What seems like the middle of nowhere near the southern border of Michigan is an ornate Queen Ann mansion.  Ezra A. Beardsley was born in Monroe, Connecticut in 1839. He manufactured hats in Younkers New York.  In 1870, he moved to Michigan and purchased 650 acres of land North of Bronson. In 1874 he was married to Florence A. Holmes.  In 1887 he built the 15 room mansion where his wife and their two children raised race horses. Ezra died in 1916 and Florence in 1924. Their two children who never married lived in the house until their deaths in the 1960s. The house sold and over the years became weathered and dilapidated by the harsh Michigan weather. Some say the old home was haunted by the spirits of the Beardsley family. In 2010 retired physician began restoring the old Beardsley house and five years later after countless hours of work the restored home was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house is part of Ancestral Acres Lodge and rented out of social events and wedding receptions. You can see more photos of the house before and after the restoration at their website HERE. 

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Taking the ferry over to the island it travels past the west bluff. You can see the magnificent houses looking over the straights next to the Grand Hotel. It’s a little bit of a walk around the back of the hotel but it’s worth it to see these magnificent looking homes. I especially like Edgecliff Cottage, you can read my post about it HERE The yellow house next to it is Cairngorm a gorgeous Victorian Cottage which was built in 1888. By the way, it’s for sale for only 5.8 million.  To see more of the house click Here 

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Scattered around downtown Charlevoix are unique looking houses that look as if they belong in the Shire of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books than in Northern Michigan. They were constructed by self-taught builder Earl Young. He used locally sourced building materials such as stone and wood and include design elements such as wide, wavy eaves and exposed rafter tails. He built his first house in 1919 and over 50 years he built about 25 houses around Charlevoix. The houses are privately owned and not open to tourists, but driving around town you can see some of the whimsical looking homes.  You can find a map and more info about these houses HERE

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Issac Cappon was born in 1830 in the Netherlands and came to the United States when he was 17 years old. he came to Michigan’s Holland Colony in 1848. Here he worked as a laborer in a local tannery. With his experience working in the tannery, he was the founding partner in the Cappon & Bertsch Leather Co. which was founded in  1857. When Holland incorporated in 1867, Cappon became its first mayor.

After the devastating fire that destroyed Holland in 1870, he began construction of his Italianate style house which was completed in 1874. It remained in the Cappon family until the death of Isaac’s daughter Lavina in 1978. After Lavina’s death, the home was willed to the city of Holland and is now used as a museum.

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I would never imagine that I would see this house on a television show when I saw it last year. I liked the yellow and green paint scheme with the wrought iron fence along the sidewalk so I snapped a few pics of it. It is on the opposite street corner from the Hackly House which grandeur and size overshadow this old house.  If you are not familiar with the Hackley house you can see my post about it HERE.  When I was watching The Curse Of The Civil War Gold  I was surprised to see this old house on the show. They believe a tunnel ran from this house to the Hackley house next to it. I am not sure I believe the story of the gold being dumped into Lake Michigan from a train ferry, but I do enjoy watching it and seeing the locations around Michigan they explore.

P.S. I do wonder if the legend of the treasure chests near Poverty Island could be started from the gold that Hackley supposedly took from Jefferson Davis. You can read my post about that HERE

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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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