The Our Lady of the Woods Shrine at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Mio was constructed by Rev. Hubert Rakowski between 1953 and 1955 with the support of the local community. The sacred place has statues of four apparitions of Mary, They are the Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, and LaSalette.

The mountainous structure made of stone includes several grottos and niches. The grounds are open year round and the landscaping in the summer is breathtaking. The shrine welcomes visitors of all faiths and if you are ever in the area I highly recommend stopping to see this beautiful place in northern Michigan.

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A few years ago I was out roaming Mid-Michigan looking at and photographing Christmas lights, at the time I had never been to Corunna, but when I saw this old village illuminated at night, I had to stop and take a pic. It was not that late at night, but it was eerily vacant and peaceful and also extremely cold that night, I froze my butt off taking this pic that silent night in Corunna. But it was worth it.

The church in the center of the village is the Christ Evangelical German Lutheran Church that was located in Brady Township in Saginaw County. It was built in 1888 and was moved to the village in 1991.

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The Kirk In The Hills stands near Island Lake in Bloomfield Township. Colonel Edwin S. George, a Detroit businessman whose gift of his home and estate in 1947 made the Kirk possible.  The cornerstone for the church was laid in 1951, the same year Colonel George died. His remains are entombed under the narthex of the Kirk’s sanctuary. The architectural firm of George D. Mason completed the church based on preliminary designs by Wirt Rowland. George Mason designed several of Michigan’s iconic buildings including the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. The Kirk in the Hills is modeled after Scotland’s Melrose Abbey. It was almost a decade before services could be held in the church. During construction a fire destroyed the roof and delayed completion of the church. The first service was held in November of 1958.

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I love the look of this former church in Ovid with its decorative woodwork and its unique one of a kind steeple. It is also amazing that they moved this church to its current location from a different part of town. It is surprising the facts you can learn from historical markers like the one that stands next to this church and reads:

On February 13, 1871, twenty-two persons began Ovid’s First Congregational Church. The next year this structure was erected. George Fox served as master carpenter. Its first minister was the Reverend William Mulder. Originally located at High and Park Street, the church was pulled here by oxen in 1899 and turned to face Main Street. It was enlarged for a growing congregation, which came to be “one of the most powerful social forces in the county.”In 1943, Ovid’s Congregational and Methodist societies merged, using both their buildings until 1972. In 1979, the church became a private residence. This Ovid landmark, whose octagonal belfry tower holds a melodious 1876 bell, is listed on the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Register of Historic Places.

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North of Adrian along M-52 is a single story white building. Known as the Raisin Valley Friends Meetinghouse it is the second oldest continuously operating church building in the state of Michigan. Quakers from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania settled in southeastern Michigan in the early nineteenth century. The Quaker missionary evolved into the Raisin Valley Friends and they initially worshipped in a log cabin located near the present church property. In 1834 settler David Baker made a six-acre parcel available, and the congregation raised $800 to build this church, which opened in 1835. Over the years some additions have been added to the church and continues to house the Raisin Valley Friends Church. A Michigan historical marker stands nearby noting its significance to the state’s history.

P.S. The oldest continuously operating church is the Mission Church on Mackinac Island.

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This old church stands in the small town of Elm Hall west of Alma. I am not sure what its story is, but I think it’s a beautiful old wooden church.

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts. I do my best to post photos and stories of places that are interesting.

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 “The Man on the Cross” by the renowned Michigan sculptor Marshall Fredericks. It is made of bronze 3/8″ to 1/2″ thick. It weighs seven tons, is twenty-eight feet tall from head to toe, and the outstretched arms span twenty-one feet. The figure of Christ is attached by thirteen bolts 30″ long and 2″ thick that were made when the figure was cast in Norway.

Fredericks wanted to portray Christ in a peaceful way. It was his dream to “give the face an expression of great peace and strength and offer encouragement to everyone who viewed the Cross”. Christ is symbolized just at the moment when He commends Himself to His Father. The sculptor received special permission from the Vatican to omit the crown of thorns and the wound on Jesus’ side.

Fredericks was commissioned to sculpt a 6-foot-tall crucifix, but instead designed this 28-foot, full-scale model, for a bronze to be placed at the Indian River Catholic Shrine in Indian River, Michigan. The bronze Corpus is mounted on a 55-foot-tall redwood cross. When erected in 1959, it was believed to be the largest crucifix in the world. Since then, a 65-foot crucifix was erected in the cemetery of St. Thomas Catholic Church near Bardstown, Kentucky however the Corpus on this work is only 14 feet in height.

The Indian River figure required only three years to complete, however the plaster model on which it was based required seven-years of restoration before being put on permanent display at the Fredericks Sculpture Museum at Saginaw Valley State University. It suffered from neglect during the two-decades it was in storage at the foundry in Scandinavia after the bronze was cast. In his depiction, Fredericks chose not to depict the pain and suffering of Jesus and omitted the crown of thorns and the wound in the figure’s side. Instead, he shows the powerful body of Jesus at peace in the moment after death.

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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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