Happy Birthday to the Boblo Boat!

Posted on by farlane

SS Ste Claire – Boblo Boat by Will Jensen

HistoricDetroit.org is one of my favorite follows on Facebook. They share that today is 115th anniversary of the launch of the the Boblo boat Ste. Claire from the Toledo Shipbuilding Co. at Toledo, Ohio, on May 7, 1910.

For generations, she and her older partner in fun times, the Columbia, would ferry Detroiters from downtown to the Boblo Island amusement park Downriver. The two Boblo boats made their final run to Boblo Island on Sept. 2, 1991, and smaller boats were used to transport families to the island until the park closed Sept. 30, 1993. In the meantime, the two steamers – among the last of their kind – were designated as National Historic Landmarks on July 6, 1992, signifying their rarity and importance to American history.

There have been many attempts to save both of the historic vessels over the ensuing decades, including one launched by Dr. Ron Kattoo when he bought the Ste. Claire in 2007. Sadly, on July 6, 2018, the Ste. Claire was completely destroyed by a fire that broke out on board during restoration efforts.

Here’s a shot of the Boblo Boat from back in the day along with another shot of the Ste Claire & the now vanished Joe Louis staircase by Will from his Detroit gallery on Flickr.

Much more about the Steamer Ste Claire and Boblo on Historic Detroit!

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Congratulations to the Detroit Pistons!

Posted on by farlane

Detroit Pistons Game 6 2025 by Montez Miller Photography

I was having a hard time summarizing my feelings about the Pistons’ heartbreaking loss to the Knicks last night. Fortunately, my friend Montez Miller shared the perfect photo & words with me. We will be back!!

According to the game, the Detroit Pistons lost, but considering their journey, it’s clear that losing isn’t the full story.

In the 2023-2024 season, they finished 15th with 68 losses. However, in the 2024-2025 season, they rebounded to win 44 games, finishing 6th and earning a spot in the playoffs. That’s not just losing — that’s a remarkable comeback and a clear sign of progress and WINNING.

CONGRATULATIONS, DETROIT PISTONS FOR A WONDERFUL SEASON. 🏀❤️🏀

Follow Montez on Facebook, learn more about her & her work as a photojournalist on her website, and GO PISTONS!!

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Planting the Forests of the Future in Detroit

Posted on by farlane
Giant Sequoia in Detroit's Circle Forest

Giant Sequoia in Detroit’s Circle Forest by Andrew McFarlane

“Here’s a tree that is bigger than your house when it’s mature, taller than your buildings, and lives longer than you can comprehend.”

-Andrew “Birch” Kemp, Executive Director, Arboretum Detroit

The Archangel Ancient Tree Archive & Arboretum Detroit have partnered on a truly incredible effort that is planting giant sequoia in Detroit! Bridge Detroit shares that these colossal conifers can live for more than 3,000 years and reach heights in excess of 300′ tall with a circumference greater than 30′ at the base.

The sequoias will eventually provide a full canopy that protects everything beneath, he said. “It may be sad to call these .5- and 1-acre treescapes forests,” Kemp said. “We are expanding on this and shading our neighborhood in the only way possible, planting lots of trees.”

Giant sequoias are resilient against disease and insects, and are usually well-adapted to fire. Thick bark protects their trunks and their canopies tend to be too high for flames to reach. But climate change is making the big trees more vulnerable to wildfires out West, Kemp said. “The fires are getting so hot that its even threatening them,” he said.

You can read lots more in Bridge and at the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, which I encourage you to support with your donations & by spreading the word about their amazing work!

Here are some pics I took yesterday afternoon along with some pics from the Archangel Facebook page. The big tree is the Stagg giant sequoia tree in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – fifth largest tree in the world – and the shot of the guys in the tree shows Archangel’s Jake Milarch & Aaron Johns actually inside the 3000+ year old tree! The one of the burned tree shows the 3,000 year old “Waterfall Tree” Giant Sequoia before and after the 2020 Castle Fire.

Continued (apparently) in Big Questions about Giant Sequoia on Michigan in Pictures!

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Detroit Pistons return to the NBA Playoffs!

Posted on by farlane
Michigan Central lights up for the Detroit Pistons by Chris Ahern Photography

Michigan Central lights up for the Detroit Pistons by Chris Ahern Photography

The NBA shares that after an unprecedented turnaround, the Detroit Pistons are back in the NBA Playoffs! The Cade Cunningham-led Pistons were 44-38 good for 6th in the Eastern Conference this season just one year after winning a league-low 14 games.

The seven game series vs the New York Knicks (51-31) opens Saturday at 6pm at Madison Square Garden. The Freep notes that this isn’t a matchup between a top seed like 2019 playoff sweep vs MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Knicks do have home-court advantage, more playoff experience, and more star power, but the Pistons won three of four games against the Knicks this season.

I went over to Michigan Central this morning after a reader tipped me off about the cool color scheme yesterday, but it was just the usual white lights. The very large silver lining is that you all get this amazing drone shot from yesterday morning. Click the photo to follow Chris on Facebook, click here for his Instagram, and for sure check out the Detroit portfolio on his website for more great shots, including some of MCS in different colors!

And PS: You can relive Detroit Piston greatness through 30 years on Michigan in Pictures posts!

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From Dark Hollow Quarry to Michigan Central Station

Posted on by farlane
Removing a Limestone block from the quarry

Quarrying limestone for Michigan Central Station

A post on the Historic Detroit Facebook reminded me of this great post the Christman Company shared last year about the care for detail in the renovation of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station that extended even to getting limestone from the original quarry:

At Michigan Central Station, much of the building’s limestone — 600 tons of it — had deteriorated from three decades of uncontrolled water into the building. Research and good teamwork led to finding the original, uniquely banded limestone source, the Dark Hollow Quarry in Bedford, Indiana. The only problem: it had closed in 1988, the same year as Michigan Central Station.

Luckily, quarried blocks had been left on site, but were now surrounded by 30-year-old trees! A new access road was installed, trees removed, and truckloads of raw blocks — the largest single piece over 20 tons — were sent to Bridgeport, Michigan for fabrication. Skillfully sequenced for reinstallation, the restored limestone facade, from the front to the back of Michigan Central Station, matches perfectly with the skill of marvelous teamwork.

Marvelous indeed. We’ll continue to share more about this iconic Detroit structure that officially reopened June 6, 2024. Head over to the Christman Company’s post on Facebook for more pics as well as info about the process and all the contractors involved. For sure check out much more Michigan Central on Michigan in Pictures & for sure follow Historic Detroit for all kinds of cool Detroit content!

Here’s a couple more shots along with a few of mine from last July soon after the station re-opened.

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Return of the Turtle: Detroit Tigers Opening Day

Posted on by farlane
Opening Day Flag Downtown Detroit Partnership

Opening Day Anthem by Downtown Detroit Partnership

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Friday, April 4th 2025 is the 124th Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers. As a resident of Midtown in Detroit, I can tell you that this is unquestionably one of the biggest holidays of the year for us. Already the streets are filling with cars as baseball fans from all over Michigan and the world get ready for Tiger Baseball to return to the Motor City!

I’ve rounded up some of the highlights with a laser focus on FREE including and Opening Day party at Grand Circus Park by the City of Detroit and a Wisconsin manufacturer of watery beer that features a LOT of great food trucks, DJ Invisible, and lots of video walls and screens. There’s another free party from noon – 6pm just across Woodward at one of my favorite venues, The Fillmore with giveaways, WRIF and the game on their MASSIVE screen (tell the security guys Andy sent you and they will laugh). Also on the free front are a party at Gilly’s with giveaways, raffle, face painting & DJ Ray Ya Dig (official DJ of the Lions) from 9 AM–4 PM. I think that the Opening Day Party with my friends The Honest to God Jug Band is free, but they’re so fun and Cliff’s Bells is SO cool that I think you won’t mind if there is a cover.

And everywhere there are giveaways, giveaways, giveaways including the House of Faygo Pop-up at Campus Martius this Friday – Sunday.

  • Opening Day Love by City of Detroit
  • Detroit Tigers First Opening Day Detroit Historical Society

Here’s more information on the photos & happenings. Please add yours in the comments here or on our Facebook!

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2025 Marche du Nain Rouge: Nain of Normandie edition

Posted on by farlane
Join the Golden Boy at the Marche du Nain Rouge

Join the Golden Boy at the Marche du Nain Rouge by Andrew McFarlane

The annual Marche du Nain Rouge takes place this Sunday, March 23rd 2025 along the Cass Corridor in Detroit. The festivities begin at 11:30 on the Community Stage at the intersection of Canfield & 2nd with Detroit-centric sets & hilarious entertainment as excitement builds toward the Nain leading the celebratory procession down to the Masonic Temple and the FREE Official Afterparty with drinks, friends, vendor tables, and DJs spinning.

It’s totally free, one of my favorite celebrations in the world, and it takes place just blocks away from me! I have heard some talk that the Marche which was founded in 2010 is a form of “colonizer cosplay”, but I am pretty sure that the colonizers we are cosplaying are the French settlers who brought the “Nain of Normandie” along with them to le Détroit du Lac Érié:

In the mythology of Medieval Normandy, the Nain Rouge (or Lutin, or an earlier version called “Netun”) is a sort of house spirit that has many names, assumes many forms, and plays nefarious pranks. The Lutin of Normandy is very similar to domestic spirits of England, Scandinavia and Germany. They are fond of children, horses (often taking their form), and young maidens also, but are cruel to those who do not treat them with respect. In Archibald Maclaren’s The Fairy Family: A Series of Ballads and Metrical Tales Illustrating the Fairy Mythology of Europe, the Lutin is compared and contrasted with England’s trickster Robin Goodfellow, and found to be quite a bit more mean-spirited, remarking “Many a man laid his ruin at the Lutin’s door; although it must be confessed that in these cases neighbors were uncharitable enough to fay, that the Lutin had less to do with it than habits of Want-of-thrift and Self-indulgence” (Maclaren, 1857, p.67). The subclass of Lutin called the Nain Rouge is described in the folktales of Normandy as playing dastardly tricks on, but on occasion being particularly kind to fisherman.

Read on for a cool Normandy folk tale, check out my pics from the 2017 Marche du Nain Rouge & also the video below.

PS: My friend Joel was there in 2017 as well and he took MUCH better pics that I have featured before.

PPS: I didn’t know the guy in the first pic when I talked to him about the paper mache head he made, but he’s now one of my best friends and we work together. Magic!!

PPPS: The Trinidadian dancers & steel drum band ROCK!!!

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Michigan Central goes green for St Paddy’s Day!

Posted on by farlane

Wearin’ o the Green (lights) at Michigan Central by Andrew McFarlane

Longtime followers of Michigan in Pictures who know how near & dear to my heart and the very existence of this photoblog Detroit’s Michigan Central Station is probably won’t be surprised that a string of requests from readers & friends to share pics of MCS lit up for St Patrick’s Day moved me to ride over there at 5am today!

I don’t have a photo site (yet at least) but you can always throw me a buck or two on Patreon! And for sure check out lots more Michigan Central Station on Michigan in Pictures!

PS: WOW do I wish I’d brought my dSLR over – the moon was incredible!!!

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May happiness come through your door

Posted on by farlane
irish pub in irish hills by sj carey

irish pub in irish hills by sj carey

May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.

Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone! I’ve shared this photo by Scott before, and the good Lord willing, I will share it again!

See more from Scott on Flickr & get more St. Patrick’s Day fun on Michigan in Pictures.

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Happy 313 Day!

Posted on by farlane
Spirit of Detroit by Glenn Suszko

Spirit of Detroit by Glen Suszko

Today is 313 Day, a celebration of all things Detroit. While I’m not usually a fan of making up holidays, I have to say that as a Detroit resident, it’s a pretty cool day with all kinds of free fun from the 313 Celebration at Robert C. Valade Park to free admission at museums for things like 313 Day at the Detroit Historical Museum that includes a popup Detroit vs. Everybody creator Tommey Walker.

Glen is one of the prime movers & shakers of the Eastside Camera Club, and he took this pic of the Spirit of Detroit at their July 2024 outing. They are providing the opportunity to photograph fast-moving racing bikes in the low-light setting of the Lexus Velodrome in Detroit this Saturday, March 15 at 7:30pm! Get details on their Facebook & follow Glen on Flickr for his latest.

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