I took a recent trip through Escanaba and looked for an old friend. For years the old Chicago fireboat the Joseph Medill sat on land near downtown. I liked it so much it is on the cover of volume 2 of my book series. Sadly it was cut up for scrap a few years ago.
O.K., I wasn’t really lost in Silverwood, that would be hard to do since there are only a few streets in the town. The town sits in the Thumb between Mayville and Marlette. I found this building that looks like and old school house or a church, or probably both. There is an old store
I am not sure why but I like water towers, especially the old ones. Almost every town has one, and they usually have the name of the town painted on them. that must be an interesting job to pain water towers, but I digress. I really like this old tower in Elsie. The name of
I saw this old building near Ashland. I think it was a schoolhouse at one time. It looks as if a meteorite struck it like the truck in Men In Black. Most likely it was the unforgiving Michigan snow that has broken the back of this old structure. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one
The Our Lady of the Woods Shrine at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Mio was constructed by Rev. Hubert Rakowski between 1953 and 1955 with the support of the local community. The sacred place has statues of four apparitions of Mary, They are the Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, and LaSalette. The mountainous structure made of stone includes
Before Michigan became the automobile capitol of the world, creating wealthy men like Henry Ford and the Dodge Brothers, timber brought vast wealth to many lumber barons. Among them, David Whitney Jr. was one of the most affluent. Already successful in the lumbering business in Massachusetts, he moved to Detroit in 1857 when he was
This old concrete building stands next to the railroad tracks in Palms. I am not sure what it was orginally used for but it looks as if it has been a long time since it was utilized. You could possibly call Palms a ghost town but a few people still live in the small
If you have ever visited Silver Lake State Park you have probably driven through the small town of Mears. You may have seen the life size bronze statue of a man wearing a bowler hat which is usually adorned with a red necktie. It is a statue of Swift Lathers, a newspaper publisher known for
It was a long trip for people traveling by stagecoach between Chicago and Detroit. A popular stopping point was the National House Inn located in Marshall Michigan. The Inn was built in 1835 by Colonel Andrew Mann who used lumber from the Ketchum sawmill and bricks that were molded and fired on the site. The building
The small town of Butternut, or what remains of it, stands in central Michigan west of Carson City. It was founded in 1888 and believed to be named after a butternut cheese factory. It was once a prosperous town with a population of over 200 people. The town’s prosperity came from its location on the
