An author's castle and a presidential candidate's hometown

For a small city, Owosso has produced some outsized names. The most colorful is James Oliver Curwood (1878–1927), who grew up here and became one of the best-selling adventure writers in America — his wilderness novels set in the Canadian North were turned into dozens of movies. Late in life he gave up hunting for conservation and was appointed to Michigan’s Conservation Commission. With the fortune his books earned, Curwood built himself a writing studio on the bank of the Shiawassee River that looks like a little castle: a yellow stucco replica of a French-Norman chateau, with turrets and fieldstones he chose himself. He left “Curwood Castle” to the city, and it’s now a museum about his life. Each year, on the first full weekend in June, Owosso throws the Curwood Festival in his honor, with a big downtown parade.

Owosso’s other famous son was Thomas E. Dewey (1902–1971), born here as the son of the local newspaper publisher. He went east, made his name as a crime-busting New York prosecutor, served three terms as governor of New York, and was the Republican nominee for president twice — in 1944 against Franklin Roosevelt and in 1948 against Harry Truman. The 1948 race produced one of history’s most famous headlines: a Chicago paper printed “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” before the votes were in — and Dewey lost. When he came home to Owosso during that campaign, a reported 27,000 people lined the streets to see him.

Curwood Castle sits in Curwood Castle Park at 224 Curwood Castle Drive, and it’s open seasonally — worth checking the hours before you visit.