Michigan

Name: Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Brand: Lisa A. Shiel
SKU: 9781596299160
Price: 10.49 USD
Availability: InStock

Things get made in Michigan. Consult a schematic of Detroit history to connect the Ford dynasty and the myriad auto companies that followed to the Willow Run assembly line churning out B-24 bombers during WWII. But this ingenuity also lives in the crispness of Vernor’s Ginger Ale and the handcrafted perfection of Pewabic Pottery. From the postwar idyll of Detroit’s Grand River and Greenfield neighborhood to the ghostly trickster at the capitol in Lansing, flip the switch on Michigan history with our Michigan history books. [View all Michigan books]

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Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula

$14.99 $10.49 Save 30%

Grosse Pointe War Memorial

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Plainfield Township

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Sault Ste. Marie

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Michigan Civil War Landmarks

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Farwell

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Rochester and Rochester Hills

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Grand Times in Grand Rapids

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Grand Rapids in Stereographs

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Mackinaw City

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Detroit's New Center

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The Works Progress Administration in Detroit

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Presque Isle County

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Wicked Bay City, Michigan

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Dowagiac

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

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Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula

9781596299160

$14.99 $10.49 Save 30%

Little known tales and lore from Michigan's Upper Peninsula uncover mysteries, curses, and strange beasts in this collection of offbeat and fascinating stories.

That's the best I've ever seen you look," the barber said to the corpse. What kind of filthy decedent could inspire such derision? Learn the answer and read myriad other little-known tales from Michigan's northernmost region in Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Find out what happened after an aggrieved husband aimed a gun at his wife's lover and then asked the crowd, "Shall I shoot him?" Meet the sleeping man who rode the rails without a train. Discover the truth behind the rumors that one mining town was cursed with the ten plagues of Egypt, and learn why hugs terrified an entire city. And what were those hairy, bipedal beasts haunting the woods? Join Yooper Lisa A. Shiel as she brings to the fore these wonderfully offbeat and all-but-forgotten tales from the UP's history.

Grosse Pointe War Memorial

9780738577463

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

In many ways, the story of the 1910 mansion The Moorings tells the story of one segment of life in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. For more than two decades, the home represented life on the lake for a typical wealthy family. It was built by Russell A. Alger Jr., the lumber baron and industrialist who cofounded the Packard Motor Car Company and helped the Wright brothers finance their first company. What makes the story of the home complete is what happened when the family no longer lived there. After 12 years as a branch of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the home fulfilled its destiny as a memorial to veterans and a center for arts and education: the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. Today it is truly a hub of activity for Grosse Pointe and the surrounding communities. Guests can still enjoy the beautiful design of the home while attending a memorial service, lecture, stage production, luncheon, or summer concert outside on the lawn. The Grosse Pointe War Memorial today is a testament to the generosity of its original owners and their desire to share the beauty of their home with generations to come.

Plainfield Township

9780738552316

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Lovely plains and beautiful fields greeted settlers eager to put down roots in the area north of the growing city of Grand Rapids. The northernmost point of the Grand River and its environs, including the Rogue River joining the Grand nearby, offered folks everything they needed: river and road travel, good farmland, plenty of forestland, and enough space to grow and prosper. Soon the area was known as Plainfield Township, with the bustling Plainfield Village at its center. Small communities grew up around the township, including Belmont and Comstock Park that exist today but also Konkle Town and Childsdale, which do not. Plainfield Village is gone as well, but the spirit of those early pioneers lives on. Today Plainfield Township is a combination of city and country, businesses and farms, and longtime residents and those just discovering the beauty of this area that still boasts plains and fields.

Sault Ste. Marie

9780738552323

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Sault Ste. Marie was destined to be a gathering place. Native Americans relied on the rapids of the St. Mary's River, which links two Great Lakes, Superior and Huron, for a year-round supply of fish. Its population swelled in the summer--a tradition that continued as French traders came to turn in their pelts and celebrate the end of another long, hard winter. After the Revolutionary War, the Sault, as it is called, became a community divided on national lines, with the United States holding one shore and Canada the other. Eventually man conquered the rapids, and today the Soo Locks transport millions of tons of freight annually to ports all over the world. Tourists are drawn by the cool breezes off the lake and the sight of steel behemoths passing almost close enough to touch.

Michigan Civil War Landmarks

9781626199408

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

When America faced its greatest internal crisis, Michigan answered the call with over ninety thousand troops. The story of that sacrifice is preserved in the state's rich collection of Civil War monuments, markers, forts, cemeteries, reenactments, museums and exhibits. Discover how General George A. Custer and the famed Michigan Cavalry Brigade "saved the Union." Visit the chair that President Lincoln was assassinated in at Ford's Theatre, and view the grave of the last African American Union veteran. With a foreword by Civil War historian Jack Dempsey, this work is the first of its kind to chronicle the many Civil War landmarks in the Wolverine State.

Farwell

9781467117067

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Incorporated as the Farwell City Company by wealthy businessmen and nurtured by a few founding families, Farwell was a unique planned community in the wilderness of mid-Michigan. Farwell brought businessmen, lumberjacks, Civil War veterans, hopeful farmers, and other courageous pioneers due to its location at the convergence of a new state road and the railroad, with valuable virgin timber in all directions. Carefully platted and attracting many businesses, Farwell successfully transitioned from lumbering to agriculture as the pioneer days gave way to the new century. While many neighbors became ghost towns, Farwell continued to make additions to the village, open new schools, and create many social and cultural organizations. From its beginnings as a joint stock company and seat of Clare County to the present-day village, Farwell has endured, adapted, and succeeded at providing generations with a small town to proudly call home.

Rochester and Rochester Hills

9780738583488

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Rochester and Rochester Hills grew in a territory of three rivers, abundantly fertile pastures, and rolling oak forests on land once considered uninhabitable. Though only 30 miles from Detroit, official government reports of swampy and barren land deterred settlers. In 1817, the Graham family disregarded these reports, instead following the advice of Native Americans to reach a territory governed by a triumvirate of creeks, which were forceful enough to power several mills yet gentle enough to support thriving farms. Only 20 years later, every plot in Rochester had been sold. Later the village was made a stop on the network of Michigan railroads, cementing its fate as a vigorous and popular community. With a past boasting such illustrious citizens as auto baron John Dodge and internationally prominent obstetrician Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, with corporations like Parke-Davis and philanthropic organizations such as Leader Dogs for the Blind, Rochester remains a source of innovative leadership as well as a model for successful suburbia.

Grand Times in Grand Rapids

9781609496296

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Join longtime journalist Gordon Beld on a historical tour of the Furniture City. Gleaned from the best of Beld's work for Grand Rapids Magazine, this collection weaves together intriguing vignettes highlighting the unique character of the Grand Rapids people and their community. Get a glimpse into the lives of famous leaders Gerald Ford and Arthur Vandenberg and marvel at Harry Human Fly" Gardiner, who scaled the buildings of downtown Grand Rapids. Take a nostalgic trip down to Reed's Lake, where the streetcars will drop you off at Ramona Gardens to dance the night away. Find the grand in Grand Rapids just don't get lost in Saddlebag Swamp on the way."

Grand Rapids in Stereographs

9780738551227

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Beginning around 1865, as the fledgling art and science of photography began to appear in cities and towns across the United States, a small group of photographers, using new methods and equipment developed a few years before in Europe, began producing and offering for sale stereographic views of the people, places, and events that made up daily life in the then nearly 40-year-old city of Grand Rapids. These photographic views were unlike others
that had preceded them and when viewed using a special device, they presented a detailed, three-dimensional portrait of the young city. Once introduced, stereographic views of the city, alongside those of more distant lands, became wildly popular and soon graced the homes of many in this city and elsewhere. The stereographic cards themselves today offer a rare and detailed glimpse of
the city, its residents, and some of the special and unusual events that occurred nearly 150 years ago.

Mackinaw City

9780738551340

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Rich in history, magnificent in scenery, and abundant in hospitality, Mackinaw City lies at the very tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula and is the area's own majestic playground. From early Native American settlements, French explorers, and fur traders to Mackinaw City founding father Edgar Conkling's vision to build a business center upon the south shore of the Mackinac Straits, Mackinaw City does not disappoint anyone who visits it. Due to its strategic location on the crossroads of the Great Lakes, this area has always been a gathering place for early inhabitants. When the railroad arrived in the late 1800s, it provided needed transportation with unique railroad and car ferries to and from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Today Mackinaw City still enjoys the distinction of being one of the most popular historical resort areas in Michigan. Through the insight of talented individuals who had the foresight to capture history with the interesting and colorful medium of the postcard, one is able to learn and smile at Mackinaw days gone by.

Detroit's New Center

9780738532714

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The northern anchor of Detroit's greater downtown, New Center is a diverse and vibrant neighborhood that offers shopping, entertainment, and dining among landmark architecture, historic districts, and contemporary homes and businesses.

Shortly after General Motors built their headquarters three miles north of downtown, the Fisher Brothers conceived the idea of a ""new center"" and proceeded to construct the landmark Fisher and New Center Buildings. From this initial activity in the 1920s sprung a new commercial district, a new neighborhood, and a New Center for the City of Detroit. Detroit's New Center takes readers on a journey from New Center's origins as a planned business district to its current life as a thriving area where Detroiters live, work, and play.

The Works Progress Administration in Detroit

9780738551814

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

In the midst of the Depression, a government agency was created that changed the lives of thousands of Americans. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was more than a program that put the unemployed to work, it was a revolutionary concept that sought to improve the lives of Americans through the physical improvement of their surroundings and the physical and intellectual improvement of themselves. For the people of Detroit, the WPA built schools and libraries, provided clothing and shelter, and enriched their lives through literacy, health, and educational programs. It brought art, theater, and music to the masses through groundbreaking cultural programs and created the infrastructure necessary to allow Detroit to blossom into the "Arsenal of Democracy" and one of America's greatest cities.

Presque Isle County

9780738599779

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Norman Rockwell would have found no shortage of subjects for his paintings in any of the small communities in Presque Isle County. It is an idyllic region in Michigan's northeastern Lower Peninsula with more than 50 miles of Lake Huron shoreline, dozens of inland lakes and streams, and sprawling forests of pines and hardwoods. It was probably those attributes that attracted Native Americans to the region about 8,000 years ago. Shortly after the Civil War, the Indians were joined by throngs of European immigrants who found jobs in lumber camps and sawmills or homesteaded farms. The region's lumber boom was followed by a limestone boom in the early 20th century, and it created hundreds of jobs in the quarries and on ships that carried the stone to markets around the Great Lakes. The boom years are just a memory now, but the natural attributes of the county attract tourists and modern settlers seeking a more serene experience than can be found in the tourist meccas on Michigan's west coast.

Wicked Bay City, Michigan

9781467135542

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Join author Tim Younkman for a wild ride into Bay City's wicked side.

From unscrupulous lumber barons to Hell's Half Mile, Bay City history casts a sinister shadow. Pope Leo XIII was forced to intervene when rioting Catholic immigrants seized St. Stanislaus Catholic Church and battled one another in the city's streets. The police discovered prostitute Lou Hall nearly beaten to death in the Block of Blazes. And respected publishing mogul Edwin T. Bennett's secret life led to the death of a young woman in a Bay City hotel room.

Dowagiac

9780738534220

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The story of Dowagiac's first 100 years may ring familiar to other small cities across the United States. After Dowagiac was established on a railroad line in 1848, new settlers arrived and had the opportunity to establish large-scale factories in the young village. This growth would last for a
full century, fueled by the Round Oak Stove Company and other manufacturers in the city. Because of its manufacturing base, immigrants moved to Dowagiac, and the small city enjoyed strong business and manufacturing districts, solid educational institutions, and a vibrant social life. Surrounding lakes provided one venue for entertainment, while downtown Dowagiac offered theaters and fairs. This book documents and celebrates the history of Dowagiac with over 200 photographs from the collection of the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College.