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The Niles History Center has curated images from its photograph collections to showcase the area’s rich heritage, spanning from Fort St. Joseph to the mid-20th century. Christina H. Arseneau and Mollie K. Watson have dedicated nearly a decade to exploring the center’s archives and researching the people, places, and events of Niles.

Long before the city of Niles took shape, this area served as a vital crossroads for Native people traveling by land and water. The colonial era began in 1691 when the French founded Fort St. Joseph. In 1829, a small village was established, and with the arrival of the Michigan Central Railroad, Niles grew into a bustling riverfront city. Niles thrived as an industrial center, boasting the best waterpower in the state of Michigan. Notable figures such as author Ring Lardner, retailer Montgomery Ward, and auto pioneers John and Horace Dodge all called Niles home. Though industrial giants like Kawneer and Simplicity Pattern Company have left, the city remains deeply connected to its history. Niles’s roots are still visible in its distinctive downtown architecture, lush riverfront parks, and enduring institutions and events.

Lovers of Grand Rapids history and the paranormal will thrill to this spine-tingling tour of homes.

You’ve walked by them. You’ve driven past them. Behind the innocent façades of houses dotting the streets of Grand Rapids are secrets...and ghosts.

In Heritage Hill, a Victorian woman wanders hallways at night, and a house-proud handyman hides the tools of anyone trying to alter his home. On the northwest side, a child’s shadow runs the halls, mocking the family who lives there. Across the river, a red-eyed entity follows homeowners, and some unknown force tears a decorative sign from its hooks and hurls it across the room. Civil War soldiers give a child a coin from 1889. A homeowner is dragged by her ankles, and faces are seen in the television.

Follow Julie Bonner Williams through the doorways and down the halls of Grand Rapids' most haunted houses.

Dare to explore the Heart of Michigan as you’ve never seen it before.

In its small towns and regional hubs, Mid-Michigan contains chilling paranormal histories that have long remained hidden. Mannequin-like apparitions stroll past students in the halls of Grand Blanc High School’s East Campus, one of several Mid-Michigan educational institutions said to harbor hauntings. At Clare’s Doherty Hotel, the restless ghosts of gangsters and their victims terrorize unwary guests. Predators become prey at the Bengel Wildlife Center in Bath Township, and glowing-eyed figures stalk Curwood Castle in Owosso after dark.

World-renowned paranormal researcher, author, and Bay City native Nicole Beauchamp draws on firsthand investigations, local legends, and archival research to reveal the spirits that still linger in the shadows of local landmarks.

Detroit Lions: A 1950s Dynasty offers a compelling photographic narrative of the history of a revered team. This retrospective of the Detroit Lions’ glory years is an evocative reminder of what the cheering at Briggs Stadium was all about. Behind such storied figures as quarterback Bobby Layne, halfback Doak Walker, and defensive stalwarts Yale Lary, Joe Schmidt, and Jack Christiansen, coach Buddy Parker’s squad dominated the National Football League for much of the Eisenhower decade. The three-time world champions—competitive, colorful, controversial, and a mainstay on that marvelous new medium called television—helped make professional football a Sunday ritual in Detroit and around the country.

Journalist and author Richard Bak has been writing about his native Detroit for more than 40 years. His many works include biographies of Joe Louis, Ty Cobb, and Henry and Edsel Ford as well as histories of Tiger Stadium, the Detroit Red Wings, and Detroit’s Negro Leagues. He has won book awards from the Society for American Baseball Research and the Professional Football Researchers Association and two Emmy Awards as the writer and coproducer of the Tiger Stadium documentary Stranded at the Corner. 

Meet the New England revolutionary Patriots who became Michigan pioneers.

The counties of South Central Michigan are the resting place of more than forty Revolutionary War Patriots. These men fought pivotal battles like Ticonderoga, Princeton, Bennington, Saratoga, and Yorktown, and when the fighting was done, they pioneered through western New York and across the Ohio Valley before claiming Michigan as their final home. Moses Cook of Massachusetts fought in some of the most lethal battles of the Revolution and endured a deadly winter in Valley Forge. Massachusetts native Lothario Danielson helped to squash a homegrown rebellion and authored a report on meningitis. Only one month after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Connecticut native William Maples was inspired to join the Connecticut militia. 

Exploring the lives of these men before and after the war, local authors David Van Hoof and Linda Hass tell the stories of these unsung heroes of the indomitable American spirit.