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
This brick building stands in Downtown Belleville east of Ypsilanti. Van Buren Township was organized out of Huron Township by an act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan in 1835. Township business was conducted from homes until this building was completed in 1875. The original plans called for a one-story structure; however,
This old schoolhouse sits a few miles northwest of Reed City. From what I found on the internet is that it was the Rosenberg Schoolhouse. It looks as if it ha been a long time since any students learned their three R’s in it. I wonder if that massive pine tree that stands next to
It is said that when an iceberg is floating in the ocean you can only see about ten percent of it sticking out of the water. That is the case for the giant boulder that is sticking out of the ground in northern Michigan. No one knows for sure how large the “big rock” is
At one time Michigan had several lookout towers for rangers to watch the forests for fires. The Udell Lookout Tower is the only remining lookout tower still standing in the Lower Peninsula. It reaches 100 feet into the sky and was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1936. It was used until the
This old fieldstone building stands in the small town of Elwell west of Alma. Built by Dr. Charles H. MacLachlan it was known as the MacLachlan Sanitarium. Dr. MacLachlan was born in Canada and studied in Cincinnati and came to Elwell in the 1880s. He was an early proponent of “physiological therapeutics,” a treatment of
A while back I took a photo of this old building in Pequaming in the Upper Peninsula. I thought it might have been a general store, but I was mistaken. While doing research for my recent Lost In Michigan Ghost Town book, I came across a photo titled Pequaming Odd Fellow Hall. I recognized the
A few miles east of the town of Free Soil is a large building surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire. The words CAMP SAUBLE are above the front door. It was part of the Michigan state prison system and was a camp for troubled youth. It was constructed in 1960 and closed in
Michigan in early springtime can be rather gray and gloomy with brown grass and bare trees. I needed to get away so I headed to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower. No not the one in France but the one in Michigan a few miles north of Big Rapids. John Parish arrived in the area
Trippensee planetarium model made in Saginaw Several school children learned about the universe from the planetariums made by the Trippensee Planetarium Company in Saginaw, Michigan early 1900s Lang planetarium made in Detroit Alexander Laing patented a solar system model in 1897 to show how the earth revolves around the sun and tilts on its axis
