Midwest Guest

Midwest travel links for August 2010

2010-09-02T12:27:57-07:00

Check out these great Midwest-related stories I've read online this past month:

Colorful Caribbean Floats-Charlie spotted some beautiful flashes of color while riding his bicycle through Detroit recently, discovering a workshop and artists creating floats and costumes for the city's Annual Caribbean International Festival Parade. Check out his story and photos of the workshop and the subsequent parade at Bikes, Books & A Little Music.

Chicago and Milwaukee: Large Public Art and Placemaking-Public art pieces in Chicago like The Bean and a huge American Gothic sculpture are big tourist draws. Jeramey takes a look at Chicago's latest piece of public art and argues that Milwaukee could benefit from emulating Chicago's penchant for large pieces of statement art. Oh, and check out Milwaukee's Bronze Fonz, which is exactly what you probably think it is-the Fonz of Happy Days fame immortalized as (you guessed it) a bronze statue.
Backyard Adventures: 100 Acres at the Indianapolis Museum of Art-Check out this outdoor arts park at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Arrows Sent Forth. Traveling with kids? This story also has some great tips about the terrain, rest rooms, parking, picnicking at the museum, and more.
Evansville Otters Baseball for Southwest Indiana-There is still a bit of time to take in a baseball game this season, and Erik takes readers to a game with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League at Indiana Insider Blog. I enjoyed hearing about the team's historic 95-year-old ball park and its connection to the movie, "A League of Their Own".
Thriving in the BWCAW-Join Rob and his family on a canoe adventure in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It's been a while since we visited the area ourselves, but I vividly remember the quarter-mile downhill portage and the quarter-mile uphill portage we did during one of our day trips, so I can feel Rob's pain as he talks about two miles worth of portages during his trip at The Intense Traveler. But it's all worth it!

Looking at the End of Summer from the Lighthouse Steps- The marble, Albert Kahn-designed William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse on Detroit's Belle Isle is a real beauty, so I particularly enjoyed taking a closer look at this unique tower at Belle Isle Home.
Road Trip Music: Indiana-Kerry explores the Midwest and its music at Music Road. Check out this profile of Indiana folksinger Carrie Newcomer (born in Michigan, by the way) and other Midwest musician profiles at Kerry's site.
Discovering Musical History on Race Street-Michael takes us to historic Herzog Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, in his Soapbox Cincinnati story. Popular music legends like Hank Williams, Patti Page, Flatt & Scruggs, and Bull Moose Jackson (an early R&B artist whose song, "Big Ten Inch Record", some music fans may remember best as an Aerosmith cover) all recorded at Herzog Studios.
Highway 100-Travel the length of this Minnesota highway via video in a matter of minutes! I enjoyed this little virtual vacation at the Nokohaha blog.

7/79 video takes views on unique visual tour of Cincinnati's center-Driving into the Ohio River? Seeing Cincinnati-area landmarks like the Roebling Bridge or The Ascent in nearby Covington, Kentucky, from the air? Randy posted this virtual vacation on Urban Cincy.

Do you know of any other Midwest-related blogs I should check out?

Where I live: Explore the world of music, enjoy a taste of tropical style in Dearborn, Michigan

2010-09-01T03:00:00-07:00

Summer may be nearing its end, but things are heating up at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn, Michigan. The museum offers a hot musical menu and a taste of tropical style with its fall season of Global Thursdays concerts and a new exhibit featuring the fashions of famed Hawaii-based designer Alfred Shaheen.

Music for every taste

Organizers envision Global Thursdays as an extension of Detroit's annual Concert of Colors celebration of diversity and city pride. Global Thursdays, much like the Concert of Colors, brings music from around the globe to metro Detroit with the goal of celebrating diversity and developing unity through music.

Photo courtesy of AANM

The series kicks off September 9 with Jesus "Chuy" Negrete, who plays guitar and harmonica, as an early celebration of Mexican Independence Day (September 16). The talent of Negrete, the founder and director of the Mexican Cultural Institute in Chicago, as a story teller who shares the Mexican experience through words and music led author/historian Studs Terkel, no slouch as a story teller himself, to dub him "the Chicano Woody Guthrie".

Photo courtesy of AANM

Composer and violinist Riad Abdel-Gawad brings a unique style of Arabic music to the AANM on October 7. His music combines and integrates a variety of Western and Eastern musical genres-not fitting neatly into any specific genre, yet encompassing many of them at the same time. The native of Cairo, Egypt, is the premiere artist and musical educator in this music that preserves and protects its Arabic roots.

Photo courtesy of AANM

Composer/guitarist Sean Blackman merges music reflecting his own Armenian roots with the rhythms of Senegal and Brazil for the final concert of the fall Global Thursdays series on November 4. Blackman settled in Detroit specifically to work with the city's amazingly deep talent pool of the ethnic musicians, and this show promises to feature some of the best Detroit-area ethnic musicians. This sounds like an especially intriguing show for music fans interested in unusual instruments and sounds as it combines the sound of Blackman's nylon-string guitar with unusual instruments like the oud, kora, and kanun.

Tropical treat

Fashion fans are in for a real treat as a free reception prior to the Riad Abdel-Gawad concert on October 7 serves as a preview for Alfred Shaheen: Fabric to Fashion, an exhibit featuring dozens of vintage textiles, garments, and photos.

Shaheen, a Lebanese American engineer, is primarily responsible for popularizing the men's Hawaiian shirt, as well as developing many mid-20th-century textiles and technical innovations in the industry, according to AANM Director of Communications Kim Silarski.

"On the cover of his "Blue Hawaii" album, Elvis Presley wears a Shaheen shirt," she says.

Shaheen created garments using imported material in the years immediately following World War II, but quickly realized the economic and environmental wisdom of creating his own fabrics at home in Hawaii. Innovations like mass producing silk-screened textiles and production sewing techniques, plus an in-house training department, established him as a leader in the islands' industry.

"He did for clothing what Ford did at the Rouge, start to finish, designing and finishing his products under one roof," says Silarski.

Shaheen maintained his factory and production on Oahu, even as his company distributed his informal tropical styles reflecting Hawaiian, South Pacific, and Asian culture worldwide.

Photo courtesy of AANM

Those styles remain popular today says Silarski, who is a real fan of Shaheen's work.

"Shaheen vintage shirts and dresses go for hundreds on eBay," she says.

Don your best tropical attire and enjoy complimentary refreshments at the opening reception for the Shaheen exhibit at 5:30 p.m. on October 7. The exhibit runs through March 13, 2011 and is free with museum admission.

Tickets for each Global Thursdays concert are $10. Purchase tickets at the door, or order online in advance until 5 p.m. the day prior to each show.

Global Thursdays concerts begin at 6:30 p.m. in the AANM's 156-seat auditorium, which is on the lower level of the museum at 13624 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan. Free parking is available in the lighted lot behind the museum.

Also be sure to watch the AANM site for upcoming events like the museum's annual film festival December 2-5.

Note: "Where I live" posts are part of a series of periodic stories about special events and people in, and around, metro Detroit. "Where I live" posts are stories I'll post in addition to my regular schedule of stories about attractions around the larger Midwestern region. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Back to school at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio

2010-08-31T03:00:00-07:00

It's back-to-school time, so I thought it would be nice to visit one of the Midwest's oldest and prettiest campuses at Ohio University in southeastern Ohio near the Appalachian foothills.

Ohio University traces its roots to the early days of the United States when a group of Revolutionary War veterans, figuring it might take a long time to receive payment for their war service, asked the government for one-and-one-half acres of land in lieu of cash.

The group, established as Ohio Company of Associates, received land under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Manasseh Cutler, a Yale graduate and member of the group, insisted on a provision in the agreement emphasizing the importance of education and setting aside land for a school of higher learning.

Visit Ohio University campus and you'll find a passage from that agreement engraved on a stone plaque near the main entrance.

Settlers first arrived in the area in 1797, choosing Athens as a school location because of its location between Ohio's original capital, Chillicothe, and Marietta.

The Northwest Territory legislature and its governor, Arthur St. Clair, approved the school's charter as American Western University in 1802. Ohio became a state in 1803, so the state legislature approved its own charter for the university in 1804.

Ohio University became the first university established in the Northwest Territory, an area covering much of the land that eventually became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The first building appeared on campus in 1807, and a sundial marks that spot today. Three students enrolled in 1808. Early students most likely took classes comparable to today's high school-level classes due the lack of highly trained teachers in the area.

The school awarded its first two bachelor's degrees in 1815, and Ohio University began offering traditional college-level classes by 1822.

The school experienced slow growth through much of the nineteenth century. The university only had 496 graduates by 1886 (a year when they had 26 men and 11 women enrolled in classes). Growth in the student population accelerated after World War II, and today Ohio University has more than 28,000 students.

Legend has it that more than a few ghosts also call Ohio University home, and the school has a reputation as being the most haunted college campus in the country.

The many early nineteenth-century buildings, and the network of red-brick streets and walkways crisscrossing campus, make Ohio University's campus especially appealing. We've visited the campus a few times, and it's easy to spend most of the day wandering around and taking pictures.

Cutler Hall, a late-Federalist style building dating from 1816, has an interesting history and a couple of close calls with demolishment. Lightning struck the building in 1818, and it only survived because of heavy rains. The building housed dorm rooms, class rooms, labs, a library, and a museum over the years but eventually fell into disrepair and some university officials called to demolish it. It was restored it to its original appearance in the 1940s and earned designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. Today the university president and other senior university officials have offices in the building.

The red brick so prevalent on campus speaks to the importance of the brick-making industry in the Hocking Valley during the nineteenth century.

Plentiful clay and shale deposits in the Hocking Valley fired the start of brick making in the area during the early 1800s. Early area brick makers practiced the craft much as Europeans did for hundreds of years, making bricks for specific structures and baking them in the sun or makeshift kilns.

By the 1870s, more modern brick manufacturing began in the area. Walk around campus and see how many bricks you can find engraved with the brick company names or marks.

Want to learn more about the school's history? Check out Ohio University 1804-2004: Spirit of a Singular Place by Betty Hollow.

Athens by Richard A. Straw is an Arcadia Press book chock full of vintage views of the town and information about its history.

Want to know more about the ghostly tales surrounding campus? Check out Guide to Ohio University Ghosts & Legends by Craig Tremblay.

Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse stands tall at the tip of Michigan's Thumb on Lake Huron

2010-08-26T03:00:00-07:00

The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse near the tip of Michigan's Thumb marks a crucial turning point for vessels going into Saginaw Bay, warning boats of a shallow reef extending nearly two miles into Lake Huron.

Pointe aux Barques ("Point of little boats") takes its name from the French fur traders who originally traveled the area in birch bark canoes, gathering there each spring to trade furs and take on new supplies before another trapping season.

This lighthouse is among the 10 oldest lighthouses in Michigan, although it isn't the first light tower to grace this rocky point on the eastern shore of Lake Huron between Port Hope and Port Austin.

President James K. Polk appropriated $5,000 to build the first lighthouse at Pointe aux Barques in 1847. The location seemed ideal and there was an abundance of stone along the shore to use as building material.

The first lighthouse likely had a short stone tower and small dwelling. A recent archeological dig by students and staff from Western Michigan University unearthed some evidence of the original light and its footprint.

Peter Shook was the lighthouse's first keeper, arriving in 1848 with his wife Catherine and their eight children. Catherine took ill shortly after arriving at Pointe aux Barques, so Peter brought a doctor to the lighthouse to care for his wife. Peter and the doctor both drowned on a trip to return the doctor to his home. Catherine's appointment to take Peter's place made her Michigan's first female light keeper according to the state historical marker in front of the lighthouse.

Catherine's troubles continued as a fire destroyed her family's home at the lighthouse in 1849, but she remained on the job for another two years.

Further damage occurred at the lighthouse as the original construction and materials weren't strong enough to withstand the weather and waves, and the tower likely wasn't tall enough to be easily visible or effective.

Plans to completely replace the lighthouse resulted in construction of an 89-foot-tall tower and attached dwelling of Cream City brick in 1857. The light with its Third Order Fresnel lens was visible more than 15 miles away on the lake.

A new two-story dwelling attached to the tower via a short enclosed passage had an arch-topped cast iron door separating both structures as a way to deter any possible fires from spreading.

In 1875, the Port Hope Life Saving Station appeared about 800 feet south of the lighthouse.

Changes at the lighthouse over the years included: the construction of a round oil shed to store flammable oils away from the tower in 1892 (the little red building visible in the photo below), construction of an assistant keepers' home in 1908, electrification of the light in 1932, and retirement of the last light keeper with automation of the light in 1939.

The Coast Guard decommissioned the life saving station and its 15 buildings in 1939, moving some of the buildings to the nearby Huron City complex of historic buildings.

The 1950s saw the removal of the Fresnel lens and its replacement by more modern beacons. Huron County acquired the lighthouse and its grounds in 1958 to use as a park, campground, and lighthouse museum.

Lighthouse County Park sits near on original site of the life saving station and has 110 modern and rustic campsites, a handful of rustic cabins, picnic areas, pavilions, and playground equipment. We've been out to the park at different times of the year, and it never seems overcrowded. We spotted only a few RVs and tents at the campground during our most recent visit in early August.

The non-profit Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society, formed in 2002, currently maintains the site as a museum open from May through early October. We found the museum open, but not staffed, later than the posted hours during our last visit.

The light tower is not generally open to the public, although you can look up the spiral staircase from the foot of the tower. We just missed the annual Lighthouse Heritage Days in early August when visitors could climb the tower for a small donation to help fund Pointe aux Barques maintenance.

Renovations and restoration continue at the lighthouse, and I remember visiting a few years ago before the tower's most recent paint job. This most recent visit, I spotted a sign in the museum saying that the Fresnel lens now at Huron City will soon return to the lighthouse

Want to learn more about the tip of Michigan's Thumb? Check out Huron County Michigan by the Huron County Historical Society. I always find these little Arcadia Publishing volumes of historic photos and short histories a fun way to learn a little about places I visit.

Where I live: Detroit Symphony Orchestra kicks off another noteworthy season

2010-08-25T03:00:00-07:00

Join the Detroit Symphony Orchestra this 2010-2011 season for a noteworthy menu of classical, jazz, and popular music sure to appeal to every taste.

Here are just a few highlights of the schedule to whet your musical appetite as the DSO sets the scene for the season's October 1 start.

On the classical side, the new DSO season reflects a further extension of Music Director Leonard Slatkin's vision of bringing exciting new music to Orchestra Hall with multiple world and DSO premieres, along a healthy helping of work by contemporary classical composers, while including many familiar audience favorites in the schedule.

See some of the cream of Michigan's classical talent crop with special performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 commemorating the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, and 100th anniversary of his death. These Symphony of a Thousand concerts, presented in collaboration with the Michigan Opera Theater, University Musical Society, University of Michigan, and Michigan State University, take place on March 18 at the Detroit Opera House and on March 19 at Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium.

Classical music lovers are in for a real treat as the Music Director Leonard Slatkin directs DSO performances of all nine Beethoven symphonies in a series of three weekends this spring. Immerse yourself in Beethoven's masterful music starting with two concerts during the weekend of March 24-26, continuing with two more concerts during the weekend of April 8-10, and culminating the weekend of April 14-16 with performances of the Beethoven's beloved Symphony No. 9. Each of these performances includes a little lagniappe of the master's work with some favorite short selections and overtures.

This year's DSO season also offers plenty of options beyond its great classical concerts with its Jazz and Pops series that include many events especially suited for families or a special date night.

Treat your family to a Halloween weekend program featuring music from films like Ghostbusters, Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, and more. Grammy Award-winning composer Victor Vanacore conducts the October 28-31 Trick or Treat program.

Some of our favorite memories of going to the DSO came while hearing some of our favorite winter holiday music performed by the orchestra. Warm up with the DSO as they come Home for the Holidays December 16-19 with a program of favorite carols and a visit from a special red-suited, white-bearded guest (which was a highlight of the show when I saw it several years ago)!

Families should also enjoy Disney in Concert: Magical Music from the Movies, April 28-May 1. The DSO performs some of the most well loved tunes from Disney films like The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, accompanied by animated images projected on screens above the orchestra.

Jazz shows are always among my favorite performances when I've attended shows at Orchestra Hall, and this season's Paradise Jazz Series features some concerts sure to be future favorites.

Cooler days arrive with the start of autumn, but experience the warm embrace of Caribbean rhythms and jazz riffs as Michel Camilo opens this DSO season on October 1 with an energetic Big Band-Caribe. Composer and pianist Camilo, a multiple Grammy-Award winner in jazz, classical, and Latin music, also serves as the DSO's Jazz Creative Director.

Other jazz series performances include Tony Award-winning vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater paying tribute to Billie Holiday (November 5), the Grammy Award-winning quartet Manhattan Transfer with a Christmas program (December 14), and ten-time Grammy Award winner Bobby McFerrin bringing his innovative vocal style to the Orchestra Hall stage (March 3).

Check the DSO web site for a complete season schedule, pricing, and purchasing information. Subscription and series packages are already available for purchase, and single performance tickets for the 2010-2011 season go on sale August 30.

Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail Highlights

2010-08-24T03:00:00-07:00

Driving along the shoreline is always a special treat for me, and I'm particularly fond of the designated routes encircling the Great Lakes.

We live close to the Ohio border, and we've traveled the Lake Erie Ohio Coastal Trail many times. The 293-mile route is primarily Ohio's portion of the 660-mile Lake Erie Circle Tour and wends its way through a variety of nature preserves, historic sites, big urban centers, and small towns.

You can drive the entire route in a day, or you can easily spend several days exploring the trail. We're close enough to the western end of the route that we occasionally do a portion of the route just east of Toledo as a day trip.

The Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail earned its designation as an Ohio State Scenic Byway in December of 2004, and became a National Scenic Byway in September of 2005. The Lake Erie Circle Tour earned its designation in the early 1990s.

The Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail runs from the Michigan border near Toledo, Ohio, and on through Conneaut, Ohio, to the Pennsylvania state line.

Here are some highlights of our travels along the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail:

Toledo-Stop by the legendary Tony Packo's for a Hungarian hot dog and some fried pickles and peppers, tour the city's Old West End neighborhood with its stately Victorian-era homes, and visit Toledo Museum of Art with its outdoor sculpture garden and renowned glass collection. Take in a Mud Hens' baseball game, or do a little shopping at the city's Farmers Market and the Libbey Glass Outlet.

Maumee/Oak Harbor-Spend a night at the Maumee Bay State Park Resort or an afternoon on the resort's nature trail, where you can spot the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse in the distance. Nature lovers, hikers, photographers and birders will enjoy visiting the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge just east of Toledo. Don't miss the Ohio Bicentennial barn along the route near the wildlife sanctuaries.

Sandusky/Marblehead-Most people know the Sandusky area best for the Cedar Point Amusement Park or island destinations like Put-In Bay. It's been quite some time since I've been to either place (which gives me more excuse to travel out this route yet again), but other favorite places in this section of the route include the city of Sandusky itself with its Carnegie Library and a trip out to the tip of the Marblehead Peninsula to see the Marblehead Lighthouse.
Cleveland-Cleveland clearly rocks with us, as we've been there multiple times. I bought a charter membership to the city's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum, so we make it there quite often. You might not think of a cemetery as a trip destination, but Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery is an especially interesting stop for those who love history and taking photos. While you're at Lake View, don't miss the President Garfield Memorial or the Wade Chapel (the chapel's Tiffany-designed interior and windows earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973). President Garfield's home in Mentor, Ohio, is just east of Cleveland and another must-see for history buffs.

Ashtabula-There is plenty to see in this city near the eastern end of the route. Catch a glimpse of the Ashtabula Lighthouse or check out Point Park with its great view of the city's bascule bridge. The Hubbard House was an important Underground Railroad terminus and sits on a quiet side street within sight of Lake Erie.

I expect we'll travel this trail many more times as there are plenty of other places along the route we've yet to see, so don't be surprised to see a sequel to this post sometime in the future!

We have a GPS, but I still find a good map invaluable when we travel. Delorme publishes a series of map books covering each individual state, with each book including listings of features like parks, historic sites, museums, campgrounds, and other great information. These books are a must for road trips, and I've worn out several of the Michigan and Ohio Gazetteers from use over the years. Check out the Ohio Atlas & Gazetteer before heading out on the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail.

Photo Friday: Enjoying classic cars "Down on Main Street" in Clawson, Michigan

2010-08-20T03:00:00-07:00

Metro Detroiters love their wheels, and summertime here means a series of anxiously anticipated car shows and cruises.

One of the biggest classic car cruises of the season takes place this Saturday as the 16th annual Woodward Dream Cruise rolls down the storied Woodward Avenue cruising strip.

Can't wait for Saturday? I'm posting a few photos from last weekend's Down on Main Street classic car show in Clawson. We got some great shots as the weather was decent this year, and there were, as always, a lot of great classics.

Checking out the rides

This shot makes me think of "American Graffiti"

Trophies awaiting the judges' decisions

Classic elegance

The Clawson show, now in its twelfth season, happens the Saturday before the Dream Cruise and is always the perfect way to get revved up for the festivities out on Woodward.

Check out my story, Classic cars congregate in Clawson "Down on Main Street", for more about the Clawson car show.

Clawson honors military dead with 21-gun salute "Down on Main Street"

My Dream Car

Cruising Woodward is a long-time tradition in this area. Check out this vintage Midwest Guest story, Car Crazy, for more about the event's history and some memories from my father and myself about cruising Woodward over the years.

You can also check out the book, Cruisin' the Original Woodward Avenue by the Woodward Heritage Team. My dad enjoyed this little volume full of vintage pictures when I gave it to him as a Father's Day gift.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

Fin

Glen Haven, Michigan: Vintage village view of region's maritime and logging history

2010-08-19T03:00:00-07:00

Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park is a must-visit destination for those interested in northwestern Michigan's history, with historic districts that include the village of Glen Haven as a fascinating illustration of the region's early maritime and logging history.

The National Park Service purchased the entire village, including a handful of existing buildings, during the mid-1970s, and maintains it today with several restored buildings housing a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a couple of small museums.

While the village and its Lake Michigan shoreline is picturesque at any time of year, visitors particularly interested in Glen Haven's history may want to visit during the summer or early fall when most of the buildings and indoor exhibits are open.

General Store

The logging industry flourished in Michigan during the mid-1800s and, in 1857, C.C. McCarty established a settlement by building a sawmill and an inn on the beach west of Glen Arbor, the nearby village founded by his brother-in-law John E. Fisher. McCarty named his settlement Sleeping Bearville.

The small settlement got off to a somewhat sleepy start as area residents leaving to fight in the Civil War meant slower development. By 1865, McCarty built a large dock to take advantage of the village's protected harbor and proximity to logging operations as returning war vets spurred the village's growth.

Philo Chamberlain, president of the Northern Transit Company, acquired Glen Haven in 1878 as port for his 24-vessel fleet moving wood between Ogdensburg, New York, and Midwestern ports like Chicago and Milwaukee.

Blacksmith shop

D.H Day was the company's agent in Glen Haven and a major player in the town's development during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Glen Haven had 11 buildings by 1881. Several of those buildings still stand as part of the park's historic site, including a general store owned by Day and the village blacksmith shop.

Day worked to diversify the village's economy. He established a cannery operation in the 1920s to process and ship cherries and apples to market from his own farm and 5,000-tree orchard.

In 1901, the Sleeping Bear Point life-saving station was built. Shifting sands forced the operation to move in 1931, but advances in technology like radar, radios, and helicopters made the station obsolete and led to its closing in 1941.

The heyday of the big steamer boats faded as trucking companies expanded and the state's highway system improved. By the late 1920s, few passenger or cargo ships visited Glen Haven, and steamer owners going out of business spelled the end of the town's role as a maritime and transportation powerhouse by 1931.

Some tourists visited the area from the mid-1930s through the mid-1970s for sand dune rides in Dunesmobiles, but those rides ceased with the park service's purchase of Glen Haven and the surrounding area to preserve as the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The last remaining village businesses closed during the 1970s as the park service planned restoration of Glen Haven to pretty much its 1920s appearance.

Blacksmith shop interior

Today, highlights at Glen Haven include:

The General Store, which displays and sells items like kitchenware, food, and toys during the summer. It is a visitor center for the village.
The blacksmith shop, one of the first buildings constructed in the village, is also open during the summer. Volunteers demonstrate the blacksmith's craft and explain the importance of the business during the village's early logging days, when blacksmiths helped keep the area's logging industry going with timely and expert repair of the logging equipment.
The park service restores the Glen Haven Cannery building as a museum, and it is the largest public exhibit of Great Lakes small craft and equipment.
The Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station and Maritime Museum stages re-enactments of life-saving rescue drills during the summertime.

Want to learn more about the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and its history? Check out Sleeping Bear: Yesterday and Today by George Weeks, which the National Park Service site recommends as a good source of regional history information and historic photos of the area.

History buffs might also enjoy learning about the area's agricultural history and another historic area at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by checking out my recent story, Northern Michigan's Port Oneida Rural Historic District revisited.

Northern Michigan's Port Oneida Rural Historic District revisited

2010-08-17T03:00:00-07:00

Port Oneida's days as a thriving farming, lumbering, and port community may be far behind it, but you can still visit this northern Michigan ghost town today and listen closely to the wind whispering through the trees to learn a little about the region's agricultural history and culture.

We first photographed the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, which is now part of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, in early 2009. The district covers more than 3,400 acres has over 120 buildings, many of them in various states of repair or restoration.

Our self-guided tour that winter day took us through the more accessible portions of the historic district, and the absence of leaves on the trees made for some interesting, and somewhat spooky shots, of an abandoned farm that the Weaver family called home from the late 1800s until around the end of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Read my story, Port Oneida Rural Historic District celebrates northern Michigan's agricultural heritage and my accompanying Photo Friday feature to learn more about our wintertime visit to Port Oneida, read a bit about the town's history, and see some of my Weaver Farm photos.

We visited Port Oneida again this summer. The little community still exudes some of the same sense of ghostly slumber we felt during the winter, although absence of winter snow meant we could explore more of the seasonal roads and farms tucked away from the main roads.

Even as the summer sun shone brightly overhead, the whitewashed exteriors of many of the buildings still gave them a ghostly air, even as the occasional splash of color lent a hint of life to the scene.

We occasionally spotted park service staff doing repair or restoration work. The mix of vintage and new materials in some buildings demonstrated the park's work to keep as much of the original buildings as possible, even if it meant reconstructing a whole new building or facade around an element like an original door and latch.

The Eckhert Farm, with its red facade and cellar entrance, played host to many community dances during the late 1800s, and the Eckherts grew corn, potatoes, and grain.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Ole Olsen Farm, which sits across the road from the Eckhert farm. The Olsen family's main crops were wheat and potatoes, and one of the last Olsens to live in this house, with its green trim and tin roof, stayed there until the mid-1990s. I found myself alone on the front porch, where I sat a while and listened to the silence, punctuated by nothing more than the occasional chirp of a bird of buzz of an insect.

This time we were also able to walk into the North Unity School, a vintage 1870s cabin that once served as the community's one-room school. The school is near Narada Lake, although we didn't walk down to the lake because it was loon nesting season when we visited.

We checked back with the Weaver Farm, although the thick summer vegetation and leaves on the trees made it difficult to spot from the road. The thick summer vegetation also meant the mosquitoes were visiting at the same time!

The Weaver Farm appears to be one instance where the park service is letting nature take its course as the building appeared even more dilapidated that it did in early 2009. Portions of a door and wall that I remember as being somewhat intact earlier are missing now, and I wonder what, if anything, will be left of the house when we next visit Port Oneida.

Want to learn more about Port Oneida's history? Check out Farming at the Water's Edge by Marla McEnaney.

Photo Friday: The Bean and Me in Chicago

2010-08-13T03:00:00-07:00

Chicago's massive "Bean" sculpture, the affectionate nickname for Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in the city's waterfront Millennium Park, offers endlessly fascinating photo possibilities.

I included a handful of my favorite "Bean" images in yesterday's post, Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction, where I wrote about the sculpture, its meaning, and how it draws visitors into interacting with it.

Today, I want to share a few more Cloud Gate images and thoughts about photographing it.

There always seems to be a crowd around the sculpture on days best suited for taking photos, so people will invariably be part of any pictures you take. Having the crowd as part of the scene will give your photos a real sense of scale and a good idea of just how big "The Bean" is in relation to its surroundings.

One of the photos I posted yesterday looked almost like a black and white photo, although I shot it in color. I'm posting an alternate copy of it here that I created as a grey scale image in Lightroom.

I shot this image from a window in a room on the upper floor of a building across the street from the park. Look closely and you can see the birds perched on top of the sculpture!

Here I am shooting a quick self-portrait of myself as reflected in the sculpture.

Some of the coolest shots I got came when I took pictures from underneath the sculpture, where the concave surface created some great abstract-like images.

One thing that surprised me about my Cloud Gate images when I started going through them was the fact that all but one of the images I posted with today's post and yesterday's post were taken with a trusty little Canon PowerShot point-and-shoot. While I enjoy using my larger Canon EOS DSLR camera, I find that the smaller camera often gives me nice images more than suitable for using with my blog posts.

Check out my story, Shooting photographs for your blog, for a few tips and thoughts about the subject and a quick review of the book Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with your Compact Camera by Rick Sammon.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.