Decoration Day

Posted on by farlane

Decoration Day, Kingsley, Michigan, 1909, courtesy Kingsley Branch Library

Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays…. The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.
~Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Wikipedia’s Memorial Day entry notes that the holiday may have begun as Decoration Day on May 1, 1865 when freed slaves joined with clergy, teachers and citizens of Charleston SC to form a gathering 10,000 strong to memorialize 257 Union prisoners of war and celebrate the “Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.” In 1866, the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, Gen. John Murray, proclamation for “Decoration Day” to be observed nationwide. May 30th was selected specifically because it was not the anniversary of a battle.

Michiganders can feel a measure of pride that Michigan in 1871 was the first to make “Decoration Day” an official state holiday. Read more about in Michigan’s First Memorial Day from Michigan History Magazine on Absolute Michigan.

The photo shows the parade held in Kingsley on Decoration Day in 1909. In foreground is a marching band. The largest building in the background is Brownson Sanitarium. It’s from the collections of the Kingsley Branch Library. Here’s another photo of the “Kingsley Cornet Band.”

Next Saturday you might want to join the library for the first annual Kingsley Adams Fly Festival with fly-tying lessons, music & food with special guest R. W. “Bob” Summers, someone who I once had the good fortune to interview.

Prescription for a great Michigan summer

Posted on by farlane

Flying High

Flying High, photo by Steven White Photographic Art

Get out. Have fun. Repeat as necessary.

See this photo big as the Sulver Lake Dunes or in Steven’s Our World in Color slideshow.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary could grow tenfold

Posted on by farlane

F.T. Barney exploration, photo courtesy Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is the only federally protected national marine sanctuary in the Great Lakes. It encompasses 448 square miles of Lake Huron’s bottomlands off Alpena. It was established in 2000 to protect a nationally significant collection of nearly 200 shipwrecks, spanning over a century of Great Lakes shipping history. It draws over 70,000 visitors every year and is a haven for protection, education and research for shipwrecks and our maritime heritage.

Now Thunder Bay is poised to grow almost tenfold to over 4,000 square miles including waters off Alcona and Presque Isle counties. The Great Lakes Echo notes that today is the last day for public comment for or against the expansion. You can email your comments to jeff.gray@noaa.gov. Carolyn Sundquist of the Echo explains that vessels can pass through it without restriction and that:

The proposed expansion includes an estimated 200 shipwrecks and would connect the underwater sanctuary from Michigan to the shores of Canada. No public funds are allotted as part of the approval.

“Very positive support has been received from the public comment sessions and many of the local governments have passed resolutions supporting the expansion,” said Jeff Gray, the sanctuary’s superintendent.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, various state senators and officials of adjacent cities have written letters of support. So has the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Sanctuary explains that the 126′ two masted schooner F.T. Barney was built in 1856 and wrecked on October 23, 1868 en route from Cleveland to Milwaukee. The F.T. Barney was run into by the schooner T.J. Bronson and sank in less than two minutes in very deep water with a cargo of coal. No lives were lost, and the wreck is one of the most complete of its kind with masts and deck equipment still in place.

See many more shots of divers and shipwrecks in their Fieldwork 2007 gallery – be sure to toggle the “View” link to slideshow in the top left for larger pics.

Many more Michigan shipwrecks on Michigan in Pictures!

Best Lake Beach: Petoskey State Park

Posted on by farlane

Petoskey State Park - Smile

Petoskey State Park – Smile, photo by Brian Gudas

TV 9&10 News reports that Weather Channel viewers have named the beach at Petoskey State Park as the Best Lake Beach in America.

The Michigan DNR’s page on Petoskey State Park explains that:

Petoskey State Park, located on the north end of Little Traverse Bay, is situated on 303 scenic acres and offers a beautiful sandy beach on the bay. The park has two separate modern campgrounds. Tannery Creek offers 98 campsites, and Dunes offers 70 campsites.

The park land was originally deeded to Pay-Me-Gwau under an Ottawa Indian treaty in July of 1855. Later, much of the land was the site of the W.W. Rice Company. In 1934, the City of Petoskey purchased the land and named it the Petoskey Bathing Beach. In April of 1968, the beach was sold to the State of Michigan. On May 21, 1969, the state was given the title to the land. The campground opened its sites to the first campers in July of 1970.

Check Brian’s photo out on black and in his North Camping Trip slideshow.

You can see some more shots in the Petoskey State Park slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool, and more great Michigan beaches from Michigan in Pictures.

What do you think? What’s your favorite beach in Michigan?

Happy Gwen Frostic Day!

Posted on by farlane

Gwen Frostic Studio ~ Benzonia, Michigan

Gwen Frostic Studio ~ Benzonia, Michigan, photo by Trish P. – K1000 Gal

The Elberta Alert tipped me off last year that in 1978, Michigan Governor William Milliken proclamed May 23 Gwen Frostic Day in Michigan, and in 1986 she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Their page for Sara Gwendolyn Frostic (Gwen Frostic) who was born in 1906 and passed away in 2001 says:

Author, artist, lecturer, and founder and sole proprietor of Presscraft Papers in Benzonia, Michigan, Gwen Frostic is known throughout the nation for her images of nature and for illustrated books which reflect her indomitable philosophy.

Frostic was born in Sandusky, Michigan and lived in St. Charles before moving to Wyandotte for her high school years. Interested in art from an early age, she used a band saw to create life-size posters for school events, and later studied art education at Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan Universities. During World War II, she worked in a Ford Motor Company bomber plant where she learned production, a skill she put to good use running the 15 Heidelberg presses in her northern Michigan printing and sales establishment. These presses make impressions from her hand-carved linoleum blocks onto paper and the resulting prints found their way into distinctive books, pamphlets, stationery, and other products she designed.

After beginning her business in Wyandotte, Frostic moved to Benzie County in 1955, starting with 40 acres and gradually creating a 285-acre wildlife sanctuary 35 miles southwest of Traverse City. Her commitment to nature and design is reflected in her home, studio, and print shop which draw thousands of visitors each summer.

The photo shows the Gwen Frostic Studio on River Road in Benzie County. The studio was also the artist’s home – click through for hours and such. Here’s a video interview with Gwen Frostic from 1998.

Check the photo out bigger and see more from the studio (including the massive Heidelberg presses used to print her iconic designs in Trish’s Gwen Frostic slideshow.

Strawberry Season in Michigan

Posted on by farlane

Fresh Picked Strawberries

Fresh Picked Strawberries, photo by maggiesonmain

Strawberries are on the way to Michigan’s farm markets,fruit stands and U-pick farms and grocery store shelves. Absolute Michigan has the scoop, including a recipe for homemade strawberry sorbet!

Check this out bigger and in Maggie’s slideshow.

Partial Solar Eclipse this Sunday!

Posted on by farlane

solar eclipse

solar eclipse, photo by tobibritsch

mLive reports that there will be an annular (partial) solar eclipse tomorrow evening. David L. DeBruyn, curator emeritus of the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium in Grand Rapids says that Michigan will be too far out of the eclipse’s “path of angularity” to see it entirely but that:

The good news, to lift your spirits after dashing them: Starting around 8:22 p.m., Michigan be able to catch about 40 minutes of a partial eclipse as the sun dips below the northwestern horizon and the moon just begins creeping across the sun’s disk, according to DeBruyn.

As if that weren’t already kind of cool enough, DeBruyn said the Sun and moons’ positions at sunset will distort their shapes and make for oval-shaped, grotesque-looking orbs. “You will find that … a little over one-third of the sun’s disk will be hidden by the moon, and that both the sun and the moon’s disk will be distorted because of the atmospheric refraction just as the sun is setting,” DeBruyn said. “It’s a bending and distorting of the sun’s rays as they pass through the atmosphere of the Earth.”

Check this out on black and in her sunrise, sunset slideshow.

More eclipse fun on Michigan in Pictures.

Before we were owls

Posted on by farlane

10

10, photo by Sherri & Dan

The Great Horned Owl article on Michigan in Pictures is stocked with all kinds of information about what this little guy will grow up to be (Sherri & Dan also took that photo). Also see Bubo virginianus (great horned owl) on the University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web and check out this video of three little horned owlets.

See this photo background big and and follow this owl’s growth in  Sherri & Dan’s owls slideshow.

Ice is Nice

Posted on by farlane

Lake Superior In January (6)

Lake Superior In January (6), photo by siskokid

Today on Absolute Michigan we’re reporting that ice coverage on the Great Lakes is down 71% over the last 40 years. While scientists are certain that will be significant impacts, a lack of research means that the extent of these impacts isn’t clear. Sort of like flying a plane in the fog without instruments…

Read the article and then chill out with the ice slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool.

Check it out on black and in Jim’s gigantic Lake Superior slideshow.

Morning on Pearl Lake

Posted on by farlane

DSC_5813

DSC_5813, photo by jsorbieus

Today is the opening day of walleye season in Michigan. I couldn’t find a good walleye photo, but even though Pearl Lake isn’t on the list of top walleye lakes in Michigan, I thought it captured the mood perfectly! Much more at Michigan Walleye on Absolute Michigan.

Check this out background bigtacular and in Jim’s My Most Interesting Photos slideshow.

More fish & fishing on Michigan in Pictures.