Message in a Bottle from Tashmoo Park

Tashmoo at the Dock, 1900, photo courtesy shorpy.com

The Daily Mail reports on an almost 100-year-old find:

Selina Pramstaller was 17-years-old and Tillie Esper was 23-years-old when they visited an amusement park on Harsens Island in Michigan alongside the St Clair River in 1915 and decided to commemorate the day with a message in a bottle.

That message- ‘having a good time at Tashmoo’- was found almost 97 years later by diver Dave Leander.

Click through for more on the find and some pictures. You can see more pictures and read something about this once popular amusement park on Harsens Island that closed for good in 1951 at waterwinterwonderland.com.

Check this out background bigtacular (or buy a print) and see many more old photos from Detroit and elsewhere at shorpy.com. About the boat, they explain:

The Detroit River excursion steamer SS Tashmoo, a sidewheeler, stopped at Tashmoo Park on the St. Clair Flats on trips between Detroit and Port Huron. A high point in the boat’s eventful 36-year life was the night in 1927 that she broke free of her moorings in a winter storm and headed downriver on her own. Her end came in 1936, when she hit a submerged rock and sank.

Rainbow Sunrise, Rainbow Season

rainbow sunrise, photo by tbug2

I feel like June officially launches rainbow season in Michigan.

Check Tenille’s photo out bigger and see more in her Landscapes slideshow.

More about rainbows & rainbow science on Michigan in Pictures.

Overlooked Falls in Porcupine Mountains State Park

fallen tree [Overlooked Falls 2478 2481], photo by Frank Kaelin (aka Fir Dawg)

GoWaterfalling’s page on Minor Waterfalls has this to say about Overlooked Falls in Porcupine Mountains State Park:

Overlooked Falls is a small falls on the Little Carp River. The scenic falls consists of two drops, each about 5′ in height. This is the most easily accessed of the falls on the Little Carp River, big or small. It is only a few hundred feet from the parking area. The trailhead to the falls is at the end of Little Carp River road. This is also the trailhead to Greenstone Falls, which is about 1/2 mile away. The trail also leads to the much larger Trappers Falls, which is three miles away.

Check this out bigger and see more in Frank’s Mainly Water slideshow.

Many (many) more Michigan waterfalls on Michigan in Pictures!

Sugar Man: Detroit’s Own Sixto Rodriguez

Next Saturday (June 22nd) I get to be part of a neat moment in the annals of Michigan music when I work with my partner Laura, the wineries of Traverse City and a fantastic team of workers & volunteers to host Sixto Diaz Rodriguez at the 5th annual Traverse City Wine & Art Festival.

Thanks to the global stardom of Rodriguez, hero of the Academy Award winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, our festival sold out easily. You still have a chance to see this beautiful film though:

In 1968, two producers went to a downtown Detroit bar to see an unknown recording artist – a charismatic Mexican-American singer/songwriter named Rodriguez, who had attracted a local following with his mysterious presence, soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics. They were immediately bewitched by the singer, and thought they had found a musical folk hero in the purest sense – an artist who reminded them of a Chicano Bob Dylan, perhaps even greater. They had worked with the likes of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, but they believed the album they subsequently produced with Rodriguez – Cold Fact – was the masterpiece of their producing careers. Despite good reviews, Cold Fact was a commercial disaster and marked the end of Rodriguez’s recording career…

A bootleg recording of Cold Fact somehow found its way to South Africa in the early 1970s, a time when South Africa was becoming increasingly isolated as the Apartheid regime tightened its grip. Rodriguez’s anti-establishment lyrics and observations as an outsider in urban America felt particularly resonant for a whole generation of disaffected Afrikaners. The album quickly developed an avid following through word-of-mouth among the white liberal youth, with local pressings made. In typical response, the reactionary government banned the record, ensuring no radio play, which only served to further fuel its cult status.

The film tells the story of the search and rediscovery of Rodriguez. He’s now in the midst of a world tour that has seen him appear on 60 Minutes (great piece), Letterman & Leno and legendary concert venues as the Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Orpheum Theatre in LA, the Hammersmith Apollo in London, Radio City Music Hall  … and our festival in Traverse City.

Miners Castle Sunset

“Miners Castle Sunset” – Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, photo by Michigan Nut

I figured to close “Pictured Rocks week” on Michigan in Pictures, I needed a photo from one of the people who captures the stunning beauty the best – John McCormick aka Michigan Nut. As you can see from this shot, he really does an excellent job of capturing the stunning colors of this wild & amazing place.

Check his photo out bigger and definitely don’t miss his Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore slideshow. Michigan in Pictures has lots more photos from John too!

You can read more about Miners Castle too!

La Chapele: The Doric Arch & Chapel Rock

Pictured Rocks Shoreline, photo by dwfphoto

Their beginning is in the Doric Rock which is about two miles from the line of towers and battlements which compose the grand display of the Pictured Rocks; and seems to have been sent in advance to announce to the voyageur the surprising and appalling grandeur that awaits him ahead.
~Thomas McKenney, 1834

“Appalling grandeur” is indeed fitting for the stretch of the Pictured Rocks. The above quotation comes from a wonderful website I just discovered: Tracing The Trail: The Pictured Rocks Segment of the Anishnaabeg Migration Route. The site has some incredible historic information about the Anishnaabeg and their life & migration through the Pictured Rocks. The site has some fascinating information, and I heartily urge you to check it out. Regarding what is today known as Chapel Rock, they explain that what we see today was once an arch known as Doric Rock or Le Chapelle.

“The voyageurs, of course, coined the name ‘Le Chapelle,’ and they continued to use the term well into the American period. The journals of the 1820 Cass expedition reveal the origin of the new name. David Bates Douglass simply notes that just west of a waterfall cascading over the rocks they visited a ‘fine natural arch.’ Schoolcraft states that near a cascade four miles beyond the beginning of the sandstone bluffs is located ‘Doric Arch.’ Both Charles C. Trowbridge and James Duane Doty indicate that the Cass expedition was responsible for naming the formation ‘Doric Arch.’ The following excerpt from Doty’s journal gives a good description of the formation and reason for naming it ‘Doric Arch.’

About midway of the rocks a stream of water is seen pouring over a perpendicular bank 70 feet high. The sheet is about 10 feet wide. Passing this we soon come to an arched rock separated apparently entirely from the bank. It is 10 feet from the waters edge to the top of the bank on which it is based; the arch then rises about 35 feet. On the right supporting the arch 2 pillars well formed are seen, on the left but one was discovered—the woods however obstructed the view. The arch appeared smooth and elegantly shaped. On its top and under it pine trees were growing –one very large directly on its center….This arch we named Doric Arch from the resemblance which it bears to that order of architecture.

…“The Chapel, which is reported to have collapsed in 1906, has left its name on current topographic maps. At the site of its location is a symbol and the term ‘Chapel Rock.’

While the arch connecting “The Chapel” and the adjacent cliff did indeed collapse in 1906, the intricately sculpted rock remains as Chapel Rock. The great white pine that Doty observed still grows on top of Chapel Rock, and the tree’s roots mark where the rock arch once stood.

Check this out background big and see more in excellent Pictured Rocks slideshow.

The Pictured Rocks Boat Tour company offers free tours of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore shoreline for UP residents every year to celebrate Pictured Rocks Day. That’s this Saturday, so I’m celebrating the Pictured Rocks all week with posts to give everyone a taste of one of Michigan’s most amazing places. Want more Pictured Rocks photos? Michigan in Pictures has tons!

Indian Head at Pictured Rocks

Indian Head | Pictured Rocks, photo by Beth☮♥♬

Pictured Rocks Day is this Saturday, a day when the Pictured Rocks Boat Tour company offers free tours where you can see sights like Indianhead. Their tour highlights page explains:

This gargantuan rock formation is named after what many say resembles an old ‘Indian Head’ carved into an impressive point of Pictured Rocks. The cliffs of Indian Head are nearly vertical walls from the Lake Superior to its peak.

Much more at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore website!

View this photo on black and see more in Beth’s Upper Peninsula slideshow.

There’s tons of Pictured Rocks information on Michigan in Pictures!