This week the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council hosts the 30th Annual Michigan Wine & Spirits Competition.
I think that it’s a good time for the wine drinkers among us to head out to your neighborhood store or restaurant and pick up a bottle or two of Michigan wine … and if your favorite establishment doesn’t carry any, ask them why.
For more on the competition and Michigan wine in general, check out Absolute Michigan keyword wine!
State Fair, 1974, photo courtesy Archives of Michigan
The Image of the Month for August 2007 from the Archives of Michigan:
In this 1974 photo, six year-old Jennifer Weise tugs on a Holstein cow’s ear. The animal was one of 8,000 displayed at the Michigan State Fair that year.
Michigan’s first State Fair was held in Detroit in 1849. The Michigan Agricultural Society sponsored and organized the event. The fair moved to Ann Arbor in 1850 and then back to Detroit from 1851-1862. From 1863-1904, it rotated amongst different Michigan cities.
Read the rest of the history of the Michigan State Fairs (there’s also a UP fair) and click for the official sites for the Michigan State Fair (Wednesday, August 22nd through Labor Day, September 3rd, 2007) and the Upper Peninsula State Fair (held August 13th – 19, 2007).
King of the Skies, photo by OtisDude.
According to the Selfridge Airshow web site, this show is Southeast Michigan’s largest free air show and is held every year in late July.
Otis has a few more photos from the air show.
madlennox by humphreyphotography
Scott Humphrey took this photo of the Hotel Madison-Lenox in Detroit shortly before its demolition. He has a whole lot of great photo to view at Scott Humphrey Photography, so get on over there and take a look!
We are featuring a short film with imagery of the demolition of this historic hotel called Vacancy by Brandon Walley on Absolute Michigan today.
North to Point Betsie, photo by farlane.
The terms of the multi-year deal I signed with Michigan in Pictures allow me to blog one of my own photos every 23 months or so for the purposes of shameless self promotion.
This photo is one of the images we’re using on the new web site betsiebay.net that we launched yesterday. We’ll be doing more photos and video and music. We’re just getting started, but I’m pretty happy with how the site is shaping up!
Speaking of deals and promotion and Michigan in (moving) Pictures, the Traverse City Film Festival is in town this week and we’re covering some Michigan film news including an Absolute Michigan exclusive video with Michigan filmmaker Rich Brauer.
Downtown Grand Rapids, photo by DarrinW.
Darrin says that this is one of his favorite vantage points to view downtown GR, and he’s put it up big enough that you can make your desktop another excellent place to view Michigan’s second largest city!
Mighty Mac at 50, photo by smiles7.
Here’s a photo from last weekend’s 50th Anniversary Celebration for the Mackinac Bridge. She has another shot of the fireworks on both the Mackinac City and St. Ignace ends of the bridge.
Michphotog has a nice set of photos of the fireworks as well!
Did anyone else make it there? We’d love a report and some more photos.
V8, photo by rckrawczykjr.
Ralph took this photo of the grille badging of a 1933 Cadillac V8 Series at the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
It’s part of a great set of photos of GM’s archive of auto history.
flippin’ sweet., photo by jill d.
Of this very wallpaper-friendly photo, Jill writes:
i took this one of my friend phil last spring. we were at this place called the bowl, which is basically a huge sand dune on the coast of lake michigan in holland, michigan. phil was a diver in high school — the combo of his back flip and the amazing sunset combined to make one of my favorite photos i’ve ever taken.
The Holland CVB’s history page tells the story of religious opression and economic depression in the Netherlands leading Dr. Albertus Christiaan & Christine Van Raalte, their family and congregation to take ship to America. At Detroit:
Dr. Van Raalte left his flock to survey the area and determine the best location for his Dutch Kolonie. Of all the sites that he studied, the one that was made to order for his colonizing plans was at the mouth of the Black River where it flowed into Black Lake (now Lake Macatawa) which, in turn, led to Lake Michigan. As soon as Van Raalte had satisfied himself that he had found the most desirable location for his colony, he lost no time in leading his group to the spot. They reached their destination on February 9, 1847.
There’s a ton more information about the early trials of the city and modern day Holland at the excellent Holland Convention and Visitor’s Bureau web site. Every May the city hosts Tulip Time, a celebration of all things Dutch and Dutch Village is a major Michigan tourist attraction. I think that this photo was taken at Holland State Park (also known as Ottawa Beach).
Wikipedia’s entry for Holland, Michigan says that as of the 2000 census, there were 35,048 people residing in the city (112,000 people in the metro area). Wikipedia also notes that Holland is home to the world’s largest pickle factory, that it is the birthplace of Slashdot, one of the first (the first?) blogs created by Hope College student Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda & company and that L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, while summering in the resort community of Macatawa.
We’ve added Holland to our Absolute Michigan map of Michigan. Someday we’ll figure out how to let other people add stuff too. You can find more pictures of Holland from Michigan in Pictures (including a nice bit of history and a Tulip Time extravaganza) and get business info and stories at Absolute Michigan keyword Holland.
Michigan in Pictures 