michigan Archives - Lost In Michigan

Eaton County Courthouse

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in courthouses, Michigan Historical Markers .

The Eaton County Courthouse Square is a rare Michigan example of an intact nineteenth-century government complex. The showplace of the square, the stately Renaissance Revival courthouse built in 1883-85, was designed by D.W. Gibbs & Company of Toledo, Ohio. The interior features several marbleized slate fireplaces, stained glass and native butternut trim. A cast zinc statue of Justice crowns the building and towers above the city. On July 4, 1894, fire destroyed much of the courthouse. The structure was rebuilt almost exactly to the original plans. The 1873 Second Empire sheriff’s residence, built with an attached jail, is one of only a few of its age remaining in the state. The courthouse square is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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Marlette Train Depot – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Train Depots .

Flint and Pere Marquette Depot

The first twenty-five miles of track for the Port Huron & Northwestern Railroad opened from Port Huron to Croswell in 1879. Marlette residents lured the railroad by raising $15,000 toward construction of the tracks. The line extended from Saginaw Junction in St. Clair County to Marlette in January 1881, and Marlette and Mayville line opened in the fall. The Flint & Pere Marquette purchased the Port Huron & Northwestern in 1889. Flint contractor E.M. Stewart built this depot in 1890 with a double waiting room, an office and a baggage room. The Marlette Historical Society bought the building in 1999.

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40 Mile Point Ligthouse – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, Michigan Historical Markers .

While I was staying at Burt Lake State Park I took Cooper Dog out for a ride one morning. We headed east until we hit Lake Huron and since we could not go east anymore we then turned north along US23 to the 40 Mile Point Lighthouse. That was the first time I have ever been there and did not know what to expect but I was surprised to find a lot more then the lighthouse. They have the pilot house from the S.S. Calcite and a shipwreck on the shore ( that’s a post for another day) Since I had Cooper the wonder dog, I did not want to leave him in a hot Jeep while I went inside to check out the lighthouse, so I guess that will have to be a trip for another day.

There is actually two historical markers located there. one for the lighthouse which reads

During the late 1800s, the U.S. Lighthouse Board created a system of coastal lights along Lake Huron’s Michigan shore so that mariners would always be within sight of at least one. With a light south of Forty Mile Point on the Presque Isle Peninsula and one one to the north at Cheboygan, and eighteen mile stretch of shoreline remained unlighted and dangerous. In1890 the board recommended that a light be built at Forty Mile Point. The light was completed in 1896, and Xavier Rains served as the first keeper, The lighthouse was transferred to Presque Isle County in 1998, but the Coast Guard retained ownership of its Fresnal lens. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

And the other marker is for the Lake Huron Graveyard of ships which reads

Named by seventeenth century French explores La Mer Doucethe sweet or freshwater sea, Lake Huron is the second largest of the five Great Lakes. It has over 3,800 miles of shoreline and contains 30,000 islands, among them Manitoulin, the world’s largest freshwater island. Violent storms on the “sweet sea” have made it dangerous for ships. As of 2006, 1,200 wrecks had been recorded. During the Big Blow of 1905, twenty-seven wooden vessels were lost. One of these, the steamer Joseph S. Fay, ran aground. A portion of its hull rests on the beach approximately 200 feet north of the Forty Mile Lighthouse. The Great Storm of 1913 was responsible for sinking many modern ships.

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Bath School Disaster – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan Historical Markers, Schools .

the cupola from the Bath School that was bombed rests in a park in Bath Michigan

On May 18, 1927, a dynamite blast rocked the Bath Consolidated School, shattering one wing of the building and resulting in the death of thirty-nine children and teachers; dozens more were injured. An inquest concluded that dynamite had been planted in the basement of the school by Andrew Kehoe, an embittered school board member. Resentful of higher taxes imposed for the school construction and the impending foreclosure on his farm, he took revenge on Bath’s citizens by targeting their children. Soon after the explosion, as parents and rescue workers searched through the rubble for children, Kehoe took his life and the lives of four bystanders including the superintendent, one student and two townspeople, by detonating dynamite in his pick-up truck as he sat parked in front of the school.

The destruction of the Bath Consolidated School shared the front page of national newspapers with Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight. “Maniac Blows Up School …Had Protested High Taxes” screamed the headlines of the May 19, 1927, New York Times. Michigan Governor Fred Green created the Bath Relief Fund, and people from across the country expressed their sympathies and offered financial support. Michigan U.S. Senator James Couzens gave generously to the fund and donated money to rebuild the school. On August 18, 1928, Bath looked to the future and dedicated the James Couzens Agricultural School to its “living youth.” A statue entitled, Girl with a Cat, sculpted by University of Michigan artist Carleton W. Angell and purchased with pennies donated by the children of Michigan was also dedicated that day.

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2015 Michigan State Park March Madness Poll

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Michigan State Parks, SP March Madness .

this round is closed see the next round HERE

What’s your favorite State Park, Forest or Scenic Site maybe The Porkies, Belle Isle or Rifle River Recreation Area? There are about a 150 places in Michigan you can camp or visit with your Recreation Passport and I had fun doing this last year, so here we go again for this March. Ludington State park won the tournament in 2014, which park will it be this year? you can see the polls from last year HERE

I broke up the list into 16 random groups. Pick your favorite from each group and we will work it down tournament bracket style to determine the final champion and Michigan’s favorite Park.

Each round will end on Sundays and the winners will be paired up in the next round starting Sunday evening.

Pick one favorite park from each group, the winners will go onto next weeks polls you will view the Current results after you vote.

This round will end Sunday March 8th
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Ten Haunted or Creepy places in Michigan

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Historic Places, Lighthouses, Michigan Historical Markers .

I love a good ghost story especially when there is some Michigan history attached to it. Here are some of my favorite spooky places I have found traveling the back roads in Michigan. If you find these places intriguing I hope you will take a look at the Lost In Michigan book for more in-depth information and stories HERE

The Bruce Mansion in Burnside township is said to be one of the most haunted places in Michigan and there is a story of the owner hitting a pedestrian and burying his body on the property

Bruce Mansion in Burnside Michigan

Northville Psychiatric Hospital in Northville, This state run hospital closed in 2003 and supposedly there are ghosts in the tunnels that run between building, I have not been there in a while and I hear it is being demolished for a new project on that site.

Northville Psychiatric Hospital in Northville

The Calumet Theatre in the Keweenaw Peninsula. According to Wikipedia it is inhabited by the ghost of a famous Polish actress Madame Helena Modjeska

Calumet Theatre

Pere Cheney near Grayling was an old logging town that was stricken with illness, all that is left of the town is some depressions in the ground and a cemetery with strange things happening in it. Pere Cheney was a lumbering town established in 1874 and one of the largest towns in the region at the time. The population grew to about 1500 people but in 1893 diphtheria spread throughout the village killing most of its population.

Pere Cheney Cemetery and ghost town

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, there are stories of a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper in the 1970s reporting many strange happenings at Eagle Harbor, including the sight of a faceless man in a plaid flannel shirt, the sounds of moving furniture and heavy footsteps on the second floor and lights turning on and off.

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

The Fenton Monastery The monastery was built in 1868 and was originally a Baptist seminary. By 1886 it became a retired home for Baptist priests and their wives and then Converted into apartments between 1935 and 1945. by the 1950s the building became a nursing home. I found some references of it being haunted but no stories of why it is creepy with part of the front fallen down. Sadly the old Monastery was torn down in 2016.

Fenton Monistary

The Pere Marquette Depot on Potter Street in Saginaw one of the largest Victorian era train stations in the United States There are several sources that claim the station to be haunted, bodies of soldiers who died in the war were shipped back to Saginaw by train to this depot. Richard Froeber was a casket maker in Saginaw and his shop was in the depot and he would build caskets for the fallen soldiers. There have been reports of people seeing a ghostly figure of a woman in white roaming the station.

Potter Street Train Station in Saginaw Michigan

The Marquette Orphanage,Built in 1915 and closed in 1980 there is a story of a girl who died in a blizzard and they held the funeral in the basement for her.

Marquette Orphanage

The David Whitney House in Detroit. This house was originally constructed in the 1890s by David Whitney, Jr. It was restored in 1986 and is now used as a formal dining restaurant. Both Whitney and his wife died in this mansion and are believed to remain behind to haunt it. An elderly man can be seen looking out the windows and the elevator will move between floors without anyone in it. Now it’s a resturant with the third floor converted into the “Ghost Bar”

The David Whitney house in Detroit

Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in the thumb rumors of an apparition of a woman wearing an apron appearing in a second floor window, footsteps on the tower stairs, ice cold spots appearing then dissipating, Peter Shook, was the first lighthouse keeper at Point aux Barques. In 1849, he drowned along with two others on their way to Port Huron to pick up supplies, leaving his wife Catherine the honor of being the first woman lighthouse keeper in the Great Lakes.

Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in the thumb

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Ocqueoc Falls

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Waterfalls .

Ocqueoc Falls

I love taking photos of Waterfalls but most of them are in the U.P. and a long trip for the weekend for me. Did you Know Ocqueoc Falls is in the L.P. I was traveling between Onaway and Rogers City and came across the falls, I knew there was a waterfall in the area but forgot about it until I saw the sign. It is a wonder full waterfall and park that was recently updated with a new outhouse, which I was badly in need of and I will say works fine. oops TMI as my kids would say. Anyways there is a nice hiking path there too.

I will be honest with you and say this is not my best pic, I prefer to take waterfall pics on a cloudy day but I wast there and this is what I got, and oh yeah, did I mention it’s in the Lower Peninsula, I can make it over there again and get some more pics.

Kempf House – Michigan Historical Marker

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Michigan Historical Markers .

Cast iron grilles in an ancient Greek floral motif highlight the frieze of this temple-front Greek Revival house. Built in 1853 for Henry D. Bennett, Secretary and Steward of the University of Michigan, it became the home and studio of local musicians Reuben H. and Pauline Widenmann Kempf in 1890. Trained in Germany, Mr. Kempf (1859 – 1945) taught piano and organ, Mrs. Kempf (1860 – 1953), a graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory, taught voice. The city of Ann Arbor purchased the house in 1969, and in 1983 it became the Kempf House Center for Local History.

Springtime at Dow Gardens in Midland

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Uncategorized .

While I was in Midland getting some photos for Memorial Day weekend I stopped by Dow Gardens and was surprised to see it all decked out in tulips and blossoms on the trees. With this crazy weather we are having I guess spring was a little late, and I guess I am posting these a little late since I wanted to get my photos for Memorial Day posted first.

Dow Gardens is such a magical place to visit if you love nature and flowers and is amazing in spring. but like all good things it does not last forever and the spring blooms are gone so if you want to see them for yourself you will need to visit next year.

St Louis Michigan Train Depot

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Train Depots .

the old Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Station in St Louis Michigan which is now the home for the St. Louis Area Historical Society, you can also see some old photos and more info about the station HERE