Remembering the Carl D. Bradley

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Carl D Bradley on the Great Lakes

Bradley – Color – 300 dpi, photo by Presque Isle County Historical Museum.

23 women became widows in that instant and 53 children lost their fathers.
~Rogers City resident on the sinking of the Bradley

The Edmund Fitzgerald gets the majority of the attention when Michigan shipwrecks are discussed, but it can be argued (very convincingly) that the wreck of the Carl D Bradley on November 18, 1958 was the greatest of Great Lakes tragedies. 33 of 35 crewmen – most from her home port of Rogers City – perished, leaving the small city in northeastern lower Michigan stunned by grief.

Over on Absolute Michigan today we have an excellent feature from the Archives of Michigan on the Wreck of the Carl D. Bradley that includes a riveting video from the documentary November Requiem. An article by Warren J. Toussaint about the sinking begins:

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1958, at 5:31 p.m., the limestone carrier, Carl D. Bradley, was up bound on Lake Michigan, having delivered her last limestone cargo of the year to Indiana on November 17,1958. She stayed close to the Illinois and Wisconsin shores because of reports of severe weather conditions rapidly developing from the west. As it reached the area of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., it had to turn to the northeast in order to cross the upper area of Lake Michigan on its way to the homeport of Rogers City, Mich., on Lake Huron. Suddenly, the Bradley’s steering wheel went slack, as if the gears had suddenly disconnected. On the course it was on, the winds and waves were striking the ship on the aft quarter of the port side causing the ship to rock severely. First Mate, Elmer Fleming, knew the ship was in trouble. He jerked the radio telephone from its cradle and shouted a desperate call “Mayday, Mayday, – Mayday. This is the Carl D. Bradley. Mayday Mayday Mayday.”

Read on and see much more at carldbradley.org!

The photo is one of the last known photos of the Steamer Carl D. Bradley, taken after she passed under the Mackinac Bridge and was making the turn to the southeast to set a course for Rogers City. Check it out background big and in their great Bradley Transportation Fleet slideshow. Definitely have a look at the Presque Isle County Historical Museum website for more on the Bradley and the history of the region and to order the Bradley DVD!

The Deer That Jumped Into the Sun

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

The Deer That Jumped Into the Sun

The Deer That Jumped Into the Sun, photo by arrdubyazee.

Today is Opening Day of deer season in Michigan, and for over 600,000 people, it’s a pretty important holiday. Over on Absolute Michigan we have a roundup of of the 2011 deer hunting season that has all kinds of information about this annual ritual.

If that feature is a shout-out to the hunters, this one is for the deer, because my hunch is that it’s pretty hard to hunt on the sun. arrdubyazee writes:

This is not a composite–I have the original Kodachrome to prove it.

This doe saw something odd in the grass, and came over to investigate. When she discovered just how odd that something was, she turned and bolted.

I count myself very lucky to have captured her in this pose, and I don’t ever expect to be as lucky again. Note that the antlers of a large buck are poking above the grass in the lower right of the image.

See it on black and in his wildlife slideshow.

More about White-tailed deer from Michigan in Pictures and don’t miss this great vintage deer camp photo!

the time traveler: power

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

power

power, photo by .brianday.

Brian Day has a spectacular series of photos he calls the time traveler series.

Check this one out bigger and see many more in the time traveler slideshow.

More black & white photography from Michigan in Pictures.

People meet Bear, Detroit Zoo meet Google

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

People meet Bear

People meet Bear, photo by FHGVZEhyde.

The Freep had a feature this week on Google adding the Detroit Zoo to their Street View this week. Street View is feature of Google Maps that presents 360-degree views of locations, allowing you to explore through your computer. Normally, they use a car for the photos – sometimes with humorous results – but that leaves a lot of interesting sights off the map. To that end, they developed the Street View trike.

In July, Royal Oak Patch posted a video of the Google Trike in action at the Detroit Zoo. They explained that this summer:

Google asked its users to submit nominations for pedestrian-only locations they’d most like to see on its popular map feature in several categories, including theme parks and zoos. More than 15,000 voters said they wanted a virtual tour of the Detroit Zoo, beating out the San Diego Zoo and Universal Studios in Florida, among others.

The Google Street Trike is a three-wheeled pedi-cab equipped with digital cameras. Google technicians spent two days collecting digital images of the zoo’s award-winning habitats and attractions, both indoors and out.

Here’s the the Detroit Zoo on Street View. TIP: Turn RIGHT to start your exploration of the Detroit Zoo!

Check this photo out bigger and in her Animals and Nature slideshow. She explains:

There is a little tunnel underneath the polar bear exhibit where you can see the seals swimming around, but today the bear decided to chill right on top of the tunnel. That has never happened before. People were freaking out left and right but it was so cool.

PS: The Street View technology also powers a previous Michigan in Pictures feature, What Was There.

Turn it up to Eleven Eleven Eleven

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Two Pines

Two Pines, photo by Coniferous Mariner.

In addition to being Veteran’s Day, today we roll the calendrical odometer to the 11s.

11/11/11 is causing all manner of fun across the globe – they’re closing the pyramids in Egypt, hoping for good luck and getting married in the East and even playing a basketball game aboard an aircraft carrier (MSU meets North Carolina in the Carrier Classic tonight at 7 PM).

Today at 11:11:11, the time and date will be a perfect same-numbered palindrome, reading the same backwards as forwards, an event which can only happen on one day every 100 years. Read on for more. They note that:

The reason we ascribe significance to 11.11.11 is apophenia – the urge to find patterns in seemingly random data. It is this that explains why we see clouds forming certain shapes, and why we often hear of people finding ‘faces’ in things like potato crisps.

Here’s hoping you have luck & happiness today and faces in your potato chips. ;)

Check this out background big and in Coniferous Mariner’s beautiful A Peopleless Luzerne slideshow. (and isn’t “Coniferous Mariner” just about the coolest user name ever?)

Edmund Fitzgerald, 1975

Posted on by farlane

Edmund Fitzgerald 1975

Edmund Fitzgerald 1975, photo by The Open Lake Group LLC

Wade writes that this photo by Roger LeLievre of the Fitzgerald as she passes downbound in the St. Mary’s River off Six Mile Point is one of his all time favorite views the Fitz. See it on black and in his Edmund Fitzgerald slideshow. Wade works the lakes and has some really cool photos of all kinds of ships in his photostream. He had this to say about the Fitz:

The 729 foot Str. Edmund Fitzgerald was launched into the Detroit River in 1958. Over the next 17 years she was considered to be the ‘best among the best” as the flagship of the Columbia Transportation Line. Sailors that worked on her took immense pride in their opportunity and she was a favorite of sailors and people ashore as well.

Lots more Edmund Fitgerald on Michigan in Pictures and definitely check out The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Joseph Fulton on Absolute Michigan – a masterful video that accompanies Gordon Lightfoot’s tribute with great footage.

George Romney, 43rd Governor of Michigan

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Gov. George Romney of Michigan

Gov. George Romney of Michigan, photo by seekingmichigan.

Tonight at 8 PM, eight Republican candidates take the stage at Oakland University in CNBC’s “Your Money, Your Vote” Republican Presidential Debate (also see this Freep article).

One of the candidates is Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills the son of George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995). George Romney was chairman and CEO of American Motors Corporation from 1954-1962, the 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963-1969, an unsuccessful candidate for President in 1968 (see campaign brochure), and the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 -1973. Wikipedia says:

His position as the leader of the moderate Republicans at the constitutional convention helped gain him the Republican nomination for Governor of Michigan. He ran against incumbent Democratic Governor John B. Swainson in the general election. Romney campaigned on revising the state’s tax structure, increasing its appeal to businesses and the general public, and getting it “rolling again”. Romney decried both the large influence of labor unions within the Democratic Party and the similarly large influence of big business within the Republican Party. His campaign was among the first to exploit the capabilities of electronic data processing. Romney won by some 80,000 votes and ended a fourteen-year stretch of Democratic rule in the state executive spot. Romney’s win was attributed to his appeal to independent voters and to the increasingly influential suburban Detroit voters, who by 1962 were more likely to vote Republican than the heavily Democratic residents of the city itself. Additionally, Romney had appeal to labor union members that was unusual for a Republican.

Here’s a video of Romney announcing his candidacy for Governor and another video of Romney’s inauguration on January 1, 1963. You can also see a photo of George Romney from 1980 that looks amazingly like Mitt, and the Boston Globe has a nice presentation titled The Romneys: Lessons of the Father that includes some pictures of George & Mitt.

This photo from 1963 shows Gov. George Romney releasing the first Atlantic Salmon in the Great Lakes. See it on black and see more photos of Michigan’s history in seekingmichigan’s slideshow!

Owls in the Attic

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Attic, Clare Michigan.

Attic, Clare Michigan. , photo by matthew_michalek.

I posted this photo to the Michigan in Pictures Facebook yesterday with the comment “It’s not all sunsets and lighthouses. ;)” A reader thought it a little strange and wondered “why not show a live one?”

That’s a good question for which I have a few answers.

One is that Michigan in Pictures has a number of posts about owls including a snowy owl on the roof, Northern Saw Whet Owl (and an owl house you can build for one), the Evening Owl, Marsh Owl, Short-eared owl and a live version of this owl, the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) aka tiger owl or cat owl.

A second reason is that while I am a huge fan of Pure Michigan and the gorgeous photography they share, I’m also a big fan of the strange and wonderful bits of history you can find all over the state in our quirky little museums, second hand stores, attics, basements and (of course) garage sales. When I see a photo like this I wonder how the owl got there. Was it purchased at the Call of the Wild museum in Gaylord or did it simply die of old age?

The final reason is that the experience of Michigan and Michigan in Pictures is (for me at least) one of discovery. I delight in odd finds like the Big Boy Graveyard, old slumpy in Detroit, Lake Michigan’s “Stonehenge” and the crazy things that I find in the Library of Congress and that people like the folks at FOUND magazine in Ann Arbor and daveraoul find in the corners of reality that we often miss.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments…

Check this out on black and in Matt’s slideshow.

Graveyard Coast II

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

"Graveyard Coast II " - (Mary Jarecki shipwreck) , Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

“Graveyard Coast II ” – (Mary Jarecki shipwreck) , Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, photo by Michigan Nut.

Over on Absolute Michigan today we have a feature on the Alger Underwater Diving Preserve – Michigan’s first underwater preserve and one of 12 that protect over 2300 square miles of Great Lakes bottomland.

You don’t have to strap on a tank to explore some of these wrecks. John writes that the Mary Jarecki was a wooden bulk freight steam Ship of 645 tons, 200 feet in length. It grounded on Au Sable Reef and went down on July 4, 1883. She lost her way in one of the heavy fogs that frequent the area. These shipwrecks are a sobering reminder of the incredible power of Lake Superior.

Indeed. See this photo bigger and in John’s jaw-dropping Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore slideshow.

Michigan Wild & Scenic Rivers: Sturgeon River

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures
Along the Sturgeon River by Coder

Along the Sturgeon River by Coder

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.
~Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, October 2, 1968

Michigan has 16 nationally designated Wild & Scenic Rivers (management plan pdf) and tw of them are called the Sturgeon River: this one in the Ottawa National Forest in the eastern UP and the Sturgeon River in the Hiawatha National Forest in the western UP. This Sturgeon River is even the photo on the main page at rivers.gov, so it’s clear that they really liked it!! (note it’s now the Ontonagon River but still in the UP!)

Also note that Field & Stream tapped Michigan #1 for flyfishing in the USA in 2011. One of the reasons is the portion of the Sturgeon River within the Ottawa National Forest is classified as a Blue Ribbon Trout Stream!

Coder shot this in 2010 along the Sturgeon River on the way to Canyon Falls. Click to his map to see where the photo was taken. See more in his ‘Scapes gallery on Flickr.

More Wild & Scenic Rivers on Michigan in Pictures.

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