Truck 17 In front of Old Central, photo by Stoney06.
Joel Dinda knows old photos, so it’s not at all surprising that he found this great collection of historical photos from Brian Stone of the fire stations, fire trucks and the men of the Kalamazoo.
An added plus are his informative captions such as the one for the above: Old Central Station Kalamazoo Michigan. Truck is a 1936 Seagrave City Service Ladder. “Pride of the Department”.
Indeed. View the photo large and you can see that’s true.
Crossing the Detroit River in winter c. 1904, LC-D4-22154
Under the headline of “Things I found when looking for something else” comes this photo from the massive Detroit Publishing Co. collection in the Library of Congress.
The ferry is identified as the steamer Lansdowne of Windsor, a vessel mentioned briefly in The Detroit River ferryboats in the Detroit News’ Rearview Mirror:
The old paddle-wheeled steamer, the Lansdowne, which by its retirement in 1956 was one of the oldest vessels still operating on the lakes, once carried passenger train cars across the Detroit River. It was resurrected briefly during the 1980s as a floating restaurant off downtown Detroit.
If you click the “More Photos” button at the top left of the article, you can see another (clearer) shot of the Lansdowne. The March 1970 edition of the Toronto Marine Historical Society’s Scanner had this to say:
For well over one hundred years there have been carferries operating across the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit, and a large portion of this period, 87 years in fact, could well be called “The Lansdowne Era.” For exactly this long, a major item on the Detroit River scene has been the paddle-driven railway ferry, LANSDOWNE.
This veteran, 294 feet in length, was completed in 1884 by the Detroit Dry Dock Co. at Wyandotte, where her iron hull was known as Hull 66. Her horizontal, low-pressure engines were built in 1872 by E.E. Gilbert & Sons at Montreal for the wooden carferry MICHIGAN (I) and they were placed in LANSDOWNE at the time of her completion. Originally equipped with four stacks and two pilothouses, the ferry now carries but two stacks and one bridge and looks somewhat gaudy in the Canadian National Railway’s new livery. Nevertheless, she is the last sidewheeler operating on the Great Lakes and holds a great charm known to anyone who has observed her or made a crossing in her.
Recent photos of the “somewhat gaudy” Lansdowne can be found at the amazing Boatnerd.com.
2006_01_20icebt042, photo by gretchdorian.
Gretchen Dorian has a great set of photos from a day of DN ice boating at Indian Lake State Park near Manistique. – makes a great slideshow!
Michigan has a long history of iceboating. The Detroit News’ excellent Rearview Mirror series includes Sailing on Lake St. Clair’s icy winter winds. They write that ice boating or ice yachting began over 4000 years ago in Northern Europe and was a source of entertainment in Michigan lumber camps. 
The article also relates what the “DN” you see on so many ice boat sails stands for:
During the winter of 1936-37, in the sawdust covered hobby shop of the Detroit News, master craftsman Archie Arroll along with ice boaters Joseph Lodge and Norman Jarrait designed a racing ice boat they called the Blue Streak 60. Later the craft would come to be called the DN 60, the DN standing for the Detroit News, and the 60 referring to the size of the sail. Howard Boston, whose family remains in the sailing business, helped construct the first sails. (Doyle Boston Sailmakers of Holland)
Ice Boating Timeline reminds us not to forget about the other side of the state and Gull Lake and (as usual) Wikipedia can tell you more about iceboats & iceboating.
Update: I was just sent a nice video featuring Jack Jacobs (owner of Magic) talking about ice boating.
I got a call yesterday from Grace Dickinson. In the course of talking with her, I found that she had a web site where her photography and the photography of her father, Frederick W. Dickinson, is on display. Fred is one of my all time favorite photographers and I had the chance to sit down with him years ago and talk about his life and work. It appears in Reflection: The Lens of Memory and you might enjoy it.
The above photo of Leland’s Fishtown is hand-colored and, according to the Dickinson Gallery in the Sleeping Bear Dunes:
This technique of hand coloring was widely used in previous years. The same process was also used in tinting/hand coloring high school senior pictures. The paint is transparent and oil based. The colors are applied to the black and white photograph with cotton and blended over the image without obscuring the image. The detail work in small area is done photo colored pencils. Hand colored landscape photos have a pleasing effect with its muted shades of color.
You can see more work and purchase photos from the Dickinson Gallery web site.
Quiet Night on the Detroit River, photo by theempirebuilder.
The latest entry into the Small World Files is today’s photo of the 100 year old Southdown Challenger upbound on the Detroit River just above the Ambassador Bridge. Mac of Detroit Bike Blog wondered if I’d seen these photos. I hadn’t and spent a good long while poring through this amazing set of Southdown/St. Mary’s Challenger photos that takes you all across the Great Lakes, under the Mackinac Bridge and even belowdecks.
A few recent ones were taken on Leelanau County’s Suttons Bay. I mentioned that the hill in one of them looked like the hill on a site we had designed for a housing development. Wade, the photographer, said “I’m sure you are right. In fact, in the link you sent, the Challenger is in the 5th row from the top on the far left side.”
Anyway, check out this amazing gallery of photos and also head over to Boatnerd.com to read the equally amazing history of the St. Mary’s Challenger, which was built in 1906 in Detroit and has gone through a dizzying array of names and circumstances in the century that followed. Seriously, there should be a movie or something about this ship.
Superior Weather, photo by corydalus.
Cory Dalus writes “Lake Superior in a storm is awesome in the true sense of that abused word. Quite a spectacular first snow of the season.”
This photo of Lake Superior at Whitefish Point (home of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum) is part of a great set of photos titled Around Lake Michigan (with a side trip north).
michigan04, photo by tergiversation.
From September of 2005, one of several great holga photos of Michigan by someone who says they love their Holga just a little too much.
Early Morning in Ludington, photo by mandj98.
The car ferry Badger (left) gets ready to make a trip across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. The other ship is the Spartan. The 420′ Badger is the largest car ferry ever to sail Lake Michigan. When I was young, there were people who’d just ride back and forth and play cribbage. At today’s rates, I’m guessing the recreational rider may be a thing of the past.
Visit the website to learn more about the S.S. Badger car ferry from Ludington to Manitowoc. (including a cool tour of the ship)
This photo of the ghost town of Fayette by Paul Rose is one of many that appears in Absolute Michigan’s profile of Fayette Historic State Park. The Fayette Townsite is located on the UP’s Lake Michigan shore and is an excellent restoration of a historic village that features 20 historic buildings against the beautiful background of Big Bay De Noc.
South Manitou Island by rdmegr
When I logged on briefly last night to see what photos had been added during the day. Just about the first thing I saw was this amazing photo of South Manitou Island from the air. In addition to the freighter, the photo clearly shows the beautiful natural harbor that made South Manitou an early Great Lakes settlement and the North Manitou Shoal lighthouse (aka “the Crib”). As much as I love the maritime history of the Manitou Passage, the coolest thing for me is that I very clearly recall hearing the plane fly past just after 6 PM on Sunday evening.
The photo is part of Daytrip to Mackinac Island, a set of photos that also includes photos of the Island, Straits of Mackinac, the Mackinac Bridge and Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Michigan in Pictures 