Feeling Free, photo by Matt Kazmierski
Few places in Michigan have the expansive view of the Lake Michigan overlook on Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It’s 450′ feet down to the water, so remember that freedom comes at a price!
View Matt’s photo bigger and see more in his slideshow.
Grand Island Lighthouse, photo by Steve Nowakowski
Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light shares the story of one of Michigan’s hard-luck lighthouses, the Grand Island East Channel Light. Work began in 1867 with the the clearing of a sandy peninsula on the southeast shore of the island:
As a result of the chosen site being both on low ground and close to the water’s edge, a considerable amount of cribbing was installed along the shore line to help stave-off erosion and undermining of the station’s foundation. Plans for the station building called-out a typical “schoolhouse” style combination dwelling and tower similar to that used frequently throughout the lakes. However, in order to minimize cost the building was to be of timber frame construction with wood siding, as opposed to the more common brick or stone materials used in such structures elsewhere. Painted white to increase its value as a daymark, the 1 ½ story dwelling incorporated a forty-five foot tower its southern end, and was outfitted with an oil-fired steamer lens with a focal plane of 49 feet.
…The combination of a wooden structure in such an exposed location, and its location on the low sandy area close to the water’s edge created an ongoing maintenance nightmare for the district engineers, with the station listed as one at which considerable repairs were taken every year for the following thirty years.
…Without any care throughout the years, the structure deteriorated rapidly. Without regular scraping and repainting, the once bright white structure had turned a dismal driftwood gray, and the cribs installed a hundred years previously had disintegrated completely, with the waters of Munising Bay lapping directly at the stones of the structure’s foundation.
Read on for much more including efforts that stabilized this structure and the lighthouses that replaced it after decommissioning in 1908.
View Steve’s photo background big and see more in his 2016 Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse slideshow.
More Michigan lighthouses on Michigan in Pictures!
Methdown, photo by Andrew McFarlane
“2016 is remarkably the third record year in a row in this series We don’t expect record years every year, but the ongoing long-term warming trend is clear.”
– NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director Gavin Schmidt
NASA reported last week that 2016 was the warmest year on record: You can read about it below, but I would like to offer two thoughts to the people who are getting angry about me ruining their daily photo with “politics”:
This is not politics. This is provable science backed up with excellent data.
While NASA (and I) believe in anthropocentric climate change (climate change driven by human activity) disbelief in that model DOESN’T MEAN IT’S NOT HAPPENING.
Earth’s 2016 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern recordkeeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Globally-averaged temperatures in 2016 were 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid-20th century mean. This makes 2016 the third year in a row to set a new record for global average surface temperatures.
The 2016 temperatures continue a long-term warming trend, according to analyses by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. NOAA scientists concur with the finding that 2016 was the warmest year on record based on separate, independent analyses of the data.
Read on for more at NASA.
You can view my photo from a thaw in early February 2009 background big and see more in my Frozen Shore slideshow.
March Street Hill, Kalamazoo, photo by Joel Dinda
Joel shared these 50-year-old photographs from Michigan’s January 1967 blizzard. They were taken by his father after the snow stopped falling on January 27th. Seeking Michigan has a feature that looks back on two late January blizzards in 1967 & 1978:
The 1967 blizzard fell on January 26 and 27, and dumped twenty-four inches of snow on Lansing. Lansing State Journal articles from the days after the storm tell stories of stranded bus passengers, a mother who picked her children up on horseback, and neighbors who built a human-sized Snoopy snow sculpture. Rachel Clark, an education specialist at the Michigan Historical Center, remembers growing up and hearing stories about the time her father got a ride to work from the National Guard, because he had to abandon his car during the storm. He was a reporter for the WJIM television station in 1967, and the station needed him to read the news and help keep Lansing residents informed about the storm.
Read on for more. Also see this mLive series of photos from the Blizzard of ’67 and scroll down for a video from MSU’s Brody Hall taken during the blizzard.
View Joel’s photo background bigilicious and see more great old photos in his Roger’s slides slideshow.
More history, more Kalamazoo, and more blizzards on Michigan in Pictures!
Northern Pike Caught while Ice Fishing in Central Michigan, photo by Lee Rentz
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources page on Northern Pike says that they spawn in early spring and are found in the Great Lakes and connecting waters of the Lower Peninsula year-round and that:
Pike are popular quarry of ice fishermen. Though they are primarily pursued with tip ups, baited with live minnows or suckers, they can be taken with rod and reel, either jigging or fishing with bait. Pike are a prime target of spear fishermen as well, who often use decoys or suspend suckers below their shanties to lure pike within range in relatively shallow water.
Pike typically spawn in the weedy backwater marshes; low water levels on the Great Lakes in recent years have probably hampered their reproductive success. Still, the shallow weedy bays of the Great Lakes and connecting waters, such as Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, the Portage Lake system of Lake Superior and the bays of Lakes Michigan and Huron, remain productive pike waters. winter pike fishing
Inland, the drowned river mouths along the Lake Michigan shoreline – such as Muskegon Lake, Portage Lake and Manistee Lake – are all noted pike waters. Some of the larger inland lakes and reservoirs, such as Michigamme and Houghton, have significant pike populations, though they can be found in many lakes and virtually all the larger rivers in the state.
View Lee’s photo of his caught & released pike background big and see more of his fish & fishing photos on Flickr.
Winter at Tahquamenon Falls, photo by Ali Majdfar
Beautiful shot from Michigan’s largest waterfall, Tahquamenon Falls. Click that link for more – the next photo down is the same angle without ice & snow!
View Ali’s photo background bigtacular and see more in his slideshow. (warning – there’s a couple of AMAZING bug closeups in there too!)
Fisherman on the river…, photo by Linda Goodhue
Linda wanted to catch the sunset and the Detroit skyline from the Ontario shore of the Detroit River and she got this shot as well!
View it bigger and see more in her slideshow.
Cracking Ice, photo by Jerry James Photography
Jerry writes: As I stood on the Ice waiting for the sun to set ( we was 1 1/2 hours early ) I could here all the ice around me cracking. talk about being paranoid, I wasn’t out to deep but it was still pretty cold and I wasn’t dressed to get wet. but everything ended good though, I stayed dry.
Always a good idea to be careful and know what’s below you when the temperatures rise.
View his photo from Muskegon bigger, see more in his slideshow, and follow Jerry James Photography on Facebook.
Seuss Trees, photo by Carolyn Gallo
Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
-Dr. Seuss
Fitting photo from southeast Michigan as we head into a weekend where temps are expected to climb into the 50s and not drop below freezing in Detroit until January 27th!
View Carolyn’s photo on Instagram, follow her @carolynchip and keep up with her photos on her 500px.
Soo Geometry I, photo by Liz Glass
Liz says she drove two-and-a-half hours last June to get a burger at the West Pier Drive-in (though she really went for the view). Check out her photo bigger and see more in her awesome Abstracts slideshow.
Michigan in Pictures 