Untitled, photo by christopher.h.
This is part of Christopher’s dead pixels set (slideshow), which are for his photoblog, Dead Pixels.
Bond Falls on the Ontonagon River
Bond Falls 04, photo by Jeff Milton
Jeff writes:
This is an image of the lower Bond Falls from a recent trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Bond Falls, close to Bruce Crossing, is my favorite of the waterfalls that I have visited in Michigan. If you visit Bonds falls early on a summer morning, there is often an dramatic fog.
This is one of his gorgeous Bond Falls set (slideshow). I had a nearly impossible time deciding which one of these to feature – be sure to check them all out!!
GoWaterfalling.com has this to say about Bond Falls on the Ontonagon River:
Bond Falls is in the western U.P. on Bond Falls Rd, east of Pauding MI. This is the most impressive waterfall in Michigan with the possible exception of Tahquamenon Falls. The main drop is 40 feet high and 100+ feet wide. Above the main falls are a series of cascades and rapids that must drop a total of 20 feet.
The water level is controlled by a dam, and a steady flow over the falls is maintained for scenic reasons. Of course during the spring melt the flow is much higher.
Bond Fall is a Michigan State Scenic Site. The site was renovated around 2003. The old parking area was upstream of the falls, and a steep concrete stairway led to the base of the falls. The new parking area is near the base of the falls, and a level boardwalk leads you to prime views of the falls. The area is not quite as wild looking as it once was, but it is accessible to everyone. The trail on the east side of the falls is still wild with some steep rocky climbs. There are other trails that go off into the woods, and there are campsites nearby.
Click through for more, including a short video of Bond Falls. You can also check it out Bond Falls on the Absolute Michigan Map!
Michigan Archives: Michigan State Police in Silent Film
Michigan State Police in The Rich Slave, photo courtesy Archives of Michigan
The images of the month for August come from Michigan State Police records. State Police officers once appeared in a movie titled The Rich Slave was reportedly filmed in 1917 and released to audiences in 1921. The photo above shows State Police officers wearing their Western cowboy garb (click through for a larger view of the image):
The State Police records include a typed reminiscence of the event. Harriett Faussett Brogan wrote this undated memoir, titled “Early Michigan State Police Movie Heroes.” She stated that her father, Thomas J. Fausett, had formed a movie company with actor Romaine Fielding. Ms. Brogan noted that the company was based in Howell, Mich., her father’s hometown. She recalled that production of The Rich Slave began “about the middle of June 1917” and that much of the movie was filmed in Howell. According to Ms. Brogan, the State Police portrayed cowboys in some action shots, which were filmed “on land now known as Kensington Park near Brighton.” She further wrote, “There was a log cabin there owned by the Labardy family. And this is where the State Police made their debut as movie stars performing admirably all types of outstanding horsemanship.” (At that time, most State Police officers patrolled on horseback, so they were quite skilled at riding.) She noted that the cabin appeared in the film as the Buck Horn Hotel and that “Mr. Labardy also acted in one of the scenes.”
Further research indicates that “Mr. Labardy” was likely either Oliver Labadie or his brother, Hubert. These were brothers of Jo Labadie, whose papers are housed at the University of Michigan. The Jo Labadie Collection Web site notes that Oliver and Hubert opened a film studio, which they named the Labadie-Detroit Motion Picture Company. The Web site lists some films made there, with The Rich Slave appearing on the list. (To read about the studio, click Labadie-Detroit Motion Picture Company and scroll down to the third paragraph.).
Here’s the listing for The Rich Slave from the Internet Movie Database.
Garage Sale Culture: Resourceful
Resourceful, photo by David McGowan
David writes:
Michelle is a single mom with her daughter, Brynn. She hard-working, a resourceful builder and recycler, and unemployed in Michigan. While waiting for HR departments that are slow to respond, she spends much of her time working in her shop. Michelle builds frames, tables, signs with clever quotes, repurposes barn wood, builds frames for mirrors, refinishes end tables, cabinets, bed frames—you name it. She gives them all a “shabby chic” flavor before sending them off to consignment. At the moment this is her main source of income.
To maintain life as they know it, everything in their home has a figurative price tag on it until Michelle finds steady income. She’s reluctantly willing to part with her childhood brass bed frame, particularly sentimental since her mom passed away.
This photo is just the first of the series titled “Resourceful“, and that’s just one of the series to be found in David McGowan’s Garage Sale Culture at humanfiles.com (check out his Garage Sale Culture Part 1 slideshow!). He explains:
I have a simple but timely idea to examine Michigan’s economy through “Garage Sale Culture.” Currently there’s a boom in garage sales in Michigan, a percent of which can be attributed to people unloading goods to make ends meet. Sellers are also seeing the opportunity to move items in an economy that is reluctant to pay retail prices. There are moving sales as the result of job loss or mortgage foreclosures. Folks are selling luxury items (boats, trucks, etc.) because of soaring gas prices. These are the people I want to meet.
I’m envisioning the heart of the work to be portraiture—images that are in the moment but deliberate, that incorporate the goods being sold, or show the yard sale in progress. I’m not necessarily looking for impoverished, tug-at-your-heartstrings images, but more of common people facing unusual choices. The idea is to create a series of faces that represent the stories we hear on the local news every night, and perhaps marks the state of our State during the summer of this election year.
So click through and check these out, and do yourself a favor and bookmark humanfiles.com.
The Reo Ramblers at the 1937 sit-down strike
The Reo Ramblers at the 1937 sit-down strike, March 10-mid April 1937, photo courtesy Archives of Michigan
The Archives of Michigan’s July 2008 Image of the Month comes from the R.C. Leavenworth photographic collection. They write:
Lansing Auto Worker declared during the event, “Reo Strike Is Nation’s Model Demonstration.” Under the stress of wage reductions and layoffs resulting from the nation’s Depression, Reo workers shut down the factory and occupied it for a month. Workers remained peaceful, engaging in activities such as checkers, volleyball, and singing with the Reo Ramblers. The strike was successful and reenergized the local UAW chapter.
Michigan in Pictures has a post titled Remembering the Flint Sit-Down Strike on a Labor Day that has some great info about this landmark strike and – as is often the case – Wikipedia has a nice Flint Sit Down Strike article (with some more photos).
You can click the photo to read about a special Leavenworth exhibit at the Michigan Historical Center and also see another shot by Leavenworth of Jazz Music in Lansing in the 1920s.
The Last Days of Tiger Stadium
Tiger Stadium Usher 2, circa 1999, photo by LAWRENCEcreative.
Greenberg, Kailine, Manush, Heilmann, Kell, Newhouser, Jennings, Harwell – the stadium may be gone, but the names live on. Brett writes:
These are pictures taken from the last season of Tiger Stadium. Rather than watching all of the the games, I would find myself wandering the hallways and aisleways trying to capture moments significant to this iconic place…
I hope these pics bring back some great memories as we all wait for the final brick to fall on this historic landmark.
View his Tiger Stadium, circa 1999 slideshow (photo set). Do it, for real. The scenes he captured of the daily life of this grand old ballpark are priceless.
Although a series of bids to save all or part of the ballpark over the last several years, the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy has until August 1st to prove it can raise $12-15 million to preserve the diamond, dugouts, 3,000 seats and an area that would house Hall of Fame Tiger’s broadcaster Ernie Harwell’s collection of sports memorabilia. Detroit News story.
Here’s some more Tiger Stadium Stuff:
- A search of Michigan in Pictures for “Detroit Tigers” yealds a bunch of cool results (and suggests that I might have more than a little fondness for this team)
- My favorites are Tiger Stadium: At the corner of Michigan & Trumbull, Tiger Stadium, in Pictures and Last Look at Tiger Stadium (in which a group of Exposure.Detroit photographers got to spend some time in the ballpark last fall!)
- Absolute Michigan keyword Tiger Stadium has some great stuff on the Corner including the link and history-packed What Will Happen to Tiger Stadium?
Saginaw Waterfront, 1912 in the Panoramic Photograph Collection
Saginaw Michigan Waterfront, c1912, photo Courtesy Library of Congress.
Needs to be seen bigger.
This photo is part of the Panoramic Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress, which:
…contains approximately four thousand images featuring American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. These panoramas offer an overview of the nation, its enterprises and its interests, with a focus on the start of the twentieth century when the panoramic photo format was at the height of its popularity. Subject strengths include: agricultural life; beauty contests; disasters; engineering work such as bridges, canals and dams; fairs and expositions; military and naval activities, especially during World War I; the oil industry; schools and college campuses, sports, and transportation… The images date from 1851 to 1991 and depict scenes in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. More than twenty foreign countries and a few U.S. territories are also represented. These panoramas average between twenty-eight inches and six feet in length, with an average width of ten inches.
If you click through and search for “Michigan” you can see a lot of cool panoramas like Camp Grayling, 1921, downtown Bay City and the workers of the Michigan Tanning and Extract Co. of Boyne City.
Check the comments below for a guide to what you’re looking at in the photo!
Bathing Beauties in Northern Michigan
Michigan Women Antique Northern MI Bathing Beauties Card Love It, photo by UpNorth Memories – Don Harrison.
I am sure that the publishers of this card intended the title to be slightly mocking.
When I saw it, however, I was struck by how much fun they appear to be having and how little they care about anything other than each other’s company and enjoying Michigan’s amazing watery fun.
Hope you get a chance to do some beautiful bathing of your own this summer, and also that you check out Don’s postcards (slideshow) because he posts them big and has hundreds and hundreds!
Dredging Michigan’s Harbors
great lake – dredging, photo by j image.
Jim captured folks working at one of the many under-appreciated tasks in the world: dredging our harbors. As a lifelong resident of a coastal village, I anticipated the arrival of the dredging crew as a sign that summer was on the way. The US Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District explains why dredging is necessary on the Great Lakes:
Nearly all Federal harbors on the Great Lakes are located at the mouth of a river or along a coastline, utilizing natural or dredged navigation channels. Lake and river currents transport sand and silt eroded from the coastline and watershed. Some of this material may become deposited in navigation channels. Dredging is necessary to allow for safe commercial navigation and recreational boating. These natural processes would eventually lead to the filling of our harbors and waterways with rock, sand, mud, or clay. Harbors and major rivers, so vital to commercial, recreational and defense activities, would eventually fill in, leading to vessel delays and grounding. Today’s ore carriers, container ships, oil tankers and Coast Guard vessels need deep channels and docking facilities to move freely. Dredging is necessary to maintain Americas waterborne commerce and defense capability.
In addition, many recreational harbors need to be dredged regularly to remain open for small craft.
The page also explains something called “Beach Nourishment”, which I thought was a pretty unique term. Here’s a few dredging photos from the Absolute Michigan pool (slideshow)
Stormy June
Fine Threads BW, photo by sl33stak.
June 2008 has seen some of the most serious storms in many a year, producing power outages, widespread flooding and even some tornadoes.
I guess a silver lining is that folks like Jamie get to brush up on their lightning photography skills. He has several more storm pics and you can also check out this slideshow of thunderstorm photos from the Absolute Michigan pool.
Michigan in Pictures 