Named for Samuel Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury under Andrew Jackson, Ingham County was organized in 1838. In 1840 Mason became the county seat. The town’s wide public square had been designed as the county’s political and business center. The first county offices were on the sides of the square until 1858, when a courthouse
I was watching Diners Drive Inns and Dives with Guy Fieri, and Bob Ritchie took him to the Clarkston Union Bar and Kitchen. The food was really good, well actually better than good, it was “off the hook” as Guy would say, but the remarkable thing about the Clarkston Union, is the fact that it’s
When Bay City’s sawmills opened in 1885, mill owners notified workers that wages would be 12 to 25 percent lower than in 1884. On July 6, 1885, Bay City millhands began to walk off the job. Their slogan, “Ten Hours or No Sawdust,” represented the demand for a ten-hour day, higher wages, and semimonthly
The Superintendent’s Cottage, completed in 1890, is the oldest building on the campus of the Michigan School for the Deaf. With the exception of the masonry work, the cottage was built almost entirely by male students. In addition, students made the furniture for the house in the school’s shops. The building reflects the craftsmanship
The old train station in Calumet looks rather sad and lonely, even the tracks are gone. It’s like a lighthouse with no shoreline to protect. After it was built in 1908, by the Mineral Range Railroad, I imagine many passengers and minors, ( not children, but they guys working in the copper mines, which you probably
I got a call last week from Andrew at the Tuscola County Advertiser after seeing my photos of the old North Grove School that sits empty between Caro and Mayville. He was writing a story about it, and wanted to know what I knew about the school, and why I took a photo of it. Sadly, I did
I was roaming around Detroit getting pics of old fire houses when I came upon the Faygo Bottling Plant on Gratiot Ave. I took a pic of it with no intention of ever posting it but I figure since Labor Day is coming up why not post a pic of a plant in Detroit that’s
Traveling the back roads near Holly, I found this old farmhouse. It has watched that pine tree grow up over the years, and now the pine trees is still standing there, watching over the old house. Like most of the old houses I photograph, I don’t know anything about it, but I had to stop
The United States Lighthouse Service approved construction of the Sand Point Lighthouse in Escanaba at a cost of $11,000. Construction began in the fall of 1867, and was completed in early spring 1868. John Terry was appointed the first lighthouse keeper of the new lighthouse in December 1867, but he became very ill and died
Most people would assume the difficulty in traveling around the state would be the road construction and orange barrels. Although that is an issue, that’s not to much of a problem for me since I like to travel the back roads that don’t get a lot of traffic, and the gravel ones get repaved with
