December snow in SE Michigan, photo by oakwood.
Oakwood writes 8 inches of snow fell in our area today – lots of blowing and drifting. Pretty isn’t it!
The word of the week this week over on Absolute Michigan is “snow“, and if you’re tired from digging out, maybe you should grab a cup of cocoa and explore the happier side of snow!
Also check out photos of “Michigan snow” from the last couple days.
(photo removed by photographer)
Jack and Kelly sent me some photos and a link to a video of their first ice boat outing of the season last weekend on Bass Lake.
This photo is one of several from April of 2007 on Elk Lake. You can keep up with them at their Iceboat Michigan and J14 Iceboats web site.
Michigan has a Salem Township in Washtenaw county and another in Allegan County. Based on Bryan’s other photos I’m guessing Washtenaw.
Happy weekend, people!
alone in the snow, photo by basha04.
Hope you’re not alone in the snow on this snowy Michigan morning.
Basha put this in her pictures I love set (slideshow) and she has more wintery goodness right here!
Michigan Orchard in Snow, photo by coonjamm.
Today’s photo of a cherry orchard near near Paw Paw from February will hopefully remind those of us tempted to complain about the heat of other things we could complain about.
I’d also like to call attention to Van Buren County, Michigan our latest Michigan shoreline county article on Absolute Michigan.
Lake Sixteen Lifesaver, photo by Arace.
Let’s close the door on winter with this HDR photo of the sunset over Lake Sixteen (Orion, MI) by Chris Arace. Chris recommends that you view large.
If you like this, you might enjoy his HDR set.
Columns of Ice, Eben Ice Cave, photo by John Clement Howe.
This photo is one of a nice set titled At the Ice Cave of Eben taken in March of 2007 (or view slideshow of the Eben Ice Caves). A document from a field trip led by Dr. John Anderton of the Northern Michigan University Department of Geography explains:
The Eben Ices Caves are located just a few miles north of the little town of Eben, within the Rock River Canyon Wilderness Area (RRCW). The RRCW, which became a Wilderness in 1987 as a part of the Michigan Wilderness Act, is located approximately 15 miles west of the town of Munising, MI, within the Munising Ranger District of the Hiawatha National Forest. It comprises 4,460 acres and contains outstanding natural features including Rock River, Silver Creek and Ginpole Lake. Within its interior there are two short user-developed trails (totaling about 1.75 miles) leading to Rock River Falls and the Eben Ice Caves. An estimated 1,700 people visit the area annually (USFS records) …
The Ice Caves are not true caves at all. They consist of walls or vertical sheets of ice that form across the face of overhanging rock outcrops. In the summer, small unimpressive waterfalls and groundwater seeps may found along the overhangs. In the winter, however, the water hits the cold air, drips downward under the influence of gravity and freezes, creating spectacular ice caves. Each winter they look a little different, but typically there are openings in the ice that allow you to walk behind the ice walls.
The rock overhangs, where the ice caves form, consist of outcrops of Munising Formation (Cambrian) with a capstone of AuTrain Formation (Ordovician). The outcrops are found along the south side of the valley of Silver Creek, which is part of a network of secondary glacial drainage channels that formed during the Marquette Advance (about 10,000 years ago). Theses secondary drainage channels flowed easterly into the AuTrain-Whitefish Channel, a primary glacial meltwater channel that flowed south to the Lake Michigan basin. Groundwater naturally seeps from these rocks, providing the water necessary to form the ice caves in the winter.
For directions and more info, check out Rock River Falls & Rock River Canyon Wilderness Area (Hunts’ UP Guide) and Visit The Eben Ice Caves (Marquette Country CVB).
Crossing the Detroit River in winter c. 1904, LC-D4-22154
Under the headline of “Things I found when looking for something else” comes this photo from the massive Detroit Publishing Co. collection in the Library of Congress.
The ferry is identified as the steamer Lansdowne of Windsor, a vessel mentioned briefly in The Detroit River ferryboats in the Detroit News’ Rearview Mirror:
The old paddle-wheeled steamer, the Lansdowne, which by its retirement in 1956 was one of the oldest vessels still operating on the lakes, once carried passenger train cars across the Detroit River. It was resurrected briefly during the 1980s as a floating restaurant off downtown Detroit.
If you click the “More Photos” button at the top left of the article, you can see another (clearer) shot of the Lansdowne. The March 1970 edition of the Toronto Marine Historical Society’s Scanner had this to say:
For well over one hundred years there have been carferries operating across the Detroit River between Windsor and Detroit, and a large portion of this period, 87 years in fact, could well be called “The Lansdowne Era.” For exactly this long, a major item on the Detroit River scene has been the paddle-driven railway ferry, LANSDOWNE.
This veteran, 294 feet in length, was completed in 1884 by the Detroit Dry Dock Co. at Wyandotte, where her iron hull was known as Hull 66. Her horizontal, low-pressure engines were built in 1872 by E.E. Gilbert & Sons at Montreal for the wooden carferry MICHIGAN (I) and they were placed in LANSDOWNE at the time of her completion. Originally equipped with four stacks and two pilothouses, the ferry now carries but two stacks and one bridge and looks somewhat gaudy in the Canadian National Railway’s new livery. Nevertheless, she is the last sidewheeler operating on the Great Lakes and holds a great charm known to anyone who has observed her or made a crossing in her.
Recent photos of the “somewhat gaudy” Lansdowne can be found at the amazing Boatnerd.com.
Saginaw Train Bridge, photo by n8xd.
Keith DeLong writes: This is a train bridge near St. Mary’s Hospital in Saginaw, Michigan.
I recommend you check this one out bigger.
St. Joseph, Michigan outer light, photo by Dan Sheehan
Dan says he captured this photo during a break in lake effect snow squalls. He lives in St Joseph, so he has a lot more photos of this lighthouse (and tons of other Michigan ones). In addition to lighthouses and nature photography, Dan also has numerous photos of military aircraft all available at gearupsix.com.
Michigan in Pictures 