If you have ever been to the Traverse City area you have probably driven through the M-37 and US-31 intersection.  It is a busy intersection with a lot of traffic and businesses. Fast food restaurants, a Rite Aid, and Walgreens ( where there is one you will find the other) and Menards along with a gas station. I never stopped to take any pics since most places are rather common and ordinary.

The thing that is not ordinary is the name. On Google maps, it is called Chum’s Corner. The question of who is Chum and why was the corner named after him or her stuck in my brain.  I came across this old photo showing Chum’s Service station. The writing on the photo reads “Ask Chum- He might know” I wish I could because I am sure he could tell some stories of travelers back in the day. The station is gone but the corner is still named after him. So I guess if you are wondering about Chum and his corner like I was. As Paul Harvey would say ” now you know the rest of the story” or at least some of it.

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This big old three story brick house was built in 1884. It served as the county’s poorhouse for almost a century. It stands west of Paw Paw on the Red Arrow Highway. Able-bodied destitute people worked in the fields growing food for the residents. They also cared for the mentally and physically disabled people who lived in the house. The farmland is now part of the county fairgrounds and the house is used as a museum ran by the county historical society.

Poorhouse records show 36 people were buried in a nearby cemetery but with the graves being unmarked the old “potter’s field” cemetery has not been located.

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Northern Michigan Asylum was established in 1881 as a psychiatric hospital near downtown Traverse City. As treatments and care changed for patients over the decades the hospital was outdated and closed in 1989.  Many of the buildings have been renovated and repurposed into office spaces and retail shopping and dining. The complex is now called The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. A few of the old asylum buildings are still waiting to be renovated like the one in the photo. If you are ever in Traverse City be sure to check out the shops in building Building 50.  You can see more at their website HERE

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Few people visit this old forgotten boathouse with a link to our maritime past. Northeast of Munising past the Munising Falls visitors center is the former Sand Point Lifesaving Station. It is now used as offices and living space for the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I think a lot of visitors head out that way and just figure they are only buildings used by the rangers.

The boathouse used by the Lifesaving Service has been somewhat restored and houses an old lifesaving boat and equipment used by the men who were stationed there. When I visited the doors were open and people were welcomed to tour the inside and read the signs explaining all the items contained within.

It is a great little place to visit especially if it is late in the evening. You can get a good view of the sun setting. Across the water is Grand Island and you can get a view of the East Channel Lighthouse.

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North of Alpena on the east side of Grand Lake is the small town of Presque Isle. If you have ever traveled through the town you may have seen this log cabin that sit’s near the road. It has an interesting story to tell on the historical marker that stands next to it.

In 1858, German immigrant John C. Kauffman (1833-1913) left Buffalo bound for Chicago aboard a ship that later ran near Bell Bay. John walked ashore and made his way to Burnham’s Landing at Presque Isle Harbor, where he found work cutting firewood for lake steamships. In 1861, John married Elizabeth Woodruff. During the Civil War, he served in the 13th Independent Battery, Michigan Light Artillery. His unit was with the 13th New York Cavalry during the search for President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. It helped capture one of Booth’s accomplices. Kauffman returned to Presque Isle after the war. There he served as township supervisor. He was postmaster for the last fifteen years of his life.

John and Elizabeth Kauffman applied for a 149-acre homestead in Presque Isle Township in 1862. He built a log cabin near Grand Lake, but drifting snow off the Lake forced him to move it in 1876. John marked each log to make reassembly easier. Using a team of oxen, he and his family skidded the hand-hewn logs up the hill to this site and rebuilt the cabin. Nearby Grand Lake made the cabin a popular tourist stop in the summer. Visitors remembered John sitting on the porch in his military uniform every Fourth of July, telling stories of his service. After John died, his family loaned, then deeded, the cabin to the Grand Lake Association. The building has served as a community center, recreation facility and gift shop.

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