A few blocks northeast of the Flint Truck and Bus assembly plant is a small park with a memorial to the Sit Down Strike. On December 30th, 1936 the workers at General Motor’s Fisher Body Plant stopped production and barricaded themselves inside the plant. They learned the company was going to move the dies that stamp out most of the body parts for GM’s cars. Rather than picketing outside, they occupied the plant so GM could not move the stamping dies or bring in scab workers to break the union strike. Without the body parts, most of General Motor’s production came to a halt.  Governor Murphy sent in the Michigan National Guard, not to help one side or the other, but to keep the peace. After 44 days the United Auto Workers of America and GM came to an agreement and production resumed.

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The Small town of Lovells sits along the North Branch of the AuSable River between Grayling and Lewiston. A stones throw away, or more like a fishing cast away, from the river is a brown lodge with yellow trim. The historic building was originally built by Thomas E. Douglas and named the Douglas House. He constructed a sawmill and general store in the logging community of Lovells around 1898. He erected a new store in 1903 after fire destroyed the first one, and in 1916 he built a hotel addition named the Douglas House. Electricity generated in his mill illuminated the twenty guest rooms and lavish common spaces. From the beginning, the hotel headquartered the North Branch Outing Club, a popular sportsmen’s club, which drew members like Henry and Edsel Ford, John and Horace Dodge, and Charles Nash. Douglas’s daughter, Margaret, ran the hotel until 1971. She continued to live in the Douglas House until 1991.

In 1996 the property reopened as a bed and breakfast, continuing to provide lodging to hunting and fishing enthusiasts. In 2001 the Douglas House was designated a state historic site by the state of Michigan, and In 2002 it was listed is on the national register of Historic Places. The North Branch Outing Club still offers world class fly fishing guides.

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Lumberman Newell A. Eddy, Sr.and his wife Marianna purchased the land around where the Lodge sits for their personal recreational use. The land was purchased in several transactions from 1908 to 1913. With the Construction of US-23 tourists began visiting the area. The Eddy’s son, Newell A. Eddy Jr. who also vacationed at the property constructed a lodge in 1920. Eddy also built the knotty pine furniture within the Lodge, with the help of area craftsmen. After the opening of the Lodge, Eddy established the “Habitant Shops of Presque Isle Lodge,” which constructed similar furniture for guests. The shop first operated from the Presque Isle Lodge property, but by 1922 had moved to Bay City.

Newell A. Eddy Jr. died in 1940 and his family sold the Lodge in 1944. The lodge, placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. It is an example of rustic architecture popular in Michigan in the first half of the twentieth century. During this time Michigans lumber industry became a leading manufacturer of rustic-styled, board-and-batten siding, and rough-hewn logs. The historic lodge still operates to this day.

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