Longtime Michigan in Pictures contributor SueFi Photography shared a bunch of photos related to the recent restoration & preservation of the Frankfort Lighthouse after repeated vandalism incidents:
Erin Griebe, the chairperson of the Frankfort Lighthouse Restoration Project, says volunteers first noticed bullet holes in the lamp room last fall. “That’s very expensive glass to replace. It’s all custom because this is a very old historic building, and once the integrity of the glass is disrupted with bullet holes, you have to make those repairs,” Griebe told News 8 affiliate UpNorthLive.
“It’s just years and years of build up and paint and, you know, if we’re going to spend all this money, donated money to entirely clean this down to the bare metal and then restore it to pristine condition, is this just going to happen again?” Ketz said.
The restoration project was estimated to cost $1.1 million in 2022. Griebe already knows the costs will surpass that estimate and wants to avoid any other unnecessary work. “We are hopeful that by raising awareness, people will become less likely to tag the lighthouse, and for the individuals taking shots at it will also think twice now that the community at large is more aware,” she told News 8.
The sun’s brush paints the day’s end with strokes of flowing orange and opalescent coral. Sleeping Bear Dunes, guardian of the coast, stand silhouetted against the celestial masterpiece. As the sun descends, the waters of North Bar Lake become a mirror, reflecting the heavens in all their fiery glory. A ribbon of liquid cuts through the sand, mirroring the sky’s vibrant hues. The wet sand, kissed by the setting sun, flows with ethereal light, a testament to the sun’s final performance. The air, still and hushed, is filled with the gentle lapping of waves against the shore, a soothing melody that accompanies the visual symphony.
Mark Lindsay from The Soul of Sleeping Bear
Leelanau.com shares that photographer Mark Lindsay (whose work you may have seen on Michigan in Pictures) has released his first book, The Soul of Sleeping Bear. It’s a beautiful, coffee table book that blends Mark’s gorgeous photography of the Sleeping Bear with writings on what these vistas can spark in your heart.
EDITOR’S NOTE ON THE EDITOR’S NOTE: I am the editor of Leelanau.com. I wrote the Editor’s Note below and fully endorse the position of the letter writer. Honestly, if you don’t I really wonder why you follow this blog and for sure don’t care if you go away for good.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first message that I am going to share from a National Forest Service employee who is neck deep in the horrors being perpetrated against the National Park Service and the National Forest Service. Sadly, I don’t think it will be the last. Also, at the end, the author says mean things about the Department of Government Efficiency aka DOGE aka the unelected & unaccountable organization taking a wrecking ball to the federal government which I fully endorse. This is an ill-fated & poorly planned action that will cause untold & in some cases irreparable damage to public resources that you and I own. We should not allow this.
1. I still have a job, meaning I somehow cleared level one. RIF (reduction in force) is the Boss Level, and that’s still a ways off (days? Weeks? We don’t know). I am not in any way hopeful that I will still be employed with the National Forests in four months, or that there will be National Forests in four years.
2. People at work are packing, printing our performance docs, waiting for the call. Some of us (like me) have targets on our backs, but nobody is safe. Nobody sleeps. A co-worker thought he was having a heart attack. We compare what meds we’re taking for anxiety. The wait is torture. I had to process termination paperwork for a very close friend who kicks ass at her job. It sucks every day. And work used to be my happy place.
3. The termination letters site performance issues. THIS IS A LIE and they know it. That’s why they fired (and were forced by a federal judge to rehire) the head of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a board whose main job is to say, “Whoa whoa wait a sec. You can’t fire federal employees without just cause!” This is why people are signing termination docs “signed under duress.” My friend has excellent performance evaluations. Most of the fired people do. Because…
4. Probation does NOT mean we did something wrong. It means we just got hired (or promoted) and it came with a probationary period. These are recent graduates who went to school for natural resource management, wildlife conservation, forestry, and did so with the SOLE INTENT of protecting our public lands. These are the MOST devoted, passionate, educated, efficient people. With the least pay. We don’t work public lands for the pay; it is so much less than private sector wages, you guys. Look up the federal pay scale. It’s public information. Compare GS level jobs to what they’d make at a private company. In NPS we joked that we got paid in sunsets. We join because we believe in preserving public land for future generations. But it’s starting to look like our public lands will be cannibalized for parts. So
5. Please! If you go to public lands this summer, or in the next four years, know that we are doing the best we can with the staff and budget we’ve been given. There’s a district north of Yellowstone of over a million acres that has been left with THREE employees. Recreation and Trails departments across the nation have been gutted. There are NO PEOPLE LEFT ON THE GROUND TO CLEAN YOUR SHIT. If you have a complaint about your lands this summer, do NOT get hostile with the federal workers on the ground. Take that complaint, dip it in hot tar, and shove it as far up the DOGEs ass as you can reach.
With full honor & respect to the absolutely brutal temps across Michigan this morning, here are some sweet photos from a series that Bill took on February 1st at Fennville’s Pier Cove Park. There’s even a shot of a sundog in one of the photos!
Our friends at the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association share: And now for something completely different: A new initiative to highlight the problem of potholes. Lighthouses are being trialled at night to warn unsuspecting motorists.
I don’t think the lighthouse above is based on a Michigan one, so here’s a shot of Point Betsie on Lake Michigan GLLKA shared recently by Ross Ellet! More funny business on Michigan in Pictures.
“This snowy week is nearly at an end, including a visit from real Arctic air, and many towns near Lake Michigan and Lake Superior got a foot or two of fresh snow as a result,” the NWS said. “Clearly, the vast majority of snow was a result of lake effect, as plenty of other parts of Michigan only saw an inch or two at best.”
Air temperatures in Michigan fell below zero Jan. 18-22. In some cases, the thermometer didn’t read above zero for two days. The coldest reading in the state came Monday night when Stambaugh, in the western UP, registered minus 30 — before wind chill. The town also saw minus 28 on Tuesday night while Ironwood’s NWS observer recorded minus 27.
You can see that the conditions have also piled up shoreline ice in these pictures that Mark took over the weekend at Lincoln Township Beach just north of Grand Mere State Park. Here are some more recent ones and a shot from summer of 2016 below. More in Mark’s 2025 gallery on Flickr!
9 years ago I started a Michigan in Pictures Patreon page to allow folks to throw me a few bucks in support of michpics. A big thank you to all who have done so – it means a lot to know you care.
My best friend Ken who has since passed on & I took these photos way back in August of 2007 after an honestly incredible rock stacking event on the Lake Michigan shoreline just north of the village of Frankfort. I still have no idea who did this, but I know that I will never forget it!! I hope you enjoy these photos & the video and also that you’re able to make or discover magic in your corner of the Great Lakes State.
Several times a year I can point out to you weather we see nowhere else in America. One of those times is when we get Arctic air crossing the 40-degree water of Lake Michigan.
Look at the low temperature forecast for tomorrow morning, Jan. 9. You could call a friend in northeast Lower Michigan, and they will tell you it’s very cold and near zero degrees. Look at the “warmer” air that blows off of 40-degree Lake Michigan. We will have spots around Kalamazoo, South Haven and Benton Harbor that only drop to 20 degrees. Southeast Lower Michigan can be colder than the northwest shoreline of Lake Michigan at this time of year. Thursday morning’s map clearly shows that strange temperature pattern. We also see the warmer air under the clouds and lake effect snow stretching southeast off Lake Michigan.
I’ve been hanging onto this post so long I was worried we’d have snow before I shared it!! The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released their seasonal outlook for Winter 2024-2025 which says (in part):
This winter, NOAA predicts wetter-than-average conditions for the entire northern tier of the continental U.S., particularly in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region, along with northern and western Alaska.
“This winter, an emerging La Nina is anticipated to influence the upcoming winter patterns, especially our precipitation predictions,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch of the Climate Prediction Center. La Nina conditions are expected to develop later this fall and typically lead to a more northerly storm track during the winter months, leaving the southern tier of the country warmer and drier.
Rae took this photo at Point Betsie Lighthouse on January 1st of this year. Follow her on Flickr & on Instagram for more!
The 2024-2025 U.S. Winter Outlook map for temperature shows the greatest chances for cooler-than-average conditions in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. (Image credit: NOAA)
The 2024-2025 U.S. Winter Outlook map for precipitation shows wetter-than-average conditions are most likely across the Great Lakes region of the U.S.. Drier-than-average conditions are forecast for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. (Image credit: NOAA)
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