks as if the old general store closed a while back. The faded sign above the windows reads: Pearce’s General Store 1876.
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Island Park is located near downtown Mt. Pleasant where the Chippewa River flows around it. At the north end of the park is the Michigan Vietnam Vets Memorial and it honors those who served from Michigan. There is 16 plaques featuring 2705 of Michigan’s casualties, MIA’s, and POW’s.
The memorial was officially dedicated as a State Memorial on July 15, 1990. After the addition of the bronze “War Cry” statue in 1994 it was rededicated. The statue is a reminder of not only of physical wounds of the troops but the mental challenges that they endure. It is a beautiful and moving statue and memorial and if you are traveling trough central Michigan it is a nice place to visit and remember the cost of freedom.
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The VA hospital in Saginaw is the only one in the Unites States of America named in honor of a woman, and that would be the Aleda E. Lutz V.A. Medical Center. Born in 1915 in Freeland. a graduate of the Saginaw General Nursing School, she enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) in November 1941, and was one of the most celebrated flight nurses of World War II, 1st Lt. Aleda E. Lutz flew 196 missions and evacuated over 3,500 men. In November 1944. She came into many combat zones while evacuating wounded troops. While overseas, she was active in European, African, and Italian battlefields. Several times she helped to evacuate wounded soldiers from the Anzio Beachhead, which was under fire from the German Army.
During an evacuation flight from the front lines near Lyons, Italy, her C-47 crashed killing all aboard, and she was buried with full military honors in an American Cemetery in France. Lt Lutz was the first American woman who died in action during World War II. Lieutenant Lutz had five battle stars: Tunisia, Sicily, South Italy, Central Italy, and South France. She was Awarded the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, she posthumously received the Distinguished Flying Cross the second woman to receive the decoration after Amelia Earhart.
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In the woods northwest of Oscoda is the Indian Mission Cemetery south of Mikado. Rows of white wooden crosses stand in the cemetery and most have the word “unknown” carved into them. I large black stone monument list the names of the known veterans and the war that they served in. At the top is the name John Michigan who served in the Civil War. It also states his grave is across from the church.
About a mile away is the Oscoda Indian Mission and across from it is a cemetery with a log fence and a solitary American flag standing next to a crudely carved headstone.
I can make out the date “died 1874” but the name is difficult to read. According to Find-A-Grave it is John “Keshechp” Michigan. Other than that I could not find out any more of his story. I am thinking he was Native American and his name was difficult to pronounce so he was just known as John from Michigan and it was shortened to John Michigan. But it is just a theory of mine with no real proof. One thing I know is that his grave stands silently across from the church and he deserves to be remembered for his service to the country.
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The North Shore Boat Launch is located north of downtown Escanaba. Next to it is an old Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad facility. A line of old locomotives sit on tracks next to the boat launch parking lot.
The facility is not accessible to the public but you can see all of the old locomotives behind the fence. If you love trains it a nifty place to check out and look at the old trains that are past their prime.
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I saw this old house standing on a hill in farm country near Cadillac. I don’t know what its story is, but it looks as if it has seen better days.
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I saw this old house in Idlewild. It looks to have seen better days. Idlewild is a strange place to drive through. It was once a vibrant and bustling resort community for African Americans in the days of segregation. Today a few people still live there but there are several empty and abandoned homes.
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