A leisurely Look at Michigan’s stories and traditions from yesterday to yesteryear.
The Michigan death records collection here at Seeking Michigan, covering the years 1897 to 1920, is now largely complete. With the records added recently, there are now more than 960,000 certificates available for free at this site, meaning that the project is now 99% complete.
Roadside attractions, derided by some as “tourist traps,” have quite a history. Michiganians began thinking about attracting auto tourists almost as soon as they began making cars.
Say the name “Kellogg,” and one might immediately think of cereal. Relatively few people realize, however, that that same cereal sprung from the early days of the health food industry.
As the United States entered World War II, the US military needed weapons. Already well known for expertise in manufacturing, Michigan seemed the logical place to begin mass production of defense products.
John D. Voelker, an Ishpeming, Michigan attorney and avid trout fisherman, is best known as the author of Anatomy of a Murder. (He wrote it under the pen name “Robert Traver.”) The book spawned a classic 1959 film adaptation.
Detroit’s John L. Hacker gained exceptional fame as a boat designer. He created racing boats, cruisers and recreational runabouts, and became the founder of the Hacker Boat Company.
The Grange – or “the National Order of the Patrons of Husbandry” – sought to educate and build cooperation among American farmers. Over the past 137 years, it has left a rich legacy of charity, community service, and education that continues today.
Next spring, when your annual special issue of Michigan History magazine arrives in the mail, what would you like to see inside? This year, we’re inviting you to weigh in on the topic.
Here is the “World’s Largest Stove” at its current location – the State Fairgrounds in Detroit. The “giant stove” symbolizes Detroit’s time as the center of the American stove industry.
For more than seventy years, the schooner Rockaway remained undisturbed at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Then, on September 29, 1983, a charter fishing boat discovered the wreckage.
"If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you." The Michigan state motto served as the inspiration for this blog. If you look, you will find stories, photos and more to connect you to this great state and its wonderful history.
Yamasaki remains an important part of our international architectural heritage. This is part one of a two part blog on Yamasaki and his life as written by guest blogger Dale Allen Gyure, Ph.D.
