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History & Culture

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History & Culture notes

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The courthouse Crystal Falls (says it) stoleIron County's grand 1890 courthouse crowns a hill above Crystal Falls -- and local legend says the county seat itself was swiped from Iron River one frozen night, with a poker game as the decoy.
The Detroit Zoo isn't in Detroit — it's Royal Oak's backyardThe Detroit Zoo, opened in 1928 as America's first bar-less zoo, sits in Royal Oak and Huntington Woods — penguins, polar bears, and all.
The general behind the name MacombMacomb County and Macomb Township are named for Alexander Macomb, the Detroit-born general who won the Battle of Plattsburgh and led the entire U.S. Army.
The half-mile-long building with a petting farm: Domino's FarmsAnn Arbor Township is home to Domino's Farms — a half-mile-long Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired 'groundscraper' with a working petting farm out front.
The Irish Hills: glacial lakes, an old road, and a fast trackThe Irish Hills combine kettle lakes, U.S. 12 stagecoach history, and Michigan International Speedway in northwest Lenawee County.
The iron range that built America (and still ships)Marquette County's iron range fed the nation's furnaces for 175 years — Negaunee and Ishpeming mined it, and the ore dock at Marquette still loads freighters today.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the L'Anse ReservationMuch of Baraga County sits on the L'Anse Reservation -- the oldest and largest in Michigan, home of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, an Ojibwe nation that has governed these shores of Keweenaw Bay for generations.
The Pointes: five towns on one famous shoreThe Grosse Pointes share Lake St. Clair's most storied shoreline — Lake Shore Road, the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, and a century of lakefront civic life.
The Portage Lake Lift Bridge, the heaviest of its kindThe big green bridge between Houghton and Hancock is the world's heaviest double-decked vertical-lift bridge -- and the only land link between the upper and lower halves of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
The quiet township making the stuff computer chips are made ofHemlock Semiconductor in Thomas Township is the only U.S.-owned maker of hyper-pure polysilicon and one of five worldwide serving leading-edge chips.
The Quincy Mine, 'Old Reliable' above HancockThe red shaft-house on the hill above Hancock marks the Quincy Mine -- a copper mine that paid out for half a century, drove a shaft over a mile and a half deep, and holds the largest steam hoist engine ever built.
The Ridge: where most of Michigan's apples growThe Fruit Ridge northwest of Grand Rapids — centered on Sparta — grows roughly six of every ten Michigan apples, with orchards, cider mills, and U-pick farms everywhere.
The S.S. Badger still carries cars across Lake MichiganLudington's S.S. Badger is a 1953 rail car ferry adapted for passengers and vehicles; it still crosses Lake Michigan on a seasonal schedule.
The Sault Tribe and Bay Mills: sovereign nations of the eastern U.P.Two federally recognized Ojibwe tribes are based in Chippewa County -- the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the largest tribe in Michigan, and the Bay Mills Indian Community near Brimley. Both are sovereign governments with their own land, institutions, and treaty rights.
The Thumb feeds America its beansMichigan's Thumb is the nation's powerhouse for navy and black beans, and Tuscola County farmland is at the heart of it.
There's a US Navy destroyer parked on the Saginaw RiverThe USS Edson, a 418-foot Navy destroyer, is moored on the Saginaw River in Bangor Township as the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum.
Three MSU Campus Stops Worth KnowingBeal Botanical Garden, the Broad Art Museum, and the Dairy Store make an easy, mostly free introduction to Michigan State's campus.
Troy: Oakland County's biggest city keeps a village in its pocketTroy pairs the Somerset Collection and a skyline of corporate headquarters with the Troy Historic Village — and a regular spot on national safest-city lists.
Two Kent County covered bridges and a rebuilt neighborKent County has the 1871 Fallasburg and 1867 Ada covered bridges; nearby White's Bridge in Ionia County was rebuilt after a 2013 fire.
Under the oaks and over the falls: two Jackson landmarksJackson's 1854 state convention helped organize the new Republican Party. Nearby, the Cascades has sent illuminated water down a hillside since 1932.
Vassar, the Cork Pine City — named for a college founder who never lived hereVassar took its name from Matthew Vassar of Vassar College fame and its nickname from the towering 'cork pine' that floated down the Cass River.
Warren's 'Industrial Versailles': the GM Technical CenterEero Saarinen's GM Technical Center was dedicated in 1956 with President Eisenhower speaking remotely from the White House, and it remains an active GM campus.
Wayne: Michigan's first county, named for Mad AnthonyWayne County — organized in 1796 and named for General 'Mad Anthony' Wayne — is where Michigan began, and it's still the state's center of gravity.
West Michigan's answer to the Dream Cruise rolls down 28th StreetThe 28th Street Metro Cruise fills Wyoming and Kentwood with 15,000 classic cars and a quarter-million spectators every August.
What 'Keweenaw' meansKeweenaw is an Ojibwe word for a portage -- the place where you carry your canoe across the land. It names the county, the peninsula, and the whole copper-rich corner that the Ojibwe knew and worked long before anyone else.
When Chicago summered on Paw Paw LakeA century ago, special trains delivered thousands of Chicagoans to Paw Paw Lake's hotels and dance pavilions; today the lake is Coloma and Watervliet's year-round backyard.
When Menominee floated a forest down the riverIn the white-pine years, the Menominee River carried billions of feet of logs to the mills at Menominee and Marinette -- twin cities that styled themselves the White Pine Capital of the World.
When Saginaw was the lumber capital of the worldIn the 1870s and 80s the Saginaw Valley's 80-plus sawmills made it the lumber capital of the world, and the Castle Museum keeps that story alive.
When St. Louis was 'the Saratoga of the West'In 1869 a salt-drilling crew in St. Louis struck 'magnetic' mineral water, and for a generation the town was a famous health resort with grand hotels and celebrity guests.
Where Packards proved themselves: Shelby Township's automotive shrineShelby Township preserves the Packard Proving Grounds — Albert Kahn's 1928 test-track buildings, saved by volunteers and alive with car shows and events.
Where to watch freighters on the St. Clair RiverFreighters pass close to shore beneath the Blue Water Bridge, and Port Huron hosts Boat Week before the annual Bayview Mackinac race.
Whitefish Point and the Edmund FitzgeraldAt Whitefish Point, Lake Superior's oldest operating lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum remember the ships and crews lost along this stretch of coast.
Who Houghton County is named forHoughton County, the city of Houghton, and even Houghton Lake all carry the name of Douglass Houghton -- Michigan's first state geologist, whose 1841 copper report set off the boom, and who drowned in Lake Superior at just thirty-six.
Who Marquette is named forMarquette -- the city, the county, and the university -- is named for Father Jacques Marquette, the French Jesuit missionary and explorer who traveled the Great Lakes in the 1600s and helped map the upper Mississippi.
Why everyone's moving to Ottawa CountyOttawa County — Lake Michigan beaches, the Grand River, Tulip Time, and top-rated communities — has been Michigan's fastest-growing county for years running.
Why Ishpeming is called the birthplace of organized skiingThe title does not mean Americans first put on skis here. It points to a 1905 meeting that created a national ski association.
Why Oakland? Oak openings, 1,400 lakes, and Michigan's prosperity engineOakland County took its name from the park-like oak openings the first surveyors found — and its 1,400 lakes and glacial hills still set the landscape apart.
Why the river is named Raisin (and the township Raisinville)French settlers named Monroe County's river the Rivière aux Raisins for the wild grapes draping its banks — and Raisinville Township carries the name on.
Why vineyards cluster along Michigan's southwest shoreThe Lake Michigan Shore wine region covers all of Berrien and Van Buren counties, where Lake Michigan moderates the climate without erasing winter risk.
Willow Run: where Rosie the Riveter built a bomber an hourYpsilanti Township's Willow Run plant turned out a B-24 bomber roughly every hour at its WWII peak — the 'Arsenal of Democracy' made literal, now honored by the Yankee Air Museum.
Woodward's one-day celebration of Detroit car cultureA 1995 Ferndale soccer-field fundraiser grew into a 16-mile cruise whose organizer estimates nearly one million people and 40,000 classic cars each year.
Written in Stone Near Lake HuronSanilac County connects ezhibiigaadek asin, Michigan's largest known collection of early Native American teachings carved in stone, with its Lake Huron shore.
Yates Cider Mill: pressing apples on the Clinton River since the 1800sYates Cider Mill in Rochester Hills has run since 1863 — cider since 1876, pressed with an 1894 water turbine — where the Clinton River Trail meets fall tradition.
Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo (and it gives kids free college)Kalamazoo County built America's first pedestrian mall in 1959 and, since 2005, sends its public-school graduates to college on the anonymous donors of the Kalamazoo Promise.
Zilwaukee: the town that (maybe) tried to out-spell MilwaukeeLocal legend says Zilwaukee's founders picked the name hoping German immigrants bound for Milwaukee would get off the boat here instead.
A short history of Mackinac IslandMackinac Island's story runs from Anishinaabe sacred ground to Fort Mackinac, Victorian cottages, the Grand Hotel, and island fudge.
Algonac, the birthplace of Chris-CraftAlgonac is the birthplace of Chris-Craft and a cradle of American powerboating, with Christopher Columbus Smith and Gar Wood both tied to the river town.
Atlanta, the Elk Capital of MichiganAtlanta calls itself the Elk Capital of Michigan, near the Pigeon River Country elk herd and its long comeback story.
Baldwin won the county seat, then stole the recordsBaldwin won a county-seat election in 1874, but Chase held onto the records until a group from Baldwin took the county safe.
Calcite Quarry: where to see Rogers City's working mineRogers City points visitors to Harbor View for the port and freighters and Quarry View for the pit. Calcite is active, while its world-largest label belongs to local and historical sources.
Cheboygan and the Coast Guard icebreaker MackinawCheboygan is home port for the USCGC Mackinaw, the Coast Guard's heavy Great Lakes icebreaker.
Croton and Hardy: two dams that reshaped the Muskegon RiverCroton began generating power in 1907; Hardy followed in 1931. Together they changed the river, electric service, and the landscape of Newaygo County.
Dinosaur Gardens in OssinekeDinosaur Gardens is a classic Ossineke roadside attraction, with concrete dinosaurs sculpted by Paul Domke beginning in the 1930s.
Dousman's Mill (the old Historic Mill Creek)Dousman's Mill preserves the old Historic Mill Creek sawmill site, one of the oldest industrial places in the Great Lakes.
Empire: Gateway Village to Sleeping Bear DunesEmpire sits at the entrance to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — a small village that outlasted the logging era and now anchors one of Michigan's most-visited parks.
Empire's Asparagus FestivalEvery June, Empire's Chamber of Commerce fills downtown with an asparagus-themed street festival — a fun run, recipe contest, local food and drink, live music, and a community poetry contest.
Fort Gratiot, Michigan's oldest lighthousePort Huron's Fort Gratiot Light is Michigan's oldest lighthouse, still marking the mouth of the St. Clair River.
Fremont: the home of Gerber baby foodFremont is the birthplace and headquarters of Gerber, the baby food company that grew from a local cannery into a national brand.
Glen Arbor, Glen Haven, and Sleeping Bear DunesGlen Arbor sits at the M-22 and M-109 junction at the edge of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where Glen Haven's historic buildings — including D.H. Day's once-multipurpose general store — are still open to visit inside the park.
Hillman, Brush Creek, and the lumber daysHillman began as Brush Creek, a lumber-era village on the Thunder Bay River that later settled into farming and small-town life.

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