American Memory: Pointe aux Barques in Lake Huron

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Lake Huron from the caves, Pointe aux Barques.

Lake Huron from the caves, Pointe aux Barques

The United States Library of Congress is a shining example of why we need government: to perform the vital work of preserving our heritage. One of the ways you can experience this preserved heritage is through American Memory from the Library of Congress. According to the mission, American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity.

Today’s selection is from a gallery of photos from the collection of the Detroit Publishing Co. taken on and around Lake Huron near Pointe aux Barques and Port Austin in Huron County. It’s a gallery of 20 photos of natural wonders like Turnip Rock and structures such as the Port Austin Reef Light (if that link doesn’t work for you, try the Pointe Aux Barques link on this page).

You can get some great present-day photos of the shoreline at Port Austin Kayak Rental … either in their gallery or by renting a kayak and taking your own! If you have taken any photos of the area, please feel welcome to post links to them in the comments! Port Austin Kayaks also helpfully provided a map link that lets us give you this cool satellite view of the Port Austin shoreline! (I believe that point at the western edge is where Turnip Rock is)

Library of Congress LC-D4-12361

Updated Oct 2, 2008: Check out modern day photos in Kayaking Point Aux Barques!

World Water Day in the world’s water headquarters

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Michigan and the Great Lakes from Space

Provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE (via Wikimedia)

I am not even going to tell you how long I agonized over the perfect photo with which to mark World Water Day. Water is one of the things that defines Michigan above all others. Industries may come and go, but (assuming we can take care of it) Michigan’s water is forever.

Here’s hoping…

The Salmon Trout River on the Yellow Dog Plains

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

The Salmon Trout River on the Yellow Dog Plains

The Salmon Trout River on the Yellow Dog Plains, photo by savethewildup.

Somewhere there are lines, and I’m pretty sure that today I will cross a few. Over the life of this blog, I have stayed away from things that have sides, because sides too often divide us and this blog is really all about loving Michigan.

In my day job, I build web sites. A short while ago, I and some really talented people put together a new site for some people that have spent the last few years at a hard and lonely task: speaking up and standing up for Michigan’s rivers and lakes against the terrible risks posed by metallic sulfide mining and acid mine drainage.

They have been focused on the Salmon Trout River on the Yellow Dog Plains, but that is just the first of many that will follow. To be very clear: There has never been a metallic sulfide mine that has failed to pollute its watershed. You can read more from Save the Wild UP … and scroll down for a special treat featuring tons more photos and music from Greg Brown’s upcoming CD, Yellow Dog.

More photos of the beauty of the Yellow Dog Plains and Salmon Trout River can be seen at Save the Wild UP’s web site.

If you are a photographer who loves Michigan’s water and wild, please consider making them available to be used in fighting metallic sulfide mining and other threats to Michigan’s legacy of unspoiled water and add them to the Save the Wild UP photo pool.

Greg Brown, Yellow Dog slide show (or new window)

.closed for the season.

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

.closed for the season.

.closed for the season., photo by tEdGuY49.

According to the tags, this photo was taken along US-23 in (or near) the town of Oscoda on the Lake Huron shore.

I kind of sat on this photo for a couple weeks as I had just blogged one from Ted. Looking back through the pictures from Ted that we’ve featured, I realize that he has a special gift for seeing the bright things.

Up close with the Tawas Point Lighthouse

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Tawas Point Lighthouse by midmichphotos

Tawas Point Lighthouse by midmichphotos

This photo is one of a set of lighthouse photos. According to Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light (which also has a stunning photo of the Tawas light in the 1800s) nothing came easy for those who sought to establish an aid to navigation of Ottawa Point at one end of Tawas Bay on Lake Huron. By the 1870s, scant years after construction of the first light on the point:

By virtue of the prevailing Northeast wind, Ottawa Point had forever been in a state of evolution. Driven by wave and wind, sand from the lake-bed and the shoreline was continually deposited onto the end of the Point, changing its configuration. Over the years since the construction of the Light, this natural reshaping had continued unabated, lengthening the Point by almost a mile, and leaving the old lighthouse “high and dry,” three quarters of a mile from the end of the point it was designed to mark. Additionally, the light had a reputation among mariners as being extremely dim and difficult to see from out in the Lake. The combination of the dimness of the light and its distance from the Point represented a disaster waiting to happen.

Read on for the rest of the story. You can get directions to the light and information about nearby attractions from Michigan.gov and information about Tawas State Park from the DNR. You might also want to check this map of the location of the Tawas Point Lighthouse (and see some other pics taken there).

The Southdown Challenger

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Quiet Night on the Detroit River

Quiet Night on the Detroit River, photo by theempirebuilder.

The latest entry into the Small World Files is today’s photo of the 100 year old Southdown Challenger upbound on the Detroit River just above the Ambassador Bridge. Mac of Detroit Bike Blog wondered if I’d seen these photos. I hadn’t and spent a good long while poring through this amazing set of Southdown/St. Mary’s Challenger photos that takes you all across the Great Lakes, under the Mackinac Bridge and even belowdecks.

A few recent ones were taken on Leelanau County’s Suttons Bay. I mentioned that the hill in one of them looked like the hill on a site we had designed for a housing development. Wade, the photographer, said “I’m sure you are right. In fact, in the link you sent, the Challenger is in the 5th row from the top on the far left side.”

Anyway, check out this amazing gallery of photos and also head over to Boatnerd.com to read the equally amazing history of the St. Mary’s Challenger, which was built in 1906 in Detroit and has gone through a dizzying array of names and circumstances in the century that followed. Seriously, there should be a movie or something about this ship.


Mackinaw Bridge … Mackinac or Mackinaw?

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Mackinaw Bridge

Mackinaw Bridge, photo by wyoming_1.

David Vernon writes:

An interesting picture. Taken from the somewhat world famous Cupola Bar at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, looking west towards the wonderful Mackinaw Bridge. The sun was behind the clouds and setting fast but not entirely influencing life at the bridge colorwise.This shot was taken through a window but you have to look hard to see any reflection.

He can probably be excused for getting the last letter of the bridge wrong (though he is out of the spelling bee!) as he lives near the Mackinaw River in Illinois. Besides, it’s  confusing to know whether it’s Mackinac or Mackinaw. Regarding “Mackinac or Mackinaw?”, the St. Ignace Chamber says:

The native people called the area Michinni-makinong. The name was shortened over the years by French and British settlers. In the 1600s, the French pronounced the ending as “aw”, which translated to their spelling as “ac”. Michilimackinac, Fort Mackinac, Mackinac Island the Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Bridge are spelled with an “ac”, but pronounced “aw”. Upon the arrival of the British, a village established as Mackinaw was pronounced as “aw” and also spelled that way.

Basically, the bridge and the island are “ac” and the city is “aw”.

Sunrise at Harrisville Harbor

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Sunrise at Harrisville Harbor, photo by jacalynsnana.

Michigan’s northeastern shore bills itself as the “Sunrise Side”, and this photo of dawn at the harbor of Harrisville, Michigan certainly illustrates why.

View large on black or click for wallpaper-sized versions.

The Double Horizon

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

The Double Horizon

The Double Horizon, photo by The ClayTaurus.

Of the above photo, Chris Clayson writes We’ll take ripples over mirrors any day. If you view it big you will see that the 2nd boat is well on its way to being becalmed.

This photo is part of a set that seeks to provide on boat’s perspective (Unplugged of Port Sanilac) of racing in the Port Huron to Mackinac, one of Michigan’s two annual long distance sailing races (the other being the Chicago to Mackinac Race).

View the 2006 Port Huron to Mac Race set.

Hessel Antique Boat Show

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Antique Boat Show

Antique Boat Show, photo by gretchdorian.

The above photo by Gretchen Dorian is part of a great set of photos from the Hessel boat show. You can see most of them by clicking the pic above, but there’s a couple extra at her Gretchen Dorian Photography web site (click the Hessel link when you get there).

I was reminded this morning that the annual Hessel Antique Wooden Boat Show and Festival of the Arts is held every year in Hessel on the second Saturday of August (Saturday, August 12 this year).

According to the Les Cheneaux Islands Area Tourist Association:

The Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show, held each year in Hessel, Michigan, has been a center of attraction since it began in 1976. The show boasts more than 170 entries each year, and is easily the largest show featuring antique and classic wood boats.

Held in conjunction with the Antique Wooden Boat Show each year is the Festival of Arts. Artists and craftspersons display and sell a variety of gift items including photographs, paintings, pottery made with natural Upper Peninsula clay, wood toys, dolls, and many other items. Around 75 of the state’s finest artists will be showing and selling their work.

Here are a bunch more photos from the Hessel Antique Wooden Boat Show!