When I spoke on the phone recently with Derek Bailey, current chair of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and now Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, he was crossing the Mackinac Bridge and returning home to Traverse City. The tires on his 2005 Saturn VUE hummed loudly as he passed over the rumble strips on the majestic arch that connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
As autumn recedes under the lowering, snow-filled skies of winter, curl up in a warm place with the newest book of essays by celebrated nature writer Jerry Dennis, with wood engravings by the incomparable Glenn Wolff. Or better yet, follow the writer outside, as he takes you on a guided exploration along The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes.
Ever since Wednesday, August 17, Northern Michiganders have both embraced and grappled with the news that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and surrounding region are considered the “most beautiful place in America” — at least according to 22 percent of 100,000 voters who participated in the ABC show Good Morning America’s online competition the second week of August.
Cindy Hollenbeck surprised herself this past winter when she took a personal day and drove to Lansing to join a demonstration against Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s Emergency Manager bill — which was signed into law on March 16 and gave the governor the right to dissolve economically troubled schools and public municipalities and appoint his own fiscal managers to run them.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, a day honoring the American worker can be traced to Sept. 5, 1882, likely the result of a suggestion by one Michael Maguire, a machinist and union secretary of New York City’s Central Labor Union. In 1884, the “workingmen’s holiday” was adjusted to the first Monday in September, and became a national holiday through an Act of Congress in 1894 with public parades, speeches by community leaders and picnics.
Back in Empire for a recap of another successful mission, Endeavour shuttle pilot Greg Johnson oooed and awed his audience at the township hall on Aug. 19 with new photos and a video from his STS-134 mission in May to the International Space Station (ISS).
We’ve now owned Northwoods Hardware for 13 months, and in that time we’ve come to realize just how significant our moose is to our customers. Dee and I originally thought after closing on the purchase last July that we’d remove him, as neither of our families are hunters and we felt “bad” about the moose. But we soon realized in casual discussion that we would have many unhappy customers, and that kids “like” our moose.
Dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth’s Aunt Helen Westie Wetterholt, a frequent contributor to the Glen Arbor Sun, and an Empire mainstay who passed away in May, at 93 years old. Read her obituary below.
It’s almost 10 p.m. and the hottest July 20th on record here since 1977. Undaunted, humans are thicker than mosquitoes on the deck above the beach at The Leelanau School’s C.H. Lanphier Observatory.
All the hot weather we’ve had led me to re-read the 19th century Boizard letters written during the winter time in Glen Arbor. Exploring how some early white settlers got through the cold, snowy winters here offered an instructive perspective on the heat. I also wanted to continue to mine the letters for references to the Civil War, as the Boizard letters offer many informative first-hand descriptions.