Tumbledown on the Keweenaw Waterway

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

n2c_101-0545

n2c_101-0545, photo by sgowtham.

Gowtham writes that thanks to not so good winter, scorching summer and lack of rains, water level in Portage Canal (near the dredge) was observably low (without that, he probably wouldn’t have gotten this picture).

Wikipedia says that The Keweenaw Waterway:

… is a partly natural, partly manmade waterway which cuts across the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. Parts of the waterway are variously known as the Keweenaw Waterway, Portage Canal, Portage Lake Canal, Portage River, Lily Pond, and Portage Lake. The waterway connects to Lake Superior at its north and south entries with sections known as Portage Lake and Torch Lake in between. The primary tributary to Portage Lake is the Sturgeon River.

Originally a small river used by natives for transportation and fishing, the waterway was dredged and extended in the 1860s in a joint venture between the United States Government and several mining corporations. The expanded canal allowed freighters to haul copper from the rich copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula out through Lake Superior to larger cities. It also enabled supply boats and freighters to reach the cities of Houghton and Hancock, which supplied goods to most of Michigan’s copper region. The local mines’ stamp mills dumped large quantities of stamp sand (containing traces of copper and chemical leaching agents) into the waterway, causing significant environmental damage near the sand dumps.

It’s part of the Keweenaw Water Trail.

He has many more great photos at sgowtham.net and you can also check out his Flickriver.

Railroad Bridge at Newaygo State Park

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Railroad Bridge

Railroad Bridge, photo by kek19.

The DNR’s page on Newaygo State Park says it is:

…a 99-site rustic campground, which sits atop 20-foot embankments overlooking the Hardy Dam Pond, a six-mile flooding of the Muskegon River (view on the Absolute Michigan map). The park caters primarily to campers, anglers and recreational boaters. There are several picnic sites overlooking the reservoir for day users. The campground is nestled in oak and poplar forests and is noted for its large, private sites and scenic beauty. There is a 20-30 foot forested buffer between sites, and each site is provided with a picnic table and a fire ring.

This TTV (through the viewfinder – more TTV on Michigan in Pictures) photo is part of Karri’s Nature set – definitely view it as a slideshow.

View more of Karri’s photos at RedBubble and see more from Newaygo County in the Newaygo County group on Flickr.

A walk in the Park

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

A walk in the Park

A walk in the Park, photo by Hooks Pix.

Riverside Park in Grand Rapids that is.

More fall wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures

fall images

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

fall images

fall images, photo by buckshot.jones.

This photo of the reflected and swirling color on the Manistee River is part of Scott’s Fall color 2008 set (slideshow). He writes:

For some reason this year the colors seem particularly robust. Maybe it is the weather, warm days, cool nights and not much heavy rain, or maybe I’m just more in tune this year. Either way, I am diggin’ it.

Fall in Michigan, my idea of paradise. No other place I’d rather be.

After a drive from northwest to southeast, I can deliver a 10-4 on the color this year along with a hearty “me too” on the no place I’d rather be.

…and yes, they are available at “biggie-size” – get much more autumn awesome on the Michigan fall wallpaper page!

Linden Mills on the Shiawassee River

Posted on by farlane

Linden Mill, photo by Patrick T Power

MichMarkers.com has the text from the historical marker at Linden Mills in the village Linden (also a map).

The Linden Mills were a vital source of this village’s economic growth. The first mill, located on land granted to Consider Warner, was used to cut lumber. From 1845-1850 Seth Sadler and Samuel W. Warren, local residents, erected both a saw and grist mill. Operating along with the earlier facility, this complex was called the Linden Mills. The grist mill continued to function for over a century until the machinery was dismantled and sold at auction in 1956. The village then purchased the building for municipal offices and a public Library.

Today the mill is the site of the Linden Mills Historical Museum.

Sunset on the Two-Hearted River

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Sunset on the Two-Hearted River

Sunset on the Two-Hearted River, photo by Vision Three Images – Michael Koole.

This photo is part of Michael’s Beach & Water Things and other sorta natural stuff set (slideshow). The Two-Hearted River was the setting for Hemingway’s short story, Big Two-Hearted River. An excerpt…

He stepped into the stream. It was a shock. His trousers clung tight to his legs. His shoes felt the gravel. The water was a rising cold shock.

Rushing, the current sucked against his legs. Where he stepped in, the water was over his knees. He waded with the current. The gravel slipped under his shoes. He looked down at the swirl of water below each leg and tipped up the bottle to get a grasshopper. The first grasshopper gave a jump in the neck of the bottle and went out into the water. He was sucked under in the whirl by Nick’s right leg and came to the surface a little way down stream. He floated rapidly, kicking. In a quick circle, breaking the smooth surface of the water, he disappeared. A trout had taken him.

Another hopper poked his face out of the bottle. His antennas wavered. He was getting his front legs out of the bottle to jump. Nick took him by the head and held him while he threaded the slim hook under his chin, down through his thorax and into the last segments of his abdomen. The grasshopper took hold of the hook with his front feet, spitting tobacco juice on it. Nick dropped him into the water.

Holding the rod in his right hand he let out line against the pull of the grasshopper in the current. He stripped off line from the reel with his left hand and let it run free. He could see the hopper in the little waves of the current. It went out of sight.

There was a tug on the line. Nick pulled against the taut line. It was his first strike. Holding the now living rod across the current, he hauled in the line with his left hand. The rod bent in jerks, the trout pulling against the current. Nick knew it was a small one. He lifted the rod straight up in the air. It bowed with the pull.

He saw the trout in the water jerking with his head and body against the shifting tangent of the line in the stream.

Nick took the line in his left hand and pulled the trout, thumping tiredly against the current, to the surface. His back was mottled the clear, water-over-gravel color, his side flashing in the sun. The rod under his right arm, Nick stooped, dipping his right hand into the current. He held the trout, never still, with his moist right hand, while he unhooked the barb from his mouth, then dropped him back into the stream.

He hung unsteadily in the current, then settled to the bottom beside a stone. Nick reached down his hand to touch him, his arm to the elbow under water. The trout was steady in the moving stream resting on the gravel, beside a stone. As Nick’s fingers touched him, touched his smooth, cool, underwater feeling, he was gone, gone in a shadow across the bottom of the stream.

Read the full story.

Bond Falls on the Ontonagon River

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Bond Falls 04 by Jeff Milton

Bond Falls 04, photo by Jeff Milton

Jeff writes:

This is an image of the lower Bond Falls from a recent trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Bond Falls, close to Bruce Crossing, is my favorite of the waterfalls that I have visited in Michigan. If you visit Bonds falls early on a summer morning, there is often an dramatic fog.

This is one of his gorgeous Bond Falls set (slideshow). I had a nearly impossible time deciding which one of these to feature – be sure to check them all out!!

GoWaterfalling.com has this to say about Bond Falls on the Ontonagon River:

Bond Falls is in the western U.P. on Bond Falls Rd, east of Pauding MI. This is the most impressive waterfall in Michigan with the possible exception of Tahquamenon Falls. The main drop is 40 feet high and 100+ feet wide. Above the main falls are a series of cascades and rapids that must drop a total of 20 feet.

The water level is controlled by a dam, and a steady flow over the falls is maintained for scenic reasons. Of course during the spring melt the flow is much higher.

Bond Fall is a Michigan State Scenic Site. The site was renovated around 2003. The old parking area was upstream of the falls, and a steep concrete stairway led to the base of the falls. The new parking area is near the base of the falls, and a level boardwalk leads you to prime views of the falls. The area is not quite as wild looking as it once was, but it is accessible to everyone. The trail on the east side of the falls is still wild with some steep rocky climbs. There are other trails that go off into the woods, and there are campsites nearby.

Click through for more, including a short video of Bond Falls. You can also check it out Bond Falls on the Absolute Michigan Map!

Saginaw River Rear Range Light

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Saginaw River Lighthouse

Saginaw River Lighthouse, photo by SNiedzwiecki.

Stacy says that she took this photo on a boat tour of the Saginaw River and that access is very limited. It’s one of a number of photos in her Michigan Lighthouses set. She has also placed it on a map.

Terry Pepper’s page on the Saginaw River Rear Range Light brings the usual 110% of awesome with historical photos and a complete history of the lighthouse that explains (in part):

Eleventh District Engineer Major Godfrey Weitzel’s design for the combined rear range tower and dwelling was unique. Consisting of a large elevated concrete base supporting a combined brick dwelling and tower, the swampy ground in the chosen site first required the driving of timber piles deep into the ground to provide a solid foundation on which timber forms for the concrete base could be erected and filled. Atop this concrete foundation, a square two-story Cream City brick keeper’s dwelling 26′ 6″ in plan was constructed. Integrated into the northwest corner of the dwelling, a tapered 53′ tall square tower with double walls housed a set of prefabricated cast iron spiral stairs. Winding from the cellar to the lantern, these stairs also serving as the only means of access to the first and second floors by way of landings on each floor, each outfitted with tightly fitting arch-topped iron doors designed to stem the spread of fire between floors. A timber deck supported by timber columns encircled the dwelling at the first floor level, providing easy and dry access to all sides of the structure. The living quarters consisted of a kitchen, parlor and oil storage room on the first floor, and three bedrooms above. The tower was capped with a square iron gallery, supported by five cast iron corbels on each of its four sides. An octagonal cast iron lantern was installed at its center, with a fixed white Fourth Order Fresnel lens placed at a focal plane of 61 feet.

You can also check out some photos of the light and information from the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society and read a bit about the possible haunting of the Saginaw River Lighthouse.

Saginaw Waterfront, 1912 in the Panoramic Photograph Collection

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Saginaw Michigan Waterfront, c1912

Saginaw Michigan Waterfront, c1912, photo Courtesy Library of Congress.

Needs to be seen bigger.

This photo is part of the Panoramic Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress, which:

…contains approximately four thousand images featuring American cityscapes, landscapes, and group portraits. These panoramas offer an overview of the nation, its enterprises and its interests, with a focus on the start of the twentieth century when the panoramic photo format was at the height of its popularity. Subject strengths include: agricultural life; beauty contests; disasters; engineering work such as bridges, canals and dams; fairs and expositions; military and naval activities, especially during World War I; the oil industry; schools and college campuses, sports, and transportation… The images date from 1851 to 1991 and depict scenes in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. More than twenty foreign countries and a few U.S. territories are also represented. These panoramas average between twenty-eight inches and six feet in length, with an average width of ten inches.

If you click through and search for “Michigan” you can see a lot of cool panoramas like Camp Grayling, 1921, downtown Bay City and the workers of the Michigan Tanning and Extract Co. of Boyne City.

Check the comments below for a guide to what you’re looking at in the photo!

the city on the strait: detroit

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

72nd floor / 2008 fireworks

72nd floor / 2008 fireworks, photo by g. s. george.

Geoff took this from the 72nd floor of the Renaissance Center during the Detroit River Days fireworks (formerly Detroit International Freedom Festival). He explains that we’re looking down onto the Detroit River, Hart Plaza and Jefferson Avenue. The entrance to the Detroit-Windsor tunnel is seen at the very bottom. In the distance, the Ambassador Bridge spans the Strait of Detroit. Windsor, Ontario Canada can be seen behind the fireworks at far left.

Geoff is obviously one of the many photographers who have a deep love for Michigan’s largest city. Introducing his the city on the strait: detroit set (slideshow) he writes:

a city without bounds, connected to the world and to its vast country by an aquamarine strait nestled between five of the world’s largest freshwater lakes. its capital, industry, and population developed so rapidly that it imploded under the pressure of social strife, and today Detroit stands as a living urban document of the capabilities–and failures–of the American people. But the city chugs along, and its million-odd residents continue to embrace the city’s many cultural and historical vestiges–those links to the past that may, one day, be used to revitalize and reignite the city’s vibrancy and industrial prowess. already signs of that reemergence have appeared, and its only a matter of time before these majestic structures, occupied and abandoned, end up as a pile of rubble or an icon.

Michigan in Pictures has some more Detroit Freedom Festival fireworks pics (from 2006).