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Michigan Events in April are Dillys

Posted on April 2, 2010January 27, 2013 by Michigan in Pictures

“In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.”
~Mark Twain

Every month Absolute Michigan posts a Michigan Event Calendar, and the month of April is no exception. In addition to Tax Day (boo!), Earth Day (yay!), Opening Day (Monday!) and April Fool’s Day (yesterday!), April has a bunch of great events.

Some highlights are the National Trout Festival in Kalkaska, Vermontville’s venerable 69th Maple Syrup Festival (and the whippersnapper 51st Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival), the Blossomtime Festival in St. Joseph/Benton Harbor, Bellaire’s Great Lakes Art Fair the Detroit Music Awards, the Green Street Fair in Plymouth and the Michigan International Wine Expo in Novi.

April is also Michigan Wine Month and you’ll want to stay tuned to Absolute Michigan for all kinds of Michigan wine-related giveaways & features!

Be sure to check this out bigger and in Matt’s April ’09 Grand Rapids set (slideshow).

Shark Attack Triple X: The Michigan Shark Experiment

Posted on April 1, 2010December 4, 2025 by Michigan in Pictures

Shark Attack Triple X, photo by jnhkrawczyk.

Via the Herald-News in Roscommon:

…3 lakes in northern Michigan have been selected to host “an in-depth study into the breeding and habits of several species of fresh-water sharks.” Two thousand sharks are to be released into the lakes including blue sharks, hammerheads, and a few great whites.

The experiment is designed to determine whether the sharks can survive in the cold climate of Michigan, and apparently the federal government is spending $1.3 million to determine this. A representative from the National Biological Foundation is quoted as saying that there will probably be a noticeable decline in the populations of other fish in the lake because “the sharks will eat about 20 pounds of fish each per day, more as they get older.”

County officials have protested the experiment, afraid of the hazard it will pose to fishermen and swimmers, but their complaints have been ignored by the federal government. Furthermore, fishermen have been forbidden from catching the sharks. The report concludes by again quoting the National Biological Foundation representative, who says that “We can’t be responsible for people if they are attacked. Besides, anyone foolish enough to believe all this deserves to be eaten.”

Jill took this at The Heidelberg Project in Detroit. See it bigger in her Found Art slideshow.

PS: This was a spoof that the Roscommon News thought was real.

Rain Forest, Michigan style

Posted on March 31, 2010March 31, 2010 by Michigan in Pictures

Deep Woods Magic, photo by CreateWithKim.

Hey everyone – very sorry for not updating Michigan in Pictures yesterday and Monday. I was in the El Yunque rain forest* and the Internet wasn’t!! I’m back in the arms of Mama Michigan and ready for spring!

Since we were on the subject of rain forests, I figured this photo from an Eastern Hemlock Forest on the Little Union Gorge Trail in the Porcupine Mountains would be nice. You have to check it out large on black and in her Porcupine Mountains Autumn 2009 set (view the slideshow).

*If you want to see my pics, they’re right here.

A Belated Happy Birthday to Michigan Governor William G. Milliken

Posted on March 27, 2010March 26, 2010 by farlane

Untitled, photo by BryantDIGITAL

Yesterday (March 26th), former Michigan Governor William G. Milliken turned 88. I bumped into him a few weeks ago and he seemed in great health, so hopefully he has many more coming.

Several years ago, in The Very Best People in the Northern Express, Robert Downes wrote:

Raised on Washington Street in Traverse City, Bill Milliken was the longest-serving governor in the state’s history, occupying the office from 1969 to 1983.

Gov. Milliken is an honest-to-gosh war hero: He flew 50 combat missions in WWII as a waist-gunner in a B-24. He survived two crash landings; received a flak stomach wound on one mission; and once had to bail out in Italy when his plane ran out of fuel 50 miles from its base. He received seven medals for his service, according to “The Milliken Years” by Joyce Braithwaite and George Weeks.

Still considered one of the leaders of the moderate wing of the Republican Party, Governor Milliken’s administration saw many advancements in civil rights and environmental protections. The governor signed Michigan’s landmark bottle deposit law into effect in 1976 and it was during his tenure that the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore was created by an act of Congress in 1970. Although he hailed from Northern Michigan, Gov. Milliken recognized the importance of preserving the viability of the City of Detroit and refused to play into the “us vs. them” mentality of outstate politicians. As governor, he lobbied against members of his own party in the late ’70s for the Detroit People Mover, which was ultimately approved in a drastically limited form.

…Little known fact: The governor’s middle initial stands for Grawn, the family namesake of the crossroads between TC and Interlochen.

More in the William G. Milliken entry from Wikipedia.

Check this out bigger in Bryant’s slideshow.

Watch your step atop Castle Rock

Posted on March 26, 2010September 27, 2016 by Michigan in Pictures

Watch your step!, photo by robizphoto.

In their entry about Castle Rock, Hunt’s Guide to the UP says that Castle Rock is a limestone stack, eroded by water and wind to form a “castle” nearly 200 feet above Lake Huron:

Clarence Eby, a St. Ignace photographer and pioneer of area tourism, acquired Castle Rock and, in 1928, opened it as a destination, just as somewhat better area roads enabled motorists to go sightseeing in outlying areas. He made postcards of sights in Mackinac County, the island, and the Straits, created a guidebook with ads from resorts and cabins, and worked to create a Chamber of Commerce information center in town. Today Eby’s grandson Mark runs Castle Rock

Click the link above to see one of Eby’s colorized postcards and get more info including a panoramic photo from Wikipedia.

Check this out bigger and in robizphoto’s Landscapes slideshow.

Hipstamatic at Aman Park

Posted on March 25, 2010March 25, 2010 by Michigan in Pictures

aman park, photo by abigail burch.

The city of Grand Rapids says that the 331-acre Aman Park is located on Lake Michigan Drive, about 6 miles west of the city and has six self-guided trails. They take you from the succession of plants to a mature, climax forest.

Regarding the photo, Abigail took it with her favorite app, Hipstamatic, which is also my favorite cameraphone app. You may remember the Hipstamatic camera.

Check this out in her Nature set (slideshow).

Sweet 16, 2010 with the Michigan State Spartans

Posted on March 24, 2010March 24, 2010 by Michigan in Pictures

Gotcha!, photo by m.villavicencio.

Wikipedia says that the Michigan State Spartans Men’s Basketball Team has been in the Sweet Sixteen 9 of the last 13 years. In all, Michigan State has won two NCAA Championships, appeared in seven Final Fours and made 23 NCAA Tournament appearances.

On Friday, the MSU Spartans take a 26-8 record into a game with the 2010 Cinderella, the Northern Iowa Panthers.

Be sure to check this out background bigilicious or in Miguel’s slideshow.

Be sure to also check out more posts about the MSU Spartans from Michigan in Pictures!

Ann Arbor’s Annual Festifools

Posted on March 23, 2010April 1, 2020 by Michigan in Pictures

The Cellist, photo by beautyredefined.

Every year in April, the good people of Ann Arbor hold a street festival called FestiFools. The event takes place on April 11, 2010 from 4-5 PM and features “huge puppets and random acts of foolishness”. The event began when UM art teacher Mark Tucker, then Art Director for the Michigan Thanksgiving Parade, traveled to Viareggio, Italy to learn the fine art of carta pesta (papier-mâché) from their amazing float builders (must-click!).

Click through to festifools.org for much, much more including how you can help them build puppets!

Check this out bigger or in Kristin’s Ann Arbor slideshow.

If that’s not enough, how about the FestiFools YouTube channel, the FestiFools Flickr group or everyone’s Festifools photos.