Michigan’s Icy Great Lakes

Posted on by farlane

Icy Great LakeAs Far As The Eye Can See

Icy Great Lake by {D} and As Far As The Eye Can See by siskokid

I’ve been talking a lot about the amazingness of this winter, but it’s even better to show it to you. I think these two photos, taken just half a day apart, can be entered into the record as Exhibit A.

Dominique took a flight from Charlevoix to Beaver Island the other day and brought back some great pictures of the huge amount of ice that our uber-winter has spawned on Lake Michigan. Be sure and check this out bigger and also have a look at her ice slideshow.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away at Little Girl’s Point on the far western end of the Upper Peninsula, Jim saw ice fields as far as the eye can see. Bigger is better.

Mother Nature seems to agree this winter, and I hope you get a chance to get out and have a little Michigan frozen fun this weekend!

Michigan Winter Wallpaper Page

Redecoration

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

and another view of my new favorite wall...

and another view of my new favorite wall…, photo by artsy_T.

Tina says that she has found her new place to take portraits. You can see it bigger in her Ann Arbor slideshow.

Here’s the fence’s story, via the Ann Arbor News:

For years, Erica Fink passed by the ho-hum brown fence near her northeast Ann Arbor home that stretches for 1000 feet along Huron Parkway between Nixon and Plymouth road.

Then she had a bright idea.

“One day, I decided it should become beautiful,” said Fink, who just completed her first year at the University of Michigan, where she is majoring in art. “This area is full of life and children, and I wanted the fence to reflect what’s going on in the neighborhood.”

In this time where we’re seeking huge changes as a state and nation, it’s nice to have a reminder that small changes can make a difference too!

Intergalactic Human Sled Race at Grand Haven Winterfest

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

bDSC_2656

bDSC_2656, photo by cyoas55.

Actually, this is from last year’s Cardboard Sled Race at Mulligan’s Hollow, but I really needed to say “Intergalactic Human Sled Race” for my own fulfillment … and hopefully to SEE a picture of it in the Absolute Michigan pool (hint, hint).

The race takes place Friday night at 8 PM on Washington Ave. in Grand Haven and will feature teams with 4 Pullers, 1 Musher and 1 Rider. It’s all part of Grand Haven Winterfest 2009 that takes place January 22-25 and features all kinds of winter fun: sled & snowboard competitions, ice sculpting, a snow angel contest and (of course) the sport of kings, hamster and gerbil racing. There’s also art, music and event a luau. Sounds like great fun if you’re in the area this weekend (and please remember the part about the photos of the Intergalactic Human Sled Race).

This photo is one of several in Craig’s Winterfest slideshow and there’s even more in the Grand Haven Winterfest slideshow.

Return to the Eben Ice Caves

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

icecave

icecave, photo by johndecember.

A lot of folks have been coming by this month looking for pictures of the Eben Ice Caves in the UP’s Alger County (also known as the Rock River Canyon Ice Caves). Check out John’s Eben Ice Caves slideshow for a whole bunch of cool photos!

You can learn a lot more about this cool wintertime phenomenon at The Eben Ice Caves on Michigan in Pictures.

A bridge for Obama

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Untitled, photo by Jenny Murray.

So when I was looking through Michigan Obama photos I found this one by Jenny Murray.

It was one of two photos that was taken by photographers I know in Time Magazine’s Barack Obama on Flickr.

I thought that was pretty neat.

A Dream Realized

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

A Dream Realized, photo by lorainedicerbo

This photo by Loraine DiCerbo was taken at the Hiedelberg Project in Detroit. It’s part of her Detroit set (slideshow).

I thought it would be a fitting picture to pair with this excerpt from the text of Dr. Martin Luther King’s December 18, 1963 address at Western Michigan University:

The world in which we live is geographically one. Now we are challenged to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Now it is true that the geographical oneness of this age has come into being to a large extent through man’s scientific ingenuity. Man through his scientific genius has been able to dwarf distance and place, time and change. Our jet planes have compressed minutes into distances that once took months and weeks and days. I think Bob Hope has adequately described this new jet age in which we live. He said “It is an age in which it is possible to take a non-stop flight from Los Angeles, California to New York city–a distance of some three thousand miles–and if on taking off in Los Angeles you develop hiccups, you will ‘hic’ in Los Angeles and ‘cup’ in New York City.” You know it is possible because time difference to take a non-stop flight from Tokyo, Japan on Sunday morning and arrive in Seattle, Washington on the preceding Saturday night and when your friends meet you at the airport and ask when you left Tokyo, you will have to say, I left tomorrow.

Now this is a bit humorous but I’m trying to laugh a basic fact into all of us. It is simply this, that through our scientific genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood. Now through our ethical and moral commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great challenge of the hour. This is true of individuals. It is true of nations. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone.

…or state. We have a lot of work before us, and I hope that Michigan can be an active and engaged part of reshaping our naton and world for a changed future.

Michigan Eagles

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Michigan Eagles

Michigan Eagles, photo by Mi Bob.

Bob writes:

On my way home this morning, I came acoss a number of large birds hovering around an opening in the ice on the Grand River. A closer look confirmed my suspicion that they were hungry eagles looking for lunch.

Check this photo out larger, view his Eagles set (slideshow) and try to soar like an eagle this weekend!

Enjoying a winter for the ages

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Raymond flying high

Raymond flying high, photo by gerrybuckel.

A co-worker of mine who covered a Michigan Cup cross-country race last weekend said to me: “It feels like we’re having a winter for the ages this year – I’m getting out skiing and sledding and stuff more than I have in years.”

That made me wonder if I was enjoying my winter as much as I should be. My conclusion was that I’m not and my (belated) resolution is to start!

Gerry’s sons seem to have no such problems. She writes that they got a new tow behind sled for Christmas and decided to try it out behind the snowmobile. She made them put it up when I got this picture (she let them back out again though).

“They remind me of my brothers when we were kids,” she says. I hope that we can all take a little time and make sure that our kids (and ourselves) remind us of those days!

fading boundaries

Posted on by farlane

fading boundaries, photo by urban picasso studios

David suggests viewing this photo from Otsego County on black. I agree!

Underwater images from a Lake Michigan Stonehenge

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

If you’ve ever wondered what the most popular post on Michigan in Pictures was, you’ve arrived. Over 100,000 people followed a Reddit post here to learn about an underwater discovery.

September 29, 2011 Welcome everyone from Reddit. We don’t have any update to this story right now but I’ve emailed Mark and will post anything I learn. You might enjoy some of our Weird Michigan features from Absolute Michigan too!

Lake Michigan Stones

Lake Michigan Stones, photo via bldgblog.

In Stonehenge Beneath the Waters of Lake Michigan, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG writes:

In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University, discovered a series of stones – some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon – 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan. If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old – coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.

Regarding the slightly repurposed “sector scan sonar” device that Northwestern Michigan University College professor and underwater archaeologist Dr. Mark Holley & Brian Abbott were using to survey some old wrecks when they made their discovery, Geoff writes:

The circular images this thing produces are unreal; like some strange new art-historical branch of landscape representation, they form cryptic dioramas of long-lost wreckage on the lakebed. Shipwrecks (like the Tramp, which went down in 1974); a “junk pile” of old boats and cars; a Civil War-era pier; and even an old buggy are just some of the topographic features the divers discovered.

You’ll definitely want to click through to read the rest and see more pictures!

You can read a detailed feature about this in U.S. archeologists find possible mastodon carving on Lake Michigan rock at NowPublic and listen to some radio reports from the time of the discovery in August of 2007 that include an interview with Dr. Holley and another with Grand Traverse Bay Ottawa Indian tribal member and historian John Bailey in Mammoth discovery beneath Grand Traverse Bay? on Absolute Michigan.