Monroe, Michigan. June 10, 1937. (Photo Courtesy of Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University.)

Workers were restless in 1937. The Great Depression, which began in 1929, was far from over. Financially-strapped companies were asking employees to do more with less, and more employees were organizing. Strikes were thus becoming more frequent in American society. (For more details – and a look at sit-down strikes in particular – click Look!: 1937 Sit-Down Strikes)

This photo above originates with a 1937 strike. Specifically, it is a strike against the Newton Steel Company of Monroe, Michigan. In the photo, people flee as gas is unleashed against the strikers!

The Newton Steel Strike

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) began its strike against Newton (a Republic Steel subsidiary) on May 28, 1937. The strike began peaceably. However, the Steel Workers Association (SWA) – an “independent” union formed just before the strike – opposed SWOC’s actions. On June 1, some SWA members visited Governor Frank Murphy in Lansing. They requested that authorities end the picketing. Murphy told them that a National Labor Relations Board election could settle the matter.

Monroe mayor Daniel Knaggs, a man with strong anti-union sentiments, had other ideas. On June 7, he held a referendum, in which Newton employees could vote on whether to end the strike. SWOC boycotted the referendum, but sixty percent of the workers did participate. The majority of these voted to return to work. Newton thus announced that it would reopen the plant on June 10.

Knaggs presented the referendum results to Governor Murphy and requested that the National Guard or State Police assist with the plant reopening. Murphy replied that the State would not intervene, unless local authorities expressed – in writing – that the situation was beyond their control. Knaggs then deputized 383 people as “special police.” Some of these were already on Newton’s payroll, and Newton paid for their weapons.

The Battle of Monroe

June 10 soon arrived, and the picketing continued. That morning, vigilantes beat an African American SWOC organizer and ran him out of town. Word of this incident traveled, and the picketers became incensed. They blocked the road to the plant, and a number began carrying clubs and steel bars.

Knagg’s special police moved against the picketers. Two squads fired nauseating gas, leading to scenes such as the one depicted in the photo above. The gas dispersed the picketers, and non-striking workers were driven into the plant. Governor Murphy felt that there was “no excuse” for the gassing. Republic Steel lauded Knagg’s actions “in behalf of law and order.” The plant continued operation, but picketing did resume – albeit under greatly restricted conditions – several days later.

Source

The account above largely comes from Sidney Fine’s 1979 book Frank Murphy: The New Deal Years.

Images are courtesy of Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University and can be found at the Library’s Virtual Motor City digital collects page. For more Newton strike images, click Walter Reuther Library Newton Strike Images.

A Group of Deputized Men Form a Blockade. Monroe, Michigan, 1937 (Photo Courtesty of Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University.).

Lincoln Campaign Button, 1860. From the Archives of Michigan collections.

Abraham Lincoln only once set foot on Michigan soil. His connections to the state, however, go beyond this one visit. Let’s take a look!

Lincoln’s Patent

Lincoln remains the only U.S. President to ever apply for a patent. His inspiration came to him on the Detroit River. He was traveling there in 1847, aboard a steamboat called the Globe. The Globe encountered another steamboat, the Canada, which had run aground (In some accounts, it is the Globe that was run aground. Jason Emerson, author of Lincoln the Inventor, states that these accounts are inaccurate.). Lincoln watched as the Canada’s crew worked to free the boat. Might there be a better way to free a stranded vessel?

After returning home, Lincoln worked on the problem. Ultimately, he constructed an eighteen-inch model boat with inflatable air chambers. Inflating the chambers lifted the boat. For this, Lincoln received his patent. Without that Detroit River trip, it may never have happened! (For further details, click: American Heritage Article on the Lincoln Patent ).

Lincoln in Kalamazoo

Lincoln visited Kalamazoo on August 27, 1856. Although, as noted, he had traveled on the Detroit River, this was his sole sojourn on Michigan land. He was there to stump for John Charles Fremont, that year’s Republican Presidential candidate. The Fremont campaign rally occurred at Kalamazoo’s Bronson Park. Besides Lincoln, speakers included Michigan governor Kinsley S. Bingham and U.S. senator Zachariah Wells of Detroit.

The text of Lincoln’s Kalamazoo speech had seemed lost to time. Then, Tom Starr, a Lincoln enthusiast from Royal Oak, Michigan found it. In 1930, Starr discovered a bound volume of 1856 Detroit Advertiser issues. The volume had fallen behind the shelf at the Detroit Public Library. While paging through it, Starr discovered that the Advertiser had published a verbatim transcript of Lincoln’s Kalamazoo speech! In the speech, Lincoln talked at length about slavery and sectional tensions. A complete copy can be read at this link: Lincoln’s Kalamazoo Speech

Kalamazoo's Bronson Park, circa 1900-1910. Lincoln spoke here in 1856. (Image from Archives of Michigan General Photo Collection.)

The 1860 Election

The campaign button above dates from the 1860 Presidential election. That year, Lincoln captured the Republican nomination for President. He ran in a particularly contentious year. Northern and Southern Democrats nominated separate candidates and a fourth candidate represented the Constitutional Union Party.

Lincoln did not visit Michigan during the campaign. William Seward, one of his main rivals for the Republican nomination, did stump for Lincoln in the state. He received some very enthusiastic welcomes. In her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin notes that a crowd of fifty thousand heard Seward speak in Detroit. According to Kearns Goodwin, enthusiasm rose as Seward traveled West. She writes that “thousands waited past midnight for the arrival of his train in Kalamazoo, and when he disembarked, crowds followed him along the streets to the place where he would sleep that night.”

Lincoln won the election. In Michigan, he took 88,445 votes compared to 64,958 for second-place finisher Stephen Douglas (Douglas was the Northern Democratic candidate.). In the country as a whole, Lincoln received 180 electoral votes while his competitors received a combined total of 123. William Seward, who campaigned so hard for Lincoln, later served as Lincoln’s Secretary of State.

…And Finally…

Lewis Cass (Lincoln called him a Michigander.). Photo by Matthew Brady, Circa 1855-1866. From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Lincoln left Michigan one lasting legacy that remains the subject of some debate. It concerns the correct term for a Michigan resident. Gubernatorial candidates Virg Bernero and Rick Snyder have both expressed a preference for the term “Michigander” over “Michiganian.” Current Governer Jennifer Granholm and her two predecessors have expressed preferences for the latter term (Click Detroit Free Press article for more information.)

One wonders if Lincoln would have an opinion. He is attributed with the first known use of “Michigander.” In 1848, he used the word to describe former Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass. That year, Cass was the Democratic Presidential candidate, and Lincoln was in the rival Whig Party. Lincoln accused the Democrats of “dovetailing onto the great Michigander” and then “tying him to a military tail.” In A. Lincoln: A Biography, Robert C. White explains this bit of clever wordplay: The Democrats were running Cass as a military hero, touting their candidates’ War of 1812 exploits. Lincoln was essentially calling Cass “a silly goose” (“gander” being a term for a male goose) and accusing the Democrats of inflating Cass’ military record (i.e. tying the “goose” to “a military tail.”)

This information will, of course, likely not end the debate on whether “Michigander” is a proper term. It does, however, provide yet another example of how Lincoln’s life and words remain relevant in the modern day.

The Blueprints

The above image represents a “lost” piece of history – now discovered and housed within the Archives of Michigan. This blueprint – by famed Lansing architect Darius B. Moon – is to the residence of Ransom E. Olds, father of the Oldsmobile.

The Olds mansion blueprints had been missing for almost a century. Then, in October, 2002, Antonia and John Miernik attended the estate sale of Ms. Nicolette McElroy in Lansing. There, amongst “a stack of moldy books,” they discovered the long-lost plans! The couple decided not to keep the blueprints. Antonia contacted Sue Cantlon, an East Lansing resident who was active in local historic preservation. Cantlon contacted Mark Harvey, State Archivist of Michigan. The Mierniks, by then living in Florida, worked through Cantlon to deliver the materials – free of charge – to the Archives of Michigan. (For further details, see Lawrence Cosentino’s article “Phantom Moon over Lansing,” published in the November 16, 2005 issue of Lansing’s City Pulse newspaper.)

Thanks to the Melnieks’ selfless act, the blueprints now belonged to the people of Michigan. Unfortunately, the materials had deteriorated badly over the last century. Enter the Friends of Michigan History, who agreed to fund their restoration. Restoration work was done by Ann Flowers, a conservationist at the Bentley Historical Library on the University of Michigan campus. The historically valuable blueprints were then returned to the Archives of Michigan, where they will continue to be preserved and made accessible to the general public. Now, they can also be viewed online at Seeking Michigan. To view them, click Olds Mansion Blueprints at Seeking Michigan.

The Mansion

Ransom and Metta Olds’ house, completed by 1904, was located in Lansing, at the corner of South Washington Avenue and Main Street. It was within easy walking distance of the Oldsmobile plant and the soon-to-be-constructed Reo Motors plant (Olds left Oldsmobile to form Reo that same year.). The Olds lived near several other prominent Lansingites. One notable neighbor was Eugene Cooley, a founder of the Lansing Gas Light Company and son of famous judge Thomas Cooley. The Olds residence was also close to the elaborate mansion built by Lansing attorney, entrepreneur and one-time mayor Orlando M. Barnes.

The Olds house was a two-and-a-half-story L-shaped structure. Ransom Olds biographer George S. May described it as “typical of the homes of the well-to-do being constructed during the Victorian Era. The exterior walls were of buff-colored brick, trimmed with red sandstone. The hip roof was covered with green slate, and in the corners were towers; these were removed in 1952… The interior was impressive, with its paneled walls, its paneled or decorated ceilings, and its marquetry floors with three- and four- tone borders.” (See George S. May’s R. E. Olds: Auto Industry Pioneer. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977, pg. 205)

May notes that the interior included an “automobile room.” More elaborate than modern day garages, this completely finished off and heated room took up one thousand feet of floor space. Features included a vehicle turntable, which enabled Olds to drive outside without backing up his car.

Despite such comforts, George May asserts that Olds’ home was actually modest compared to those of other automotive industry heads. May points out, for example, that Henry Ford’s house cost ten times as much as Olds’. May states that Olds’ mansion cost $25,000. According to the web site Inflation Calculator, this would be roughly equivalent to $589,308 in 2009 (Figures for 2010 are not yet available.).

Ransom and Metta Olds’ residence no longer stands. It was demolished in 1971 to make way for I-496, the highway that currently traverses the City of Lansing.

Lansing’s R. E. Olds Transportation Museum spotlights Ransom Olds and the auto industry in Lansing. Click Olds Museum to access their web site.

Many people become interested in the history of their homes. The Archives of Michigan has created a Genealogy of a House presentation that interest such individuals. Click Genealogy of a House to access the presentation.

Muskegon High School football program, autographed by players, 1945

Situated on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, Muskegon High School joined the nation’s gridiron elite in the fall of 2005, with a 36-20 win over cross town rival Muskegon Reeths-Puffer. The triumph represented the school’s 700th varsity football victory. Entering the 2010 season, the Big Reds rank No. 1 in the state of Michigan in all-time football victories, and in the top ten in the United States with a 746-261-43 record.

Early Years (1895-1919)

MHS football dates to 1895. While the team dropped their first contest to Ferris Business College of Muskegon, they rebounded to end the year with a 3-2 record. A pair of victories over coastal rival Grand Haven allowed the school to proclaim themselves “Champions of Muskegon and Ottawa Counties.” It was the first of many titles to come. The team suffered only one losing season in the first ten years of gridiron action. Among the highlights was the school’s first undefeated squad in 1904. Coached by a local attorney, Robert E. Walker, the team posted an 8-0-0 mark.

However, according to local lore, Muskegon did not become a true football powerhouse until coach Robert Zuppke arrived on the scene in 1906. In four seasons at the helm, Zuppke’s squads posted a 29-4-2 record. His efforts while at Muskegon were also instrumental in the development of a wooded parcel of land into Hackley Field. The tract has served as home to the football team since 1907. Zuppke later became a coaching legend at University of Illinois, leading the Illini to four national championships in twenty-nine years at the helm.

Muskegon’s 1912 squad earned national recognition with a 216-0 drubbing of Hastings High School in the season opener. The score established a new prep record for most points scored in a contest. That 1912 squad compiled 499 points on the year, yet could not finish the season undefeated. A 13-12 loss to rival Grand Rapids Central in the season finale was blamed on overconfidence.

Muskegon High School football team, 1904 (The School's first undefeated football squad)

Jacks and Redmond (1920-1946)

From 1920 to 1946, Muskegon compiled an astonishing 195-33-15 under the guidance of legendary coaches J. Francis Jacks and C. Leo Redmond. A 1912 graduate of Muskegon, Jacks returned to coach the squad in the fall of 1920. Under his guidance, his alma mater won their first mythical state championship. In 1921, Muskegon repeated as mythical champs with a team that registered eight victories. Among the players on the squad were future University of Michigan stars William “Flop” Flora and Bennie Oosterbaan. Oosterbaan, only a sophomore in 1921, would lead the team to a third title in the fall of 1923. Following the sudden death of Coach Jacks in the spring of 1925, Muskegon hired Redmond, a star center at Western Normal College (now Western Michigan University) to guide the team’s fortunes. Redmond’s squads didn’t miss a beat, earning mythical crowns in 1926, 1927 and 1928.

The 1927 squad rates among the finest turned out by the school. Led by all state players Bill McCall, Mart Westerman, and John VanWesten, the team tallied 445 points, while allowing only a single touchdown in ten games. Victories included a 27-0 win over Chicago powerhouse John Marshall and a 45-0 triumph over Kenosha (Wisconsin). McCall went on to a stellar athletic career at Dartmouth, while Westerman lettered in football at Purdue.

During Redmond’s twenty-two years at the helm, the Big Reds posted a 156-29-13 mark against some of the finest squads from Michigan and the Midwest. Without a gridiron playoff system in place, the team racked up a total of seven mythical state crowns.

In hindsight, a pair of defeats kept Muskegon from two additional titles during the Redmond era. Only a 18-0 mid-season loss to 1931 mythical champion Grand Rapids Union kept Muskegon from a perfect record. In 1945, Muskegon faced rival Muskegon Heights in a season ending showdown of the undefeated. The Tigers (coached by Oscar E. “Okie” Johnson, a former teammate of Redmond during his college days at Western) earned the state crown with a 7-6 victory in what many consider the greatest prep gridiron match in Michigan history.

Hackley Field, 1927

The Post-Redmond Years (1947-1984)

Redmond was succeeded by Harry Potter, his longtime assistant coach and a former teammate at Western. Potter’s squads posted a 57-24-8 mark over the span of ten seasons. His 1951 team, led by future Michigan State All American and National Football League quarterback Earl Morrall, added another mythical state crown to the school’s storied trophy cases.

Hard times hit the school system between 1958 and 1963. Cutbacks to the music, art and athletic programs followed a millage defeat in the spring of 1958. Paired with the addition of numerous high schools in the suburbs of Muskegon, the team salvaged only two winning seasons during the six year span.

The arrival of Roger Chiaverini in the fall of 1964 helped to sway the team’s fortunes. Under his direction, the Big Reds posted undefeated seasons in 1964 and 1965. Chiaverini’s replacement, Larry Harp, brought home the team’s twelfth mythical state title in the fall of 1971.

The team suffered four subpar seasons in the 1980’s. In the 115 year history of gridiron competition, the record books show only fifteen losing seasons.

Return to Glory (1985-Present)

Muskegon’s return to glory has occurred under the direction of head coach Dave Taylor. Taylor led the team to their first playoff appearance in 1985, and Michigan High School Athletic Association Class A playoff championships in 1986 and 1989. Tony Annese, current coach at Grand Rapids Junior College, added MHSAA Division 2 titles in 2004, 2006 and 2008 to bring their total to seventeen state championships.

Our Guest Blogger

Ron Pesch, an IT worker, has written for Michigan History Magazine, MLive and other publications. He is an historian for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, a board member of the International Buster Keaton Society and a die-hard high school sports fan. He graduated from Muskegon High School and Western Michigan University.

This photo caption notes that the D-III was bound for Isle Royale in June 1937.

“Isle Royale’s physical isolation and primitive wilderness challenged human use for centuries; ironically today it has become the Island’s main attraction. Accessible only by boat or seaplane, visitors come to experience this island park through hiking its trails, paddling its inland waterways, exploring its rugged coast, or venturing into the depth of its shipwrecks.” (Quote from the National Park Service Web site)

Did the Detroit Chamber of Commerce go hiking on Isle Royale in June of 1937? A series of photographs from the Edwin T. Brown Collection appear to document such a trip. These photos capture the passage of the City of Detroit III through the Poe Lock on June 11, 1937. The captions indicate that the ship was bound for Isle Royale. Extant newspaper accounts confirm only a stop in Marquette.

The Ship

The City of Detroit III (D-III), commissioned by the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company, was a steel-hulled passenger side-wheeler designed by Frank E. Kirby. Built by the Detroit Ship Building Company of Wyandotte, this vessel began service in 1912 and operated until 1950. It measured 455.66 feet (length), 55.42 feet (width) and 22.42 feet (depth). The interior, designed by Louis O. Keil, was elaborate: 477 staterooms and twenty-one parlors. The parlors included the “Gothic Room,” an opulent gentlemen’s lounge that is now part of the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle.

The City of Detroit III (From the Edwin T. Brown Collection)

“The Marine Review of 1912 lauded the D-III, describing her eight thousand-horsepower engines in detail, the complete fire alarm system that guarded her passengers, her speed of twenty-two miles per hour and, above all, the stunning beauty that made her a floating palace.” (Quote from buildingsofdetroit.com)

Tourist advertisements verify the routes of the D & C Lake Lines: Daily trips between Detroit and Cleveland; Detroit and Buffalo; Express service from Detroit to Chicago via Mackinac Island. On a regular basis, the City of Detroit III offered luxurious travel on all Great Lakes surrounding Michigan except Lake Superior.

The Annual Cruise

Newspapers document that D&C chartered the City of Detroit III to the Detroit Board of Commerce for its annual cruise. The Detroit Free Press verifies that, “equipped with yachting caps,” about 350 members of the [Detroit] Board of Commerce embarked on the cruise Thursday afternoon (June 10th). Destination: Marquette. This round-trip cruise would bring the members back to Detroit by Monday morning (June 14).

“Detroit’s Cruisers Invade Marquette Today,” was the headline of the Daily Mining Journal for Saturday, June 12, 1937. Joining the Detroiters were businessmen from Sault Sainte Marie. They boarded the ship when it stopped at the Soo on Friday, June 11th. The Saturday itinerary: golf and a softball tourney at the Marquette Golf and Country Club. The day offered plenty of fun and refreshment, particularly the promise of beer at the sixth hole of the golf course. The Detroit Chamber of Commerce also arranged receptions with band music on the City of Detroit III and at the Hotel Netherland in Marquette. The Daily Mining Journal quotes “Chappie Chapman,” one of the cruise executives, “Business men [sic] and industrialists of Marquette are invited to visit the steamer at any time during its stay here, but no women will be allowed on board. On the boat it’s strictly a stag party.”

A Cartoon from the Marquette Daily Mining Journal June 12, 1937

A Relaxing Game of Golf?

Favored by good sailing weather, the cruisers appeared in Marquette on schedule ready to golf and leave politics behind. The latter claim that may be a tad disingenuous, since golf allows for discussion and there was plenty to discuss: labor strikes and future local elections. Now if the Chamber members had been scaling the rocks at Isle Royale, I would believe the “no politics” claim.

Among the Cruisers:

Detroit City Treasurer Albert E. Cobo
Detroit Police Commissioner Heinrich A. Pickert
Detroit City Clerk Richard Reading
William T. Barbour, president of the Detroit Stove Company and cruise “admiral”
Charles E. Boyd, Detroit Retail Merchants Association
Harvey J. Campbell, Detroit Board of Commerce
Tom Collins of Chevrolet, who had “perfect cruise attendance”
Edward T. Fitzgerald, vice president of the Detroit-Cleveland Corporation
Leo Fitzpatrick of WJR
Grinnell Brothers (Lloyd and Hank), who brought a Hammond Organ aboard the ship.
Mike Kent of WJBK

Sources:

Edwin T. Brown Collection, MS 77-27 (Archives of Michigan)
Detroit Free Press, June 11, 1937
Marquette Daily Mining Journal, June 12, 1937
Sault Sainte Marie Evening News, June 11, 1937 and June 14, 1937
http://www.mhsd.org/publications/glswr/citdet3.htm
http://ul.bgsu.edu/cgi-bin/xvsl2.cgi
http://buildingsofdetroit.com

Peter Wolfe hiking near Ironwood, MI in 1978 (Photo by Donald George).

It was 1972, and Peter H. Wolfe had stopped drinking. For years, he had been, in his own words, “in and out of the rehabilitation center.” Then, he said, “God shut off my alcohol faucet.” Now, a question remained: What to do next?

Taking a Long Walk

Wolfe decided to “take a good, long walk.” In the summer of 1972, he hiked the Appalachian Trail. This would prove to be only a warm-up.

In 1974, he began hiking the North Country Trail. At the time, this spanned from Bennington, Vermont to Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota. The first year, Wolfe hiked from Bennington to Schroon Lake, New York. He then returned to his home in Daytona Beach, Florida to wait out the winter.

This set a pattern that Wolfe would follow for the next six years: During late fall and winter, he’d stay in Daytona Beach, earning money as a handyman and preparing for the next year’s journey. In the spring, he’d take a bus to the point where he stopped hiking the previous fall. He’d then resume his hike from that point. He’d finally stop hiking in the fall, when he’d return to Daytona Beach and start the cycle over again.

End of the Trail

Peter Wolfe finally reached Lake Sakakawea in the summer of 1980. At the time, he was sixty-four years old and had traveled nearly 4,000 miles to his destination! Wolfe made many friends during his travels, as he remained in contact with people that he met along the way. He also took many photographs and kept records of his experiences. Today, his papers comprise much of the North Country Trail Collection, which is permanently housed in the Archives of Michigan.

A View of Lake Fanny Hooe, near Copper Harbor, MI. Taken by Peter Wolfe in 1978.

After the Trip

After completing his monumental hike, Peter Wolfe continued to lead an active life. He revisited several sites that he had encountered on the North Country Trail. He helped to remodel the North Country Trail Association’s headquarters in White Cloud, Michigan. He marked a new hiking trail, dubbed “the Adventure Trail,” in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He worked with Ruth Alford MacFarlane, a Mass City, Michigan writer, on a book of his hiking experiences. Eventually, he decided to take permanent residence in the Mass City area, and on July 21, 1987, he moved into a small house south of that town.

During the night of April 30-May 1, 1990, Peter H. Wolfe died in his sleep in his Mass City home. He was seventy-four years old. A memorial service was held in Ontonagon, Michigan, and his remains were buried in a family plot in New York. Wolfe was survived by three sons and eight grandchildren.

Peter Wolfe's Campsite - Lake Fanny Hooe, 1978 (Taken by Peter Wolfe).

Young Ernest Hemingway has caught some fish. Image courtesy of Jim Sanford and Clarke Historical Library

The ideal summer reading selection is something relatively light, but engaging. If your summer plans include a getaway to northern Michigan, you might consider adding Ernest Hemingway’s short stories to your reading list. Of special note are his stories featuring the character Nick Adams.

The Nick Adams stories stem from Hemingway’s boyhood experiences on Walloon Lake, near Petoskey in the northeast Lower Peninsula. That’s particularly true of the five stories that make up the first section, “The Northern Woods.” Nick is a hunter and fisherman, much like Hemingway himself, and in these stories, the purity of the outdoor experience reflects the purity of childhood. Over the course of the narrative, Nick develops into a man and leaves the woods of Michigan, but his early experiences shape his approach to the world.

While Hemingway is most commonly associated with Paris and Italy (where he served as an ambulance driver during World War I), Michigan had a formative influence on his life and work. If you’d like to explore that influence in more depth, check out the resources of the Michigan Hemingway Society and the Hemingway’s Michigan Connections of the Clarke Historical Library.

Windemere, the Hemingway family’s cottage at Walloon Lake, Michigan (Photo by Michigan Tourist Council, 1972)

Archives and Education

This week at the Archives of Michigan we are piloting a new and exciting education program.  With generous and valuable assistance from the staff at the White House Decision Center, Truman Presidential Library, the Archives has developed a program titled “The Governor’s Decision Room.”  Five area students have worked with us to refine and test this new program.

Leadership

Students will play the role of the Governor and the Cabinet as they examine actual reports placed before state leaders in times past.  The issues will be tough ones, such as the events of the 1967 Detroit Riot.  In three pre-visit modules, students learn about the role of government officials and key situations, and review documents leading up to a particular crisis.

In the culminating experience, students travel to the Governor’s Decision Room at the Archives of Michigan and deal with the crisis as it unfolded in real time using newspaper articles, letters from the public and reports from government inspectors, and advisers.  Then they will make a decision on the best course of action to follow and present that decision in a press conference.  The final step will be a discussion of their decision compared to the historic decision made by the Governor.

Through this real-life exercise, students gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of government, as well as its basic structure.  They also leave with better learning and civic strategies for the future.

The program will be open to high school students beginning in Fall 2010.  The Decision Room consists of three classroom modules and one onsite module at the Archives.  Private funding has been provided by David and Betty Morris through the Michigan History Foundation to create a unique learning center allowing students to experience the environs of the executive staff.  Contact the Archives of Michigan for further information.

Interlochen student Patty Albinson plays a flute by a statue of the Greek God Pan (Photo by Michigan Tourist Council, 1956)

One could argue that the beautiful northern Michigan woods makes it own kind of music. Sounds of native wildlife and wind rustling through the trees can be quite pleasing to the ears. Imagine human beings adding their own beautiful music to such a scene. In 1928, three men imagined exactly that.

Founding Fathers

Joseph Maddy, T.P. Giddings and Charles Tremaine established the National High School Orchestra Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. The three men had previously collaborated on projects for the Music Supervisors National Conference. In the 1920s, the MSNC was the nation’s main organization concerning public school music instruction. Many schools added music classes in the years following World War I, and Maddy, Giddings and Tremaine advocated the practice. Maddy was a University of Michigan music professor and chairman of music in Ann Arbor public schools. Giddings supervised music in Minneapolis, Minnesota schools. Tremaine, a New York businessman from a piano manufacturing family, proved adept at financial matters.

In 1926, MSNC President Edgar Gordon asked Maddy to organize and conduct a student orchestra concert for MSNC’s national convention in Detroit. Giddings and Tremaine helped him in his endeavors. The concert went well, and Maddy received high praise. In the next two years, he prepared similar programs for conventions in Dallas and Chicago.

Flushed from this success, Maddy wished to gather a similar orchestra where the student musicians could live and perform together for several consecutive weeks. He discussed his thought with Giddings. Ultimately, a Detroit businessman named Willis Pennington offered to sell some land near Traverse City. Maddy and Giddings agreed and later brought in Tremaine to handle financial matters.

Evolution

The first National High School Orchestra camp convened at Interlochen in 1928. That initial class consisted of about 115 student musicians, who lived in tents and small cabins. Over the years, the camp would grow. Beginning in the early 1930s, Interlochen offered theater, dance and visual arts classes as well as music classes. Music continued to be emphasized for awhile, though, and the camp was renamed the National Music Camp in 1932.

Finally, in 1962, the Interlochen Arts Academy opened as a year-round facility. In his book Interlochen: A Home for the Arts, Dean Boal notes that it was “the nation’s first independent high school for the arts.” Today, the Interlochen Arts Academy High School and the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp continue to offer instruction to arts students.

Gull Lake, Michigan, Circa 1930

This first image comes from the Charles R. Childs Collection of photograph prints and negatives dating 1922-1951. (Childs was a photographer from Illinois who specialized in tourist shots.) Taken at Gull Lake, this photograph (c. 1930) centers on Chris-Craft boats filling up at Dixie Gas and Oil. Builders of the standard “runabout,” the company marketed to the middle class by introducing payment plans in the mid-1920s. Boats were no longer just for the wealthy.

Most likely, the Michigan Tourist Council used the second image (above) for a tourist campaign, c.1950. While not identified, the content is pretty universal to all those who live in the Great Lakes State. It exhorts all lake lovers to, “gather the family, hitch up the boat and take to the road, it’s summer.” If you take to the road in a reliable vehicle like the Willys Jeepster, life is good. At the end of World War II, the Willys-Overland Motors, Inc. targeted the civilian market of returning servicemen. The company realized that the soldiers’ reliance on the dependable Jeep would transfer to the homefront. Zeroing in on the car, we must appreciate yet another evocation of a Michigan summer, the convertible automobile and the women who wear scarves so as not to be too wind-blown.