Michigan Logging Train Excursion

Excursion Logging Train, Harbor Springs, photo from Detroit Publishing Co., c1906 (at the Library of Congress)

I noticed that the Newaygo Logging Festival (Eventful link w/ map) happens this weekend. Several recent conversations and excursions of my own have driven home how profoundly the logging industry has shaped Michigan. Like miners, the timber trade roamed from river mouth to natural harbor up and down our Great Lake shoreline, into connected lakes and with the coming of the railroad, across the entire Lower & Upper Peninsulas.

At every stop, when the trees were gone, the land was left cleared and ready for villages and farms. Many of those working in the timber trade turned to farming and town building, and the names of the founders of these towns (and the owners of the dry goods stores) were often the names of the principals of the lumber companies.

Over Labor Day Weekend, I think it would be neat if Michigan were to somehow remember and honor the role of logging and loggers played in creating our state.

…and when it’s not such a lovely, last weekend of summer out there, be sure to check out some Michigan lumbering history and this really cool collection of Michigan logging photos from MichiganEpic.org.

Seriously, these logging photos are great!

surfing the sunset

surfing the sunset, photo by mewdotkai.

Still time for one more wave … if you hurry.

Saving up your acorns

Acorns, photo by StormchaserMike.

StormchaserMike says that he gathered these up because he heard that blue jays like them.

Hope everyone gets a chance to put away a few golden moments of summer before it slips away!

Michigan Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents & Serendipity

at Mackinac :: a composite from -3 and -43 by Emery Co Photo

Last night I was looking for Creative Commons photos* with the appropriate license of the Mackinac Bridge so I could photoshop up a little something for Weird Wednesday: Michigan Sea Monsters (be sure to go back and read this!). I love it when the last Wednesday of the month rolls around as I get a chance to indulge my love of fooling with Photoshop. I was especially fired up as this month’s feature from Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey because it was the feature that I had hoped to run last year as the debut of Weird Wednesdays on Absolute Michigan.

In my search, I saw this photo of the Bridge and thought “Now that looks cool & misty.” Then I came upon this photo of a rock and said “Sea serpent ahoy!” The coolest part was that both photos were taken by Emery Co Photo (emerycophoto.com). I contacted her and she graciously allowed me to use them.

Hope you all get some time on the water this weekend and that everyone remembers that on the list of things we should be worrying about, sea serpents in Michigan come in somewhere around #23,432,555. ;)

*That would be the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. There are also a number of people in the Absolute Michigan pool who have told me that they are OK with me manipulating their photos for features on Absolute Michigan.

51st Annual Mackinac Bridge Walk

While this year’s annual Labor Day walk across the Mackinac Bridge isn’t getting nearly the fanfare of last year’s 50th anniversary walk across the Mighty Mac, it’s still the one day each year that you can walk across Michigan’s engineering wonder.

The photo above is from the Opening Ceremony gallery at the Mackinac Bridge Authority web site where you can also find a Bridge Walk gallery and more information about the bridge. For a ton more photos and stories about the Mackinac Bridge, click the button below!

a little closer … to hornets, yellowjackets & wasps

a little closer, photo by gerrybuckel.

Gerry was watching these wasps at work and got a little closer to the nest to take this photo, but had to back off as they got closer too!

I thought Gerry was wrong to refer to these “bees” as wasps, but in digging a little deeper, I realized that I was the one in error.

Wikipedia has a lot to say about yellowjackets & hornets. One good thing to know is not to mess with a nest as wasps aren’t limited to a single sting!

Hornets, like many social wasps, can mobilize the entire nest to sting in defense: this is highly dangerous to humans. The hornet alarm pheromone is used to raise alarm of nest attack, and to identify prey, for example bees. It is not advisable to kill a hornet anywhere near a nest, as the distress signal can trigger the entire nest to attack. Materials that come in contact with pheromone, such as clothes, skin, dead prey or hornets, must be removed from the vicinity of the hornets nest. Perfumes, and other volatile chemicals can be falsely identified as pheromone by the hornets and trigger attack.

My bee guy told me that you can neutralize hornet & yellowjacket venom with “Shout” – I have no idea whether or not that is true!

I still can’t tell what particular breed these wasps are, but the most common breed in our region is now the German yellowjacket. The Yellowjacket & Hornets through a Lens at bugguide.net might hold the answer!

Michigan Orange

Untitled, photo by Blondieyooper.

Usually you have to wait a month or so to see orange like this in Michigan.

Be sure to check it out bigger. This one too!

In fact, if it’s raining where you are, why not settle back and wander through April’s Negaunee photos (slideshow).

Dream No. 2 and Holga Goodness

Dream No. 2, photo by rckrawczykjr.

Not sure what Dream No. 1 was, but I think it was this one.

This photo is part of Ralph’s Holga Goodness set (slideshow).

Mmmm, Holga Goodness.

Reaching

Untitled, photo by christopher.h.

This is part of Christopher’s dead pixels set (slideshow), which are for his photoblog, Dead Pixels.

The Fabulous Fox Theater of Detroit

The Fabulous Fox Theater of Detroit, photo by SNWEB.ORG Photography

Wikipedia’s Fox Theatre (Detroit) entry says that Detroit’s Fox is the largest of the 28 Theaters built by movie mogul and 20th Century Fox founder William Fox (or purchased by his company):

…it was the first movie palace to have live sound. The architect, C. Howard Crane, designed a lavish interior blend of Burmese, Chinese, Indian and Persian motifs. There are three levels of seating, the Main Floor above the orchestra pit, the Mezzanine, and the Gallery (balcony). The exterior of the attached 10-story building features an Art Deco facade, which at night is illuminated and can be seen for several blocks.

The Fox was Detroit’s premier movie palace for decades, but by the 1970s it was a shadow of itself, showing horror and Kung fu movies to sparse audiences. In 1988, new owners Mike and Marian Ilitch conducted a $12 million renovation by its new owners which restored the theater to its former glory as Detroit’s premier venue.

Detroit’s historic Fox Theatre from the Detroit News has some great historical photos and details some of the amazing materials utilized. Those red columns, for example, are solid marble and each apparently holds a jeweled figure representing various Asiatic Gods and the lobby held the largest wool rug ever made in the US.

You can see a whole lot more photos of this amazing structure in a Flickr search for Fox Theatre Detroit (slideshow) and you can purchase the photo above at snweb.org.

Here’s a link to the official site for the Fox Theatre (where you can order tickets to Broadway and other shows) and here’s the Fox Theatre on the Absolute Michigan Map.