Based on the popular Lost In Michigan website that was featured in the Detroit Free Press, It contains locations throughout Michigan, and tells their interesting story. There are over 50 stories and locations that you will find fascinating.
Ann Arbor might have become just another small Michigan village had it not been for one crucial event: its designation as the home of the University of Michigan in 1837. Its subsequent development into a thriving cultural and intellectual community was marked by its extraordinary architecture, from the grand 1878 courthouse to the exquisite original university buildings and fashionable East Huron Street. The expansion of the town and university, the arrival of the automobile, and frequent fires began atransformation of Ann Arbor that led to the tragic demolition of some of its most remarkable structures. Lost Ann Arbor is a tribute to these long-lost treasures and the 19th century way of life that accompanied them.
Eastern Michigan's vanished boomtowns and villages are uncovered and revisited in this fascinating look at the history of the lost settlements around Detroit and the Great Lakes. Many of eastern Michigan's old boomtowns and sleepy villages are faded memories. Nature reclaimed the ruins of some while progress paved over the rest. Discover the stories of lost communities hidden in plain sight or just off the beaten track. The vanished religious colony of Ora Labora fell into a state of near-constant inebriation when beer became the only safe liquid to drink. Lake St. Clair swallowed up the unique currency of Belvidere along with the place that issued it. Abandoned towns still crumble within Detroit's city limits. Alan Naldrett delves into the fascinating history of eastern Michigan's lost settlements.
Americans are hungry for good news from their cities, and here's a heartening example from the heartland, with mouth-wateringly beautiful photographs to pull you in. Almost Lost, Building and Preserving Heritage Hill, Grand Rapids, Michigan begins like a suspense novel, with the startling declaration, We almost lost it. Turn to a full-page, black-and-white photograph of wrecking cranes demolishing the 1888 Romanesque Revival, Grand Rapids City Hall. That image clearly demonstrates what was at stake when well-meaning urban renewal projects threatened the old houses on Heritage Hill. Thanks to local advocacy groups and government recognition, Heritage Hill Historic District is saved -- for all kinds of residents. Variety is a keynote sounded throughout the story, from diversity of architectural styles, home cost and scale, to diversity of residential population. Author Thomas Logan identifies and discusses 15 major architectural styles found on Heritage Hill.
Travel Michigan’s coast—and into the state’s history—with otherworldly tales of the spirits of those who sought to keep its waters safe. Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with more than 120 dotting its expansive Great Lakes shoreline. Many of these lighthouses lay claim to haunted happenings. Former keepers like the cigar-smoking Captain Townshend at Seul Choix Point and prankster John Herman at Waugoshance Shoal near Mackinaw City maintain their watch long after death ended their duties. At White River Light Station in Whitehall, Sarah Robinson still keeps a clean and tidy house, and a mysterious young girl at the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse seeks out other children and female companions. Countless spirits remain between Whitefish Point and Point Iroquois in an area well known for its many tragic shipwrecks. Join author and Promote Michigan founder Dianna Stampfler as she recounts the tales from Michigan’s ghostly beacons. “Haunting tales of Michigan’s lighthouses . . . Her stories come from lighthouse museums, friends and family.”—Great Lakes Echo
Northern Michigan is a place, like all places, in change. Over the past half century, its landscape has been bulldozed, subdivided, and built upon. Climate change warms the water of the Great Lakes at an alarming rate—Lake Superior is now the fastest-warming large body of freshwater on the planet—creating increasingly frequent and severe storm events, altering aquatic and shoreline ecosystems, and contributing to further invasions by non-native plants and animals. And yet the essence of this region, known to many as simply “Up North,” has proved remarkably perennial. Millions of acres of state and national forests and other public lands remain intact. Small towns peppered across the rural countryside have changed little over the decades, pushing back the machinery of progress with the help of dedicated land conservancies, conservation organizations, and other advocacy groups. Up North in Michigan, the new collection from celebrated nature writer Jerry Dennis, captures its author’s lifelong journey to better know this place he calls home by exploring it in every season, in every kind of weather, on foot, on bicycle, in canoes and cars. The essays in this book are more than an homage to a particular region, its people, and its natural wonders. They are a reflection on the Up North that can only be experienced through your feet and fingertips, through your ears, mouth, and nose—the Up North that makes its way into your bones as surely as sand makes its way into wood grain.