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Here's a list of 10 best Michigan books, including not a few that have to do with Leelanau County and our region.
Take a look at this list on Lansing City Pulse --you're bound to find something you've overlooked. My personal favorites would be the Nick Adams stories and Bruce Catton's Waiting for the Morning Train.
An Elmwood township boater's group, United Boaters of Elmwood Township (UBET), is seeking ways to scuttle the township's application for state funds to upgrade its park and marina, according to the Leelanau Enterprise (sorry, article not online). The application, which has received enthusiastic support from both the public and the often-fractious Elmwood Board of Trustees, would enable a major upgrade to the township's waterfront park and the adjoining marina.
UBET is concerned that accepting the grant from the state would force the Elmwood marina to follow state guidelines for fees collection, slips allocation, and other practices. The group, formerly known as ABET (Angry Boaters of Elmwood Township), was organized earlier this year to resist attempts to reform the troubled marina's finances and operations.
Traverse City's major newspaper, the Record-Eagle, may be put on the market by its parent company, Dow Jones & Co.
The Record-Eagle is one of six community papers that Dow Jones is thinking of selling, according to this article in the Free Press. If the sale comes to pass, it will be another instance of a large company selling off local newspapers that are both profitable and consistent award-winners.
Of course, the efforts by a local consortium of old boys to muzzle the paper can't help either.
The first settlement in what is now Leelanau County occurred in 1849 when Rev. George N. Smith of the Congregational Church arrived from Holland, Michigan and settled near the northern tip of the peninsula with his family to minister to the Indians. The Indians that followed Rev. Smith to the new site platted a village they named Waukazooville, after their chief. In 1852, Joseph Dame settled at the site and platted Northport village, which also took in Waukazooville. Once the village was growing, other faiths made their way to Northport. In 1858, Rev. Lewis Griffith of the Methodist faith arrived, and in 1870, both Congregational and Methodist church buildings were completed in the village. A Lutheran Church was built in 1885, and St. Gertrude's Catholic Church in 1889.
In 1852, Rev. Peter Dougherty (1809-1894) moved across Grand Traverse Bay to establish a "new mission" site, to continue his ministering to the Indians of Chief Ahgosa's tribe. This would later become the village of Omena, and the village's Presbyterian Church, the "Grove Hill New Mission Church," was dedicated in 1858. Sunday services have been held there since. The name "Omena" is said to be an Indian word meaning "Is it so?," a word Rev. Dougherty used speaking among the native people. From 1866 to 1872, Gen. and Mrs. George Armstrong Custer owned land just south of Omena, and in 1936, a parcel of the land became Villa Marquette, a Jesuit training center and retreat.
In 1852, a band of Ottawas from Cross Village in Emmet County established Eagletown. Their spiritual needs were administered to by Rev. Angelus van Paemel, a Catholic priest. He was succeeded by Rev. Ignatious Mrak (1810-1901), who helped build the settlement's first church building in 1858. It was later replaced by a second structure, which later burned, and was replaced by the current church building in 1865. Today, the site is now called Peshawbestown, and the church is named for Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680).
The Catholic Church at Peshawbestown is not the only one Rev. Mrak helped establish. In 1869, the same year he became Bishop of the Marquette Diocese, Rev. Mrak dedicated a Catholic Church on the hill north of Leland.
It later burned, and Catholics from that village went to the one in Provemont (Lake Leelanau). 1869 also saw a Congregational Church built in Leland, and in 1871 Immanuel Lutheran Church was built. It was a frame structure that was replaced by a brick church in 1925. A Methodist Church was also established in Leland.
Holy Mass was offered up by Rev. Mrak in the home of Jacob and Margaret Schaub at the new settlement of Le Naro, later Provemont, and now Lake Leelanau. In 1864, a log structure was built by Rev. Mrak, and dedicated by Bishop Baraga. Originally, it was to be named Sts. Peter and Paul, but the promise of prayers answered changed that. Margaret Schaub, taking maple syrup and maple sugar for barter, and some other villagers made a trip by boat to Buffalo, New York to get money from friends and relatives for a statue of the Virgin Mary, a chalice, and church vestments. On the return trip, a storm came up on the Great Lakes, and the passengers prayed that if the people returned safely to their homes, they would name their new church St. Mary's. The storm subsided, and the promise was kept, calling it Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1877, a frame church was built and renamed St. Mary's, and in 1887 a Catholic school was opened, followed by another new church in 1895, and in 1924, the current church was built. The current school was built in the 1930's, the old one being razed in 1938.
Another Catholic Church that played a part in a new village is St. Michael's in Suttons Bay. In the Autumn of 1854, Harry C. Sutton built a dock for selling cordwood for Great Lakes boats, and in 1867, he platted what was named Suttonsburg by the Register of Deeds. In 1871, Rev. Andrew Herbstrit, a real estate operator as well as a priest, platted what was named Pleasant City, and in addition to founding St. Michael's Catholic Church, intended to establish a Catholic university in the town; but it did not get off the drawing board. St. Michaels Church did have its own elementary school for several decades, however, and during the 1870's, Suttonsburg and Pleasant City became the village of Suttons Bay. Later, two Lutheran churches, German and Norwegian, were established, and Suttons Bay Congregational Church began in 1898.
In 1870, Polish immigrants established Isadore, the Catholic Church being the center of it. A wooden church was built in 1883 and named Holy Rosary. In 1884 a Catholic school was built, and a brick schoolhouse was built in 1905. In 1922, the wooden church was replaced by the current brick church, and from 1938 to 1961, Holy Rosary had a high school. Sadly, Holy Rosary had a dark chapter in its history. In 1906, Sister Mary Janina was assigned to the church and school, and disappeared the following year. The pastor at the time was Rev. Bionowski (d.1964). By the time the nun's bones were found buried under the church eleven years later, he had been assigned to a church in Manistee. It was suspected that his housekeeper, Stanislawa Lipsczynska, had murdered the nun. She was tried in Leland and found guilty of first degree murder in 1919. Sentenced to life in prison, the housekeeper was paroled in 1927, and passed away in Milwaukee, Wisconsin c.1960, at an advanced age.
Communities in what are now "ghost towns" had churches, and some are worth mentioning. The former town of Port Oneida was started in 1853 by Carson Burfiend, and Thomas Kelderhouse built a dock there in 1862. With the community gaining enough population, a Lutheran Church and cemetery were built at what is now the intersection of Port Oneida Rd. and M-22. Today, only the cemetery remains.
Good Harbor is another former Leelanau County town. Once having a population of about 300, it began in 1863 when H.D. Pheatt built a dock for a wooding business and a sawmill in 1868. St. Paul's Bethlehem Lutheran church was established in 1877, and a wooden structure was built about 1879, but was struck by lightning in 1918, and a brick church was built to replace it less than two years later. It has gone through remodeling and addition three times from 1932 to 1962, and is still used for weekly services.
Gill's Pier was another community established on Lake Michigan near the northern tip of the county. Wilbur Gill built a sawmill and dock in Leelanau Township. Bohemians of the Catholic faith began having services in the home of Julius Kolarik in 1885, with Rev. Mrak offering up the first Mass. In 1890, a frame church was built and was dedicated to St. Wenceslaus. In 1941, a brick church was built, and in 1948 a rectory was built. Both frame and brick churches stood together until the former structure was razed in the Autumn of 1963. Out of all that made up the community of Gill's Pier, only St. Wenceslaus Church remains today, located at the head of Co.Rd. 637.
The ghost town of Keswick began in 1872 when Rev. John Lawrence of New Brunswick, Canada settled near the site. At its peak, its population was 200, but had dropped to 40 by 1910. Only Keswick Methodist Church remains today between Bingham and Suttons Bay on Co.Rd. 633 (Old M-22).
Originally called Pegtown, Maple City has a white steepled church on the hill just east of the town. It has been the home of two denominations. Built about 1890, it was a Friends' Church until 1916 when it became St. Rita's Catholic Church. St. Joseph Catholic Church, located near the intersection of Neweskal Rd. and Co.Rd. 669, is a white steepled church that consolidated with St. Rita's in Maple City. Although Mass is no longer offered up there, it is still available for weddings and other church gatherings.
There are two other churches in Elmwood Township. One is West Bay Covenant Church at the corner of Cherry Bend Rd. and M-22. It was built in 1958, and an addition built in 1972. The other, Praise West Church, holds Sunday services in Elmwood Township Hall. It is independent Lutheran.
A Jewish settlement was located across the Narrows from Provemont (Lake Leelanau) in its early days, and its residents worked cutting timbers for the Great Lakes boats. A Jewish cemetery is located on a farm once owned by Philip Drow, but the headstones are probably no longer standing.
There are numerous other churches in Leelanau County, and the author apologizes for the ones not mentioned. However, if anyone has materials for research on a possible future article about these churches, the author would be interested.
~ Thomas Baird
Early settlers to the Leelanau county region were drawn by the abundance of natural resources. Thick forests greeted those brave pioneers, consisting of many species including oak, maple, birch, pine, and cedar. The trees were harvested for both fire wood and building materials. Cedar is naturally decay resistant wood and in housing applications, it is used for roofing and siding. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a sawmill was constructed in “Cedar city” (called Cedar today), named for the tree abundant in the area. The sawmill made shingles until 1895 when it was destroyed by fire.
Description
A member of the cypress family, white cedar is a native shrub or tree growing to about 45 feet tall. In dense stands its crown is narrowly conic. In more open areas, the crown becomes more broadly pyramidal, with spreading, densely crowded branches. The bark is gray to reddish-brown, 6-9 mm thick, fibrous, separated into flat, connected ridges. Leaves are evergreen, scale-like and abruptly pointed, 2 mm long, opposite in alternating pairs (in 4 rows), bright green above and pale green below, sometimes becoming yellow-brown in winter, with a spicy fragrance when crushed. Seed cones are ellipsoid, (6-)9-14 mm long, brown; seeds ca. 8 per cone, 4-7 mm long, with lateral wings about as wide as the body. The common name pertains to its northern distribution, cedar-like appearance, and white wood.
Northern white cedar differs from western red-cedar (Thuja plicata) in leaf color (dull yellowish-green on both surfaces), minutely mucronate scales of the seed cones, and geography.
The primary range of northern white-cedar is in eastern-southeastern Canada (west to Manitoba) and adjacent states of New England and the Great Lakes region (west to Minnesota); south of the main range, it occurs in scattered stands and southward along the Appalachians into North Carolina and Tennessee, where it is generally rare or extirpated
It is common in Leelanau County because it grows in cool, moist, nutrient-rich sites, on mostly calcareous soils that are neutral or nearly so, lakes and river shores, uplands, and cliffs. They even grow on the face of bluffs in the erosion prone environment, although it grows best on well-drained sites, it may be dominant in swamps. In cultivation, it grows in a wide variety of soils.
Establishment
Cones may be produced by northern white cedars as young as 6 years old, but seed production in large quantities begins when the trees are about 30 years old and is best after 75 years. Good seed crops are produced at intervals of 2 to 5 years, or more frequently in local areas.
Seedbeds of moss-covered, decaying logs and stumps account for more than 70 percent of the northern white-cedar seedlings in undisturbed areas. Seedlings can be established on burns, if the burn was severe enough to expose favorable, mineral soil seedbeds on uplands or to improve moss seedbeds in swamps. Best root and shoot development occur in full light, but drought-caused mortality of northern white cedar seedlings may be extremely high under any light condition.
Layering may account for a significant portion of northern white-cedar reproduction in swamps, because adventitious roots can be produced from any branch or stem. It is most common in young stands and those with leaning trees, where the lower branches become covered by moss. New trees also develop vegetatively from uprooted trees where roots are formed from vertical branches.
Northern white cedar grows relatively slowly in swamps or on other saturated lowland sites, but it can reach ages of 400 years and greater in these habitats. An individual from Ontario has been dated at more than 1650 years old. Our cedar trees in Leelanau rarely get this old. Most are prone to “hollow” interiors when they reach a diameter of 14” or more. Many suggest the high water table where they thrive is responsible for this.
Northern white-cedar forests are stable without major disturbance such as fire, because the trees are long-lived and balsam fir is the only important associate sufficiently shade tolerant to grow in competition. In stands that have been opened by timber harvesting or severely browsed by white-tailed deer, succession is often to balsam fir or swamp hardwoods, especially black ash. Northern white cedar responds well to thinning-release after successful establishment, although it is shade tolerant and can withstand severe suppression for several years.
Even-aged management, through shelter woodcutting or clear cutting is recommended for maximum benefit to deer. Satisfactory reestablishment after clear cutting often requires some kind of site preparation, particularly broadcast burning of slash. In some areas, however, heavy winter browsing of seedlings and saplings by deer greatly reduces reproductive success.
Uses
Stands of northern white cedar are valuable for wildlife habitat, particularly in severe winters for white-tailed deer, which use it for both shelter and browse. These trees also provide habitats for many species of birds. To understand why cedar stands are important, visit a cedar swamp in the winter. The only wind you hear is rustling above. The forest floor is calm and warmer than surrounding areas.
There are practical reasons to get reacquainted with cedar as a building material. In January 2004, the regulations governing treated lumber were changed because the toxins used to preserve the wood were found to be accumulating in the environment. The “new” treated lumber products still contain toxins but they are less effective (resisting decay), than the old product. A better alternative is to use cedar, a natural decay resistant wood. Available in either eastern white or western red cedar, it is a soft and beautiful wood to work with. A natural and renewable material for siding, fencing, landscaping applications, and more.
The principal commercial uses of northern white cedar are for rustic fencing and posts; other important products include cabin logs, lumber, poles, and shingles. Smaller amounts are used for paneling, piling, lagging, pails, potato barrels, tubs, ties, boats (especially canoes), tanks, novelties, and woodenware. The timbers were used to make the ribs in birch bark canoes. "Cedar leaf oil" is distilled from boughs and used in medicines and perfumes. Boughs are also used in floral arrangements.
References
Chambers, K.L. 1993. Thuja. Pp. 410-411, IN: Flora of North America, north of Mexico. Vol. 2, Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.
Johnston, W.F. 1990. Thuja occidentalis. Pp. 580-589, IN: R.M. Burns and B.H. Honkala. Silvics of North America. Volume 1. Conifers. USDA Forest Service Agric. Handbook 654, Washington, D.C.
It's not often that you get two stories in the news that illustrate one another as perfectly as the attempt by a local group to force the Record-Eagle cut back on its aggressive reporting of local scandals and controversies, and the recent behavior of a group of supporters of the failed Traverse City parking deck ballot initiative.
A local group led by former Grand Traverse County Administrator K. Ross Childs is attempting to force the parent company of the Record-Eagle to change the paper's staff, saying they want the paper to be less "slanted" and "sensationalized." Just what exactly they have in mind was well illustrated a gathering of deck supporters after their recent electoral defeat. When a reporter for the Record-Eagle showed up at the meeting, they were thrown out of the meeting to the cheers of a small group that included Childs, and obscenities were hurled at the reporter. In the lead up to the election, the Record-Eagle had reported on State Senator Jason Allen's intervention to steer the deck contract to a political supporter, among other matters.
We think you can be pretty sure that the Record-Eagle's entirely appropriate, reasonable, and necessary coverage of Allen's involvement in the parking deck matter is a pretty good example of the sort of thing Childs and his group would like to force them to stop publishing. And we think the behavior of Childs and his friends at the meeting after the election is a probably a pretty fair exhibition of the anti-Record-Eagle's group's agenda. It's not about promoting balance or objective reporting. It's about shouting down those voices in our community that have the awful audacity to question the actions of the business interests and good old boy officials who long for the day--never to come again--when their decisions went unquestioned and unscrutinized.
Revised 8/15/06 9:15am
A local group led by former Grand Traverse County Administrator K. Ross Childs has contacted the parent company of the Record-Eagle, hoping to force changes in the paper's "attitude." Childs and his group are upset about the Record-Eagle's aggressive reporting of a number of local controversies.
According to this article in the Traverse City Business News, Childs wants the Record-Eagle's parent company to force changes at the paper, and says: “What happens next depends on their response. We laid out four scenarios. The first would be a change in their reporting method—and a change in the attitude of the existing people or change of the people. Then there are alternatives ‘b, c, and d,’ which we really don’t want to talk about.”
Childs was a prominent supporter of the recently failed parking deck proposal in Traverse City. The Record-Eagle broke the story of State Senator Jason Allen's involvement in steering the deck contract to a political supporter.
See our editorial on the subject of Childs' campaign here.
Leelanau wines did well at the 29th annual Michigan Wine & Spirits Competition held Aug 1, with several peninsula vintages best in their class.
This story tells how Peninsula Cellars, Shady Lane, and Leelanau's newest winery, Longview, all won awards for their wines.
The proposed parking deck in Traverse City was voted down, and its supporters got ugly at a meeting the other night.
As this Record-Eagle article describes, supporters of the failed parking deck in Traverse City vented their anger on a Record-Eagle reporter the other night. The Record-Eagle crime? Reporting on the unsavory politics as usual that surrounded the award of the deck project. The good old boys who lined up behind this project think that was outrageous. They think they should be allowed to do what they want, when they want it.
There seems to be consensus among the experts that what is most notable about the Warbling Vireo is its song and its unremarkable appearance.
Described by one author as “drab”, the 5.5 inch Warbling Vireo distinguishes itself from other vireos by a plain face broken only by a white eyebrow or “supercilium”, a lack of wing bars, a gray-green cap and back, and whitish underparts.
More than just one of the experts claims that the Warbling Vireo’s song seems to be aptly described by the phrase, “if I see you out of season I will seize you then I’ll squeeze you till you squirt”. This may, in some degree, convey a rapid warbling song with an accented, high pitched, last note. Noted for the length of its song, which has been likened to the House Finch in musicality and the Winter Wren in length, it also distinguishes itself by the number of hours it spends each day singing. Accordingly, many Warbling Vireos even sing while incubating eggs. Interestingly, its nest is often found in close proximity to that of the Least Flycatcher, noted for having possibly one of the shortest of territorial-mating bird songs. (The Least flycatcher song is characterized by the phrase “chi-beck”.)
The Warbling Vireo breeds in both peninsulas of Michigan but is most numerous in the lower peninsula. It is deemed a common transient but an uncommon resident of Leelanau County. Its winter range extends into southern Mexico and Central America.
This vireo prefers more open, mature, deciduous woodlands that border riparian corridors, roads, railroad tracks, and more rural residential areas. It usually arrives in Leelanau during the 2nd week in May and leaves at least by early August.
It builds a hanging, cup shaped nest that hangs from the fork of a horizontal branch extending from the trunk about 10-15 meters from the ground. Both parents incubate the eggs with the whole process from egg to fledging taking about four weeks. The literature indicates , more than not, just one brood a season.
Experts conclude that human changes to the landscape of Michigan in the first half of the 20th century created more open woodlands which resulted in expansion of the range and population of this species. However, since 1966, urban and suburban development, which often eliminated mature trees, coupled with regrowth of forests (younger trees) in other areas brought a net decrease in Warbling Vireo habitat. This, plus heavy pesticide use to control insects and insect-borne diseases, resulted in a substantial decline in Warbling Vireo numbers since 1970.
~bob c.
Farmland preservation in Leelanau County will be on the ballot Nov. 7. But we're not alone.
In fact all across the nation and in our state, other communities are considering similar measures. Julie Hay of the Michigan Land Use Institute has an excellent article up on their website about a farmland preservation measure in Lapeer County downstate on Aug. 8.