Yellow and Blue With a Touch of Green, photo by Cherie S..
Brought to you by the Committee for Sunshine and Blue Skies, Michigan Chapter (lapsed).
You can see this photo larger right here or check it out in Cherie’s Foliage and Flowers set (slideshow).
Falls on the West Branch of the Sturgeon River, photo by Treefarmer.
This photo is part of Treefarmer’s Waterfall set (slideshow). Not all are from Michigan, so if you’re feeling exclusive, you can see it in his Upper Peninsula of Michigan set.
Go Waterfalling’s page on Sturgeon Falls says:
Sturgeon Falls is located in the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness in Ottawa National Forest. The Sturgeon River has carved out a deep, forested gorge, that is 300 feet deep in some places. The falls are located deep in the gorge. The drop is only 30 feet, but the river is very powerful. Above the falls the river is well over 100 feet wide. It then narrows into a chute only about 30 feet wide before shooting over the falls, spraying mist in all directions.
The Go Waterfalling page has detailed directions and some cool movies. They add that that Canyon Falls (also on the Sturgeon River) are much easier to reach.
Should you want to reach them though, here’s Sturgeon Falls on the Absolute Michigan Map of Michigan.
frozen in motion, photo by Where’s Walden?.
This is part of Megan’s excellent Michigan Meanderings set (slideshow) and you can see some other sweet photos of ice she’s taken.
The blizzard howling out my window says to me that it’s time to shovel out the Michigan Winter Wallpaper page!
Hang On To Your Passport | I’m Not Leaving Summer, photo by docksidepress.
If anyone else wants to hang around the terminal before the flight leaves for winter, I’ll be looking at these daisies bigger or over by this flock of herons!
Port Sanilac life preserver, photo by Deep blue ocean.
Be sure to check this baby out bigger (and this one too)!
Wikipedia says that Port Sanilac is a village in Sanilac Township of Sanilac County, pop 658:
This village was originally a lumberjack settlement on the shore of Lake Huron named “Bark Shanty Point.” In the late 1840s and 1850s, the settlement gained its first sawmill, schoolhouse, and general store. In 1854, Bark Shanty Point’s first post office opened. In 1857 the village was renamed to Port Sanilac, as it is in Sanilac Township in Sanilac County. Local legend attributes the name to a Wyandotte Indian Chief named Sanilac.
This photos is from the Port Sanilac Marina (marina web cam). More about the town at the village at Port Sanilac web site.
Piquette Plant sunset, photo by LindaB..
Yesterday on Absolute Michigan we featured an article from Michigan History Magazine titled Where the Model T began and I found this photo while looking for a picture to pair with it. I decided to find another and feature this one here!
Jerald Mitchell calls the Ford Motor Company’s Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit “a fulcrum point of human history [where] the balance of history shifted.” It was at this factory in Detroit that Henry Ford and his cohorts conceived the Model T automobile. For nine months, these men labored through fifteen-hour days, scrawled rough diagrams on the blackboards, fiddled with auto parts and patterns, argued and probably repeated the words “what if” a thousand times. When they were done, they had created the design for one of the most revolutionary automobiles ever built.
Read the rest on Absolute Michigan and learn much more about the museum that Jerald and others have created at tplex.org – the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex.
Linda writes she and her husband took a tour of the Ford Model T Piquette plant where restoration is underway. She says that the plant has special meaning for them as her husband’s great great grandfather was the winning bid for the plumbing of the building with a bid of $2,035! She also notes that these are the original windows to the plant.
You can see her other photos from the Piquette Plant, check out these Piquette photos from Miz Jelly Bean and dive into the Piquette slideshow on Flickr.
There used to be blue skies at General Motors…, photo by Derek Farr ( DetroitDerek ).
This photo is part of Derek’s great Detroit set of photos (slideshow). Derek writes:
A view out of General Motors World Headquarters, located in the Rencen Building in Downtown Detroit. There was a time that even thinking of General Motors running out of cash would be laughable … not anymore.
Indeed. This morning I’ve read editorials in the leading papers on both sides of the aisle that show a rising sentiment against the Detroit car companies. In Bailout to Nowhere in the New York Times, David Brooks suggests that it’s a bad idea to try and manage the economic jungle that claimed PanAm, ITT and Montgomery Ward and replaced them with Microsoft, Southwest Airlines and Target.
In the Wall Street Journal Robert Hahn and Peter Passell suggest that we should Stimulate Car Buyers, Not Car Makers:
Since a big fiscal-stimulus package for fighting the recession — some combination of tax cuts, extended unemployment compensation, infrastructure grants and assistance to states — is coming soon, why not stimulate consumers to buy cars? Why not offer eye-popping rebates — say, $3,000 — for a limited time to buyers of cars and light trucks? It would probably make sense to phase out rebates for the most expensive cars, and as a treaty obligation, it wouldn’t do to discriminate against foreign makes.
How much downstream benefit this would generate and for whom is hard to predict. Still, it is a fair bet that most of the money would be quickly recycled in the form of demand for everything from auto parts to car mechanics’ salaries — just what you want to happen in a recession.
What do you think? Are we watching the sunset of the Big Three … and will the sun rise for them and for the Michigan auto industry?
Ercy posted a link to GM Facts & Fiction. It’s by GM, but I think that GM has a part of the story to tell too. Found an interesting column in the Freep through their links by Susan Tompor titled Where’s the love? I never knew Detroit was a dirty word (please go read it). She makes a lot of great points including:
We’re watching one huge disconnect here.
We have the worst financial crisis that most of us have ever seen. Automakers sell big-ticket items that generally require financing. Michigan has been in a recession for years — not just a few months. We are on the edge. And somehow, still, no one here deserves any help.
General Wesley Clark suggests that aiding the American automobile industry is not only an economic imperative, but also a national security imperative in What’s Good for GM is Good for the Army.
Rain on My Sunset, photo by yooper1949.
Take a trip to Isle Royale National Park with yooper1949 (slideshow) and be sure to check this beauty out bigger.
Isle Royale National Park is one of our state’s true treasures. You can see more photos from this beautiful Michigan island in the Isle Royale National park group. Two cool ways to explore the pics is through this group slideshow and the Isle Royale group Flickriver.
Hope you all have a happy weekend wherever you may be.
The Owl on the Roof, photo by .jowo..
Joel writes:
When Joan opened the curtains this morning she found this fella sitting on the telephone pole. An hour or so later, it moved to the top of the house, where it stayed for a couple more hours.
This shot from the back yard. The bird kept its eye on me, but obviously wasn’t concerned about me. Never had an owl in our yard before. Very impressive.
Be sure to check it out bigger, this other view and Joel’s Birds slideshow.
The Owl Pages’ page for the Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) has great info on the Snowy Owl, which was classified in 1758 by famed Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (the guy who laid the foundations for taxonomy & ecology). The “scandiacas” is a Latinised word referring to Scandinavia. Other names include Arctic Owl, Great White Owl, Ghost Owl, Ermine Owl, Tundra Ghost, Ookpik and (my personal favorite) White Terror of the North. The average female weighs 5 pounds and is 26″ tall with a 50-60″ wingspan, making it one of the larger owls.
The Call of the Wild Museum page on snowy owls says:
The Snowy Owl is a beautiful, majestic Bird of Prey. It is one of the most
recognized birds to visit Michigan in the winter – they actually fly south
from Northern Canada and Alaska in October and November, then fly back
north in March and April – just as it starts to warm up. Only the males will
be completely white, the females are generally larger, but their feathers
are white with dark spotting or barring. These large white, tuftless owls
are found primarily in wide open inland spaces – this includes farmlands,
marshlands and even airports! Any of these habitats in Michigan resemble
their northern tundra homes.Being a bird of open land, some of their favorite resting spots are on the
ground, a lamp post, or a rooftop; they hardly ever sit up in a tree. In their
breeding grounds, found far north, the lemming are their primary food
source. When the lemming population is on a decline in the tundra, the
snowy owl flies further south to supplement their hunger. This leads to an
occasional influx in the number of birds in Michigan, in fact studies have
shown that this happens every 4 -5 years. the most recent invasion
happened during the winter of 1991-92. More than 100 owls were reported
seen from over half of Michigan’s 83 counties!
Also see the Snowy Owl from All About Birds (has some sounds of the snowy owl too), Nyctea scandiaca (snowy owl) from Animal Diversity Web and Wikipedia’s Snowy Owl entry.
Finally, here’s a cool YouTube video of a snowy owl in Wayne County!
Broken Alley, photo by Kcjacoby.
The photo is part of Ken’s Packard Plant set (slideshow) and you should check it out bigger right here. Please feel free to deluge him with comments asking him to post the other photos from his trip to the plant faster. ;)
The next Exposure.Detroit show opens next Friday (November 14) from 7-10 PM at the Bean and Leaf Cafe in Royal Oak. In addition to Ken Jacoby, the photographers are:
Rebecca Gutierrez (Luna’s Eyes)
Poster designed by Ajit.
Michigan in Pictures 