Past and Present, photo by O Caritas.
Patrick writes From Michigan Avenue, looking north… the idle Board of Water & Light building is on the left and Lansing Center is on the right. The walk bridge connects the Lansing Center with the Radisson Hotel.
This photo is part of a huge set of panoramas including shots of Spartan Stadium, the Red Cedar River, Magdalena’s Tea House and an amazing 72 shot Autostitched shot of the US-127 overpass.
The above photo of the Miners River winding along Miners Beach before flowing into Lake Superior is one of many from a fantastic new photo gallery by Lars Jensen. His galleries and reports take you on amazing hikes and this one is no exception!
View Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Fall Photo Gallery & Trip Report from randomSPACE. (there’s a bunch more galleries of outdoor beauty from Michigan and elsewhere from Lars Jensen there too!)
The View, photo by I am Jacques Strappe.
Marjorie has quite a few more photos of Sugarloaf Mountain near Marquette.
The Upper Michigan Informer has good information on how to get to Sugarloaf Mountain (just 5 miles north of Marquette) and the trails you’ll find there.
In addition to some history, Hunt’s UP Guide quotes outdoor writer Jerry Dennis from A Place on the Water: An Angler’s Reflections on Home:
“Like many downstaters who attend Northern Michigan University, I was there for the country. . . . Even those places that were most popular gave access to a wildness that is rarely encountered in the Lower Peninsula. A few miles from campus, at the summit of a little mountain known as Sugar Loaf, you could stand on rock outcroppings and look north over the almost frightening vastness of Lake Superior, then turn south and see unbroken hills of forest tumbling inland toward the horizon like bunched rugs. It was country – and this is what I had come north to find – big enough to get lost in.”
FYI, A Place on the Water is a great book if you love Michigan, the outdoors or simple good writing. If you love fall’s beauty, check out the Michigan Fall Wallpaper series!
lake of the clouds, again, photo by Apparat-chik.
Sometimes I have to search and search and other times it’s just there. This photo is part of a set that wins “Best Title for October 2006” called If this isn’t “Deliverance,” then it must be Michigan UP. According to his bio, Mike is a brilliant yet reclusive volcanologist residing on my private game reserve on the Kamchatka Penninsula .. or something like that.
The DNR has information about hiking & camping in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park (aka the Porkies). You can find more about the area at the Porcupine Mountains Ontonagon Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. In its Porcupine Mountains entry, Wikipedia says that they were named by the native Ojibwa people, supposedly because their silhouette had the shape of a porcupine and that “the most striking geological feature of the Porcupine Mountains is the long basalt and conglomerate escarpment parallel to the Lake Superior shore and overlooking Lake of the Clouds, a continuation of the same copper-bearing bedrock found farther northeast on the Keweenaw Peninsula.”
The park was formed in 1945 to protect the last large stand of old-growth forest remaining in Michigan. The park has an excellent network of backcountry trails for hiking, backpacking and cross-country skiing, rustic trailside cabins, campgrounds, swimming and boating areas. The North Country Trail runs through the park.
You have to be happy that this photo is part of the Michigan in Pictures Michigan Fall Wallpaper series!
Union Depot Michigan Historical Marker at Clara’s Restaurant, photo by Kalamazoo Richard.
Today’s photo fits with Absolute Michigan’s latest Michigan Site of the Week: Michigan Historical Markers, a tremendous resource for Michigan history.
The marker reads:
The Union Depot began passenger service for the Michigan Central and Pere Marquette Railroads in 1902. The Detroit architectural firm of Spier and Rohns, which planned many Michigan Central stations, designed the building with Chateauesque conical towers and cut stone arches. The depot closed in 1972. Restauranteur Peter Jubeck bought the building in 1978 and transformed it into an eatery, retaining the quarter-sawn oak interior and installing locally crafted stained glass windows.
You may also want to check out Clara’s Restaurants web site (lots of history on the Lansing and Battle Creek train stations) and Flickr’s Historic Michigan group for lots more rail stations and other history.
Whitefish Point Lighthouse, photo by heidigoseek.
Heidi writes This light, the oldest active on Lake Superior, began operating in 1849, though the present tower was constructed later. Early a stopping place for Indians, voyageurs, and Jesuit missionaries, the point marks a course change for ore boats and other ships navigating this treacherous coastline to and from St. Mary’s Canal. Since 1971 this light, fog signal, and radio beacon have been automated and controlled from Sault Ste. Marie.
The Whitefish Point Lighthouse & The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum form the premier destination for lovers of Great Lakes maritime lore. You can get much more information and many more photos at Destination: Michigan Whitefish Point Lighthouse & Museum on Absolute Michigan.
Watch the Fords Go By, photo by Maia C.
A billboard on the side of the Model T barn at Greenfield Village.
This is one of several photos by Maia in Destination: Michigan’s visit to The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Check it out!!
9714crop, photo by Hemicuda82.
Isaiah Mays captured a great shot of this Flint landmark.
Of the Weather Ball, Gary Flynn at Water Winter Wonderland writes:
Long before The Weather Channel existed and more than a decade before Flint even received cable TV, people in and around downtown Flint could look at the top of the Citizens Bank building and figure out the weather forecast every evening. Ever since the Citizens Bank Weather Ball was built in 1956, Flint residents and visitors who knew the Weather Ball rhyme knew what to expect:
When the weather ball is red, higher temperatures ahead.
When the weather ball is blue, lower temperatures are due.
Yellow light in weather ball means they’ll be no change at all.
When colors blink in agitation, there’s going to be precipitation.
Read the rest of A Very Useful Landmark at Water Winter Wonderland.
Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum, photo by oldbrushes.
Kathy got up early this morning to catch the sunrise at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.
Today is President Ford’s birthday – he’s 93. According to Wikipedia:
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born July 14, 1913 as Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) was the 38th (1974–1977) President of the United States and the 40th (1973–1974) Vice President. He was the first person appointed to the Vice-Presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, and upon succession to the presidency became the first (and to date, only) President in U.S. history to fill that office without having been elected either President or Vice President.
The Wikipedia page has tons of information about Ford, along with speeches and pictures like this one of a young Gerry Ford and his dog (you wouldn’t think a 5 year old could look like Ford, but there you go). You can also see over 100 images of President Gerald Ford in the Library of Congress and there are some neat pics on this bio at the Library /Museum site too!
Pictured Rocks3, photo by Devo(lutio)n.
Here’s a beautiful photo of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore by Devon Akmon. Devon was one of a number of photographers who were kind enough to let us use their photos on our Destination: Michigan tour of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Absolute Michigan. It’s the first of what we hope will be a whole lot of profiles of great places to visit in Michigan that we’ll be publishing at Destination: Michigan!
You may want to compare this photo with a shot taken from the same spot in the winter and/or check out Devon’s other photos of the Pictured Rocks.
Michigan in Pictures 
