“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” -Jawaharlal Nehru
The latest in my ongoing quest to rescue some of my favorite pics from oblivion is this photo I shared fifteen October 13ths ago. The article I linked to is gone, but I’m still very much in favor of adventures!
From Marquette to Mackinac to Midland to Monroe, Michigan’s Labor Day forecast is almost universally for sun & 70s, which will be a welcome closing act for one of the hottest, wettest & stormiest summers in recent memory. I hope that you are able to get out to enjoy some of the weekend and that you’re making good money if you aren’t!
Peter shares this beautiful beach shot taken around sunrise on Lake Huron near Caseville last month. Check out more of his great photos of Lake Huron on Flickr.
Back in the day, I used to have Weird Wednesday features that relied heavily on my friend Linda S. Godfrey’s definitive book of Michigan mysteries: Weird Michigan (link below). Linda has passed but you can still read a lot of her writing at LindaGodfrey.com. A good story to share if you’re floating around this weekend is the tale of the Lake Leelanau Monster:
The story of an early 20th Century sea monster sighting was sent to The Shadowlands Web site by a reader whose great-grandfather was the witness. The boy was fishing for perch one day in 1910 in the shallows of Lake Leelanau in Leelanau County. The lake had been dammed in the late 1800’s to provide water power for the local mill and to enable logging. The dam also flooded much surrounding area, turning it into swamps and bogs punctuated by dead, standing trees.
On that particular day, the young great-grandfather, William Gauthier, rowed out to a new fishing spot near the town of Lake Leelanau. Looking for good perch habitat, he paddled up close to a tree that he estimated to stand about five feet tall above the water, with a six-inch trunk. He was in about seven feet of water, and after deciding this would be a good place to stop and cast a line, began tying the boat to the tree.
That’s when young William discovered the tree had eyes. They were staring him dead in the face at about four feet above water level. The boy and serpent exchanged a long gaze, then the creature went, “Bloop” into the water. Gauthier said later that the creature’s head passed one end of the boat while the tail was still at the other end, though it was undulating very quickly through the water. The writer noted that Gauthier always admitted to having been thoroughly frightened by his encounter, and that the event caused him to stay off that lake for many years.
The writer added that his great-grandfather came from a prominent area family and was very well-educated, and that he knew others who would admit privately but not publicly that they, too, had seen the creature. No sightings have been reported in recent times, but who knows how many people have believed they were passing by a rotting old cedar when in fact they had just grazed the Leelanau lake monster?
John says that eventually this boathouse will slide into the Lake Leelanau Narrows (I think it did). See more in his absolutely massive Leelanau photo gallery on Flickr!
Friday is the 325th anniversary of the founding of Detroit on July 24, 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac. The Detroit Historical Society has an excellent writeup on the Founding of Detroit that explains they “chose the narrowest part of the river, on a high point of the north shore, unfettered by any island and thereby easy to defend, as the site for Fort Pontchartrain, in honor of the French marine minister who approved their trip. The full name, Fort Pontchartrain du détroit, gave Detroit its French name. The area had been known by many names to various Indigenous peoples, including Waawiiyaataanong, meaning “where the river bends.” In the photo, it would be located behind the short white building on the left that is closest to the river.
I have apparently been saving this absolutely gorgeous photo of Detroit at sunset as seen from Windsor for two years! When Mark shared it, he wrote “Hey Detroit 🇺🇲 thanks from your friends over in Windsor 🇨🇦 for such a world-class skyline to look at. 🙏The view never gets old! ❤️the D #detroit”
While the photo wasn’t taken in Michigan, most of the pixels are in Michigan, and I want to send every bit as much cross border love back to Mark & all the lovely people of Canada! For sure follow Mark Hewer Photography on Facebook for all kinds of great shots of Detroit from across the river!
The USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB-30) is a 240-foot multi-purpose vessel with the primary mission as a heavy Great Lakes icebreaker. In addition to heavy icebreaking, the Mackinaw has state of the art systems and multi-mission capabilities that include maintenance of aids to navigation, search and rescue, as well as the ability to deploy an oil skimming system to respond to oil spill situations and environmental response. The cutter was launched the year before it was officially commissioned on June 10, 2006, the same day her namesake (pictured below) was retired.
For months, Canadian officials have maintained that the long-awaited opening of the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ont., is dependent on various testing and commissioning tasks.
But fresh comments from a Canadian cabinet member as well as two top U.S. officials suggests there is a link between the current trade war and the new border crossing’s opening timeline. A White House official on Friday said the Trump administration “continues to engage with all of our trading partners to resolve longstanding unfair trade practices.”
…Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in a statement Friday that “[d]iscussions on the Gordie Howe Bridge continue.” CBC News had asked his office similar questions about the bridge’s opening and whether it’s tied to broader trade talks. Earlier this month, Hoekstra reportedly said that Trump himself has to sign off on the opening. “There’s a lot of issues right now between the U.S. and Canada. The bridge is one more,” he told the Detroit News.
Windsor Aerial Drone Photography shared these photos & the video below from the first lighting of the Gordie Howe Bridge on September 18, 2025. Follow them on Facebook for their latest and view & purchase their work at windsoraerialdronephotography.com.
The drones are wind- and solar-powered vessels the Coast Guard will use to monitor the Great Lakes, gather critical weather data for emergency response planning, track illicit activity and keep maritime borders safe.
The autonomous vessels are highly visible, equipped with radar, cameras and collision-avoidance artificial intelligence and monitored continuously by human operators who can take manual control if needed. Sail drones are equipped with sensors focused solely on maritime domain awareness, providing critical information on vessel activities, including vessels in distress or engaged in illegal operations.
Anyone else feeling nervous about the explosion of drones & datacenters we’ve seen over the last year or is that just me?
photo caption: A Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel operates in the Arabian Gulf during Exercise Phantom Scope, Oct. 7, 2022. During the bilateral exercise between the United States and United Kingdom, USVs operated in conjunction with crewed ships and naval command centers in Bahrain. Credit: Navy Chief Petty Officer Roland Franklin
“The most extensive and very nearly the most severe blizzard in Michigan history raged throughout Thursday January 26, 1978 and into part of Friday January 27. About 20 people died as a direct or indirect result of the storm, most due to heart attacks or traffic accidents. At least one person died of exposure in a stranded automobile. Many were hospitalized for exposure, mostly from homes that lost power and heat. About 100,000 cars were abandoned on Michigan highways, most of them in the southeast part of the state.” -National Weather Service Ann Arbor Meteorologist in Charge, C.R. Snider on January 30th, 1978
48 years ago one of the most powerful blizzards in Michigan history brought the state to a standstill. In her feature on historical Michigan snow days in the now defunct Seeking Michigan, Jessica Miller of the Archives of Michigan related:
On January 26-27, 1978, snowstorms with fifty-to-seventy-mile per hour winds pummeled much of Michigan. Snowfall totals ranged from eighteen inches in Lansing to an incredible fifty-one inches in Traverse City. More than 100,000 cars were abandoned on roads and highways, and travel was impossible for days. Governor William G. Milliken declared a state of emergency on January 26 (See the image below.) and activated the National Guard to assist with the cleanup. The governor also requested financial assistance from the federal government and estimated damage totals to be more than $25 million, not including lost productivity from workers who were unable to get to their jobs.
Regarding the photo, John wrote: Marty Lagina stands on the frozen pier at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy on January 29, 1978, viewing the capsized training vessel Allegheny, which capsized from ice buildup during the Blizzard of ’78. This image was on assignment for TIME magazine, who had seen my b&w image on the UPI wire and wanted a color image. Marty and I were lucky – the sky cleared and the wind stopped for about 20 minutes, then the storm began again. I wondered at the time who TIME knew to make that happen…
mLive shares that although Lake Michigan will still help “warm” lower Michigan this week, it will still be dangerously cold. The coldest air will come around the south end of Lake Michigan and plunge wind chills for southern Michigan into the -25 to -35 degree range Monday into Tuesday morning & it’s not much better for the rest of the state!
Detroit, Ann Arbor and Southeast Michigan: Sub-zero wind chills on Monday and Tuesday, falling as low as -15 degrees.
West Michigan: Monday and Tuesday’s wind chills could hit -20 degrees.
Northern Michigan: Wind chills could fall to -25 by Tuesday morning.
Upper Peninsula: “High confidence (>75%) for wind chills near or below -25F Monday morning and Tuesday morning for most of the U.P.,” the National Weather Service in Marquette said.“ Cold Weather Advisory for northern Houghton and Keweenaw Counties Monday morning.”
Andrew got these photos of freezing fog & spray turning the M/V John J. Boland into a floating icebox on Lake Michigan as she headed towards Indiana back in December. Follow him on Facebook and for sure visit his website for photos and information about his drone photography services!
