The Colors of Omena

Posted on by farlane

The Colors of Omena

The Colors of Omena, photo by Elijah Allen

Here’s a shot by a friend taken just north of me showing the incredible fall color that’s still out there along the Lake Michigan coast. It was taken from off Omena Point at the northern part of the Leelanau Peninsula, so how about a little Omena history courtesy the Omena Historical Society?

The Omena settlement had its beginnings when Aghosa Indians started arriving in 1850. In 1852, the Reverend Peter Dougherty and a band of Ottawas and Chippewas led by Chief Ahgosa moved from the present-day Old Mission Peninsula to a beautiful little bay on the Leelanau Peninsula’s eastern side. Chief Shabwasung and his Ottawa band were already encamped on the point to the north of the bay, on land Chief Ahgosa and his families from Old Mission had purchased. Ahgosa settled a little to the north, and his village became Ahgosatown. Both bands became part of the New Mission, soon to be called Omena.

Young George A. Craker came with Dougherty and taught farming to students in the mission school, and he and his descendants became active workers in Dougherty’s Grove Hill New Mission Church. Now called the Omena Presbyterian Church, it was dedicated in 1858 and has stood as the oldest Protestant Church in Leelanau County and one of the oldest historical landmarks in Northern Michigan. The Ahgosa family was also very active and some are now buried in the mission cemetery.

Click through to read more and for some historical photos of Omena.

View Elijah’s photo bigger on Facebook and scroll though when you get there for more!

More aerial photos, more history and more Leelanau on Michigan in Pictures.

Healy Lake Reflections

Posted on by farlane

Healy Lake Fall Color

Healy Lake Reflections, photo by Dorn Gallatin

Hope everyone has a great weekend and gets out there to take a big bite out of autumn before winter eats it all!

Here’s a map to Healy Lake, located not far from Onekama. Lake Link’s entry for Healy Lake says:

Healy Lake is located in Manistee County, Michigan. This lake is 39 acres in size. It is 50.00 feet deep at its deepest point. Anglers can expect to catch a variety of fish including Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Sunfish and Yellow Perch.

Click to view it bigger and see more in Dorn’s Fall slideshow.

More Michigan lakes on Michigan in Pictures.

Fiery Fall Foliage at Fenner

Posted on by farlane

Fiery Fall Foliage

Fiery Fall Foliage, photo by David Marvin

Let’s head out of autumn with a with a bang and this firework of a maple! I hope you get a chance to get out and enjoy what remains of the 2015 fall color touring season in Michigan. mLive updated their color report with some pics from readers:

The colors are fading fast and the leaves are falling, but there are still some Michigan areas with peak color. The inland areas of the Upper Peninsula and the inland areas of northern Lower Michigan are past fall color peak now. The leaves are falling fast.

But the shoreline areas and the peninsulas are warmer. Some of those areas are still at peak, or even just peaking now.

It will still be well worth the trip to the Leelanau Peninsula and the Old Mission Peninsula this week and probably even this weekend.

We took the drive of M-22 along the shore of Leelanau County Sunday, October 18, 2015. Along the shore there was still some green and was a few days away from peak. Old Mission Peninsula was 50 percent green still on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. So if you are going north this weekend, take the routes near water and you’ll be pleased.

The southern half of Lower Michigan is peaking now through the next few days. This weekend will still be real nice to take that last fall color drive.

Also have at these aerial photos of fall color from a U.S. Coast Guard MH-65D Dolphin helicopter they shared a week ago.

Check this photo out big as a tree and head over to Dave’s blog for more photos & writing from Fenner Nature Center.

More fall wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.

A Pair of Predictions for Winter 2016

Posted on by farlane

The ice, with some people thrown in for scale

The ice, with some people thrown in for scale., photo by Bill Dolak

It was nice to read NOAA’s forecast for Winter 2016 predicting that El Niño will give us a warmer than normal winter in Michigan:

One of the stronger effects of El Niño is warmer than normal winter temperatures from the Pacific Northwest through the northern Plains into the Great Lakes. NOAA places most of Lower Michigan in an area with a greater than 50 percent chance of warmer than normal temperatures. That also means there is a 33 percent chance of normal temperatures and a 17 percent chance of below normal temperatures.

So, it’s not a sure bet that it will be a warmer-than-normal winter, but indications are strongly leaning in the warmer direction.

The farther north you are in Michigan, the higher the chance of warmer-than-normal temperatures. The Upper Peninsula has at least a 60 percent chance of warmer-than-normal winter temperatures.

If you read on at mLive, meteorologist Mark Torregrossa has some caveats that temper this a bit. You can also just throw big buckets of frozen water on the whole idea of a warmer winter if you believe in the Farmers’ Almanac 2016 Winter Forecast where they predict that:

…the winter of 2015–2016 is looking like a repeat of last winter, at least in terms of temperatures with unseasonably cold conditions over the Atlantic Seaboard, eastern portions of the Great Lakes, and the lower peninsula of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, most of the Tennessee and Mississippi Valley, as well as much of the Gulf Coast.

Gack. For the record, the Almanac has nailed the last two winters for Michigan…

Bill took this shot in March of 2015 on the heels of the most brutal winter that Michigan had seen since … well … 2014. View it background bigtacular and see more in his South Haven slideshow.

More winter and more weather on Michigan in Pictures.

Happy Back to the Future Day!

Posted on by farlane

Marty McFly Is Back

Marty McFly Is Back, photo by photofrenzy2000

Well, we’ve finally reached the future … or at least the future according to Back to the Future II because October 21, 2015 is Back to the Future Day! You can watch this video for a look at some of the predictions for 2015 that Back to the Future got right and also watch “Back to the Future New Years” – a music video that my friend Ben of The Rock Stop music school in Traverse City created in honor of this momentous year.

I should also add that while the iconic DeLorean was manufactured in Ireland, John DeLorean – an engineer who was youngest person to become a General Motors exec – founded the DeLorean Motor Company in Detroit on October 24, 1975.

View Gary’s photo bigger and see more from the 28th Street Metro Cruise in Grand Rapids in his slideshow.

More cars on Michigan in Pictures.

October Vibes in le détroit du Lac Érie

Posted on by farlane

October Vibes by Camera Jesus

October Vibes, photo by Camera Jesus

Simply spectacular view of the city of Detroit.

The name of Detroit comes from “le détroit du Lac Érie” – French for the Straits of Lake Erie and referring to the St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair that link Erie with Lake Huron. Wikipedia has a pretty nice writeup on the Detroit River:

The Detroit River flows for 24 nautical miles (44 km; 28 mi) from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. By definition, this classifies it as both a river and a strait — a strait being a narrow passageway connecting two large bodies of water, which is how the river earned its name from early French settlers. However, today, the Detroit River is rarely referred to as a strait, because bodies of water referred to as straits are typically much wider.

The Detroit River is only 0.5 to 2.5 miles (0.80 to 4.02 km) wide. The Detroit River starts on an east to west flow but then bends and runs north to south. The deepest portion of the Detroit River is 53 feet (16 m) deep in the northern portion of the river. At its source, the river is at an elevation of 574 feet (175 m) above sea level. The river drops only three feet before entering into Lake Erie at 571 feet (174 m). As the river contains no dams and no locks, it is easily navigable by even the smallest of vessels. The watershed basin for the Detroit River is approximately 700 square miles (1,800 km2).

Since the river is fairly short, it has few tributaries. Its largest tributary is the River Rouge in Michigan, which is actually four times longer than the Detroit River and contains most of the basin. The only other major American tributary to the Detroit River is the much smaller Ecorse River. Tributaries on the Canadian side include Little Creek and the River Canard. The discharge for the Detroit River is relatively high for a river of its size. The river’s average discharge is approximately 188,000 cubic feet per second (5,324 m³/s), and the river’s flow is constant.

Check out Detroit 1701 for a bit of the river’s history and also be sure to support the Friends of the Detroit River who are doing great work to restore this corridor.

View the photo background bigilicious, follow Camera Jesus on Facebook for lots more and view & purchase Joe’s Detroit photos (and others) from his website.

More Michigan rivers on Michigan in Pictures!

Fall…ing: Michigan is Still Michigan Edition

Posted on by farlane

Fall-ing Northern Marquette County

Fall…ing, photo by Thom Skelding

Yep. This photo pretty much sums up the weekend!! In Michigan gets bragging rights to first heavy snow east of Rockies, mLive meteorologist Mark Torregrossa writes:

Michigan now has bragging rights to the first heavy snow of the winter, east of the Rockies. Overnight Friday, October 16, 2015, and this morning, lake effect snow has been falling in part of the Upper Peninsula and a large area of northwest Lower Michigan.

The Kalkaska area, east of Traverse City, has officially reported 5.7 inches of new snow.

The northwest Lower Michigan snow belt has received areas of two to five inches of the winter wonder.

Click through for more, including some photos.

View Thom’s photo background bigtacular and see more in his slideshow.

More fall wallpaper and more winter wallpaper

Autumn’s Chapel

Posted on by farlane

Chapel Rock in Fall

chapel rock, photo by Paul Wojtkowski

Here’s a cool picture from way back in 2006 of what I think is definitely one of the 7 wonders of Michigan: Chapel Rock in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

The Lucky Tree of Chapel Rock features quite a number of photos that I think can give you a pretty good understanding of this marvelous Michigan miracle.

Chapel Rock on Lake Superior has a single tree perched atop its column. By rights the tree should not be there: the small surface area of land on the top of the rock is insufficient to sustain a tree of this size.

There is hardly any topsoil, certainly not enough for an obviously thriving tree. How then does it flourish?

Look a little closer and you will see the answer – that rope on the right of the picture is not, in fact a rope. It is a system of roots, extending and stretching over the edge of the rock to the main bluff where there are nutrients and water aplenty.

Yet how on earth did the root extend over to the mainland? Did it slither in some triffid like way until it reached the other side? Is there a Little Shop of Horrors thing happening here?

Click through for the answer and some pics that make things clearer – including to my surprise one of my own! – from Kuriositas which looks like a pretty cool site.

View Paul’s photo bigger and see this and more in his slideshow.

More Pictured Rocks on Michigan in Pictures? You bet!

Winter Is Coming … apparently tonight

Posted on by farlane

North Country Girls

North Country Girls, photo by Michael

While El Niño is predicted to bring a milder winter for Michigan in 2016, it looks like things will kick off early with a chance of a dusting of snow tonight & tomorrow:

The coldest air of the season will pour into state on Friday and into the weekend. The cold air will bring widespread lake-effect rain showers to West Michigan. The rain may mix with some wet snow over parts of the state late Friday into Saturday afternoon.

A better chance of accumulating snow will be over the higher terrain of Norther Lower Michigan and parts of the Upper Peninsula.

I should add that although you may want to see it from your car with the heater cranked, color around the state is still really nice!

Michael took this last January when Detroit was locked in the grip of the White Walkers. View it background bigtacular and see more in his slideshow.

More Detroit and more winter on Michigan in Pictures!

Autumnal Splendor at Lake of the Clouds

Posted on by farlane

Autumnal Splendor

Autumnal Splendor, photo by Eric Hackney

True confession: I was asked to share less from northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. True answer: It’s really hard to turn my back on incredible visions like this! I will try and do better tomorrow. Promise. 

Also – new design for the blog. Not finished, but at least the pics are bigger. Thoughts & comments are appreciated.

Lake of the Clouds is one of the main attractions in the Porcupine Mountains State Park. Be sure to check out this interactive map & photo presentation from the Park that includes a 360-degree panorama from the spot atop Cuyahoga Peak where this photo was taken!

View Eric’s photo bigger and see more in his Landmarks & Landscapes slideshow.

PS: There’s more photos from Eric on Michigan in Pictures…