Post # 99  November

Quote for the day: "Michilimackinac is a stumbling block for anyone who writes about Michigan. There are innumerable ways to spell it, there is argument over its meaning, and there is no logic whatever to its pronunciation; on top of which, it does not stay put properly as a historic place should." Bruce Cannon. Michigan: A Bicentennial History.

Author's Note:

Please excuse the lateness of this posting. I have been in the hospital for nearly three weeks with a nasty infection that necessitated a specially formulated antibacterial cocktail administered intravenously. As this posting will be published the first week in November all following postings will go online in the first week of the month. It will take some time to reach my pre-infection output but I'll get there. 

Reviews

Misguided by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone

Readers of the first two highly entertaining novels chronicling young Jack McGuinn's summers spent on Mackinac Island will welcome this third novel that chronicles his unique and amusing adventures on the island. He was an unofficial stagehand on the movie set of Somewhere in Time in the book "Somewhere in Crime." In this prequel to "Dockporter" Jack is desperate to find any job other than busing tables in the Historic Fort Mackinac Tea Room. When the fort's historically costumed interpreter guides quit on mass the director, desperate for replacements, is willing to hire anybody.

At 16 Jack finds himself the youngest tour guide, reenactor, and interpreter in the fort. He knows practically nothing of history including that of Mackinac Island where he summers very year. He quickly learns the rest of the newly hired crew are oddball kooks who rewrite the historical performances that become satirical, funny, spoofs of Mackinac history. Their boss is upset until he finds the tourists like the skits and as word spreads the new interpreters may bring in enough money to fund further archeological study in the fort. All of which leads the guides to beat the experts and do their own archeological work which leads to the discovery of Father Marquette's chalice in the most unlikely place. And when it's stolen they turn to piracy.

As in the first two Mackinac novels featuring Jack McGuinn this is a lighthearted, humorous novel  of a kid growing up through his summer experiences on an incredible island. In addition to the abundant humor all three books paint an interesting portrait of resident life on the island. If you're wondering about the authenticity of life on the island both authors were dockporters as teens, and one worked as a guide at the historic fort while the other bused tables in the fort's Tea Room. One need not read these books in chronological order, but if you read one you'll read them all.

MisGuided: A Mackinac Island Novel by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone.

Mackinac Murder by Dave Vizard

^{Dave Vizard’s series of mystery novels featuring reporter Nicke Steele of the Bay City Blade has put Bay City, Michigan on the literary map. The novel, as well as the entire Nicke Steele series, showcases Vizard’s ability to realistically portray a veteran journalist working a story combined with a riveting and unusual mystery.}

^{When Eric Stapleton, a Bay City man, is killed in a freak horse-riding accident on Mackinac Island it marks the second time in three months he made it into his hometown paper.  Three months earlier his 16-year-old daughter threw an overnight, alcohol fueled party for her girlfriends. Stapleton supposedly monitored the party and had a lot to answer for when Sherry Conway, one of the party goers, disappeared that night and has never been found. Furthermore, Stapleton’s job is monitoring Line 5, a highly controversial oil pipeline running under the Straits of Mackinac. Nick Steele is sent to cover the story on Mackinac Island while his fellow reporter and friend Dave Balz will see if he can find a connection to the disappearance of Sherry Conway.}

^{Steele quickly discovers the island police report on Stapleton’s death is at odds with the evidence. Steele concludes it wasn’t an accident but murder and wonders if his job somehow figured in his death. The two reporters relentlessly dig into Stapleton’s past, his job, friends, and the few clues on Mackinac Island nor can they unearth any new leads on Conway’s disappearance. Eventually their hard work and dogged pursuit of a story pays off when a slim lead results in one startling revelation after another. The main plot line will keep you reading late into the night. But the subplots, minor characters, and the personal problems facing the two reporters are equally involving and mirror the life and death story they are trying to unravel. Dave Vizard, a retired award-winning journalist, is a natural-born storyteller.  So, before cracking the cover find a comfortable chair. You’re going to be there for a while.} 

Mackinac Murder by Dave Vizard. Mission Point Press, 2024, 210p., 17.95pb.

Old Bones, Young Spirit: An Experienced Cyclist's 15-Day Adventures Around Lake Michigan by John McShea

Here is the magic of a good book. From the comfort of my favorite chair, I took a great bike ride around Lake Michigan. The author has been a been long-distance bicyclist since his thirties but now in his sixties he was struck with the notion of cycling around Lake Michigan. This is the totally engaging story of his great 15-day, 1,100-mile adventure.

The author is as good a writer as he is a cyclist. He captures the delight, beauty, and solitude pedaling 20 miles on paved bike paths overlooking Lake Michigan. And he's just as good describing struggling up hill in a downpour just a rumble strip away from speeding trucks power washing him with their backwash. McShea is a keen observer of nature, climate, the passing scene as  well as village and urban settings good and bad. He also gives readers a brief historical note or highlight of most everything he pedals past or through. In Mackinaw City he found Wienerlicious that serves the world's largest hot dog. And in a downstate restaurant he dined on an "Elvis Has Left the Beer Church" sandwich. Every stop for dinner is a possible walk into a diner strait out of a Stephen King novel. He spent the night in a U.P. motel named the Bates Motel, and yes he took a shower.

I especially savored his descriptions and experiences in the U.P. He writes the "U.P. has a toughness to it." He really liked Yoopers and their character. And speaking of U.P. winters he concludes; "This is why God invented the snowmobile, Budweiser, and cannabis I guess." He may even persuade you to take up biking because he convinces you that, "driving at 17 mph gives you the freedom driving at 70 does not allow." Reading this book was like riding tandem on McShea's great adventure. If you need even a better reason for picking up the book, the ride was in support of the Danny Did Foundation that helps provide families with epileptic children night seizure monitors.

Old Bones, Young Spirit: An Experienced Cyclist's 15-Day Adventure Around Lake Michigan by John McShea. Mission Point Press, 2024, 179p., $16.95

 Post # 98 September 25, 2024

Quote for the day: "There are probably no equal areas of commercial waterways that if drained, would reveal as many lost vessels as would the Great Lakes."  Federal Writers Project. Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine a State. 1941.

Reviews

Tragedy and Triumph on the Great Lakes by Richard Gebhart

The author admits in the Preface that when deep diving into Great Lakes maritime history for an article he sometimes stumbles across bits or pieces of Great Lakes history that had nothing to do with what he was researching but spiked his interest. He made a note of the historical tidbit and when time permitted looked for further information on what had caught his interest. The result is this collection of  sometimes odd, surprising, and always interesting pieces on Great Lakes maritime history.

The first chapter reveals the year 1859 was notable for the growing number of Great Lakes schooners that wet their hulls in saltwater carrying freight to England, Scotland and Ireland. The author reports the bulk of the cargo bound for those three countries were barrel staves. Is it possible Great Lake barrel staves ended up holding Scottish whiskey or Guinness stout? Five Great Lake schooners even made it to Constantinople that year. The author notes the first sailor recruiting agency for trans-Atlantic voyages was created in Detroit to meet the burgeoning need for Atlantic crews. Another chapter is devoted to the strange, shared fate of two Great Lakes boats that could have been twins in spite of being built by two different companies. They were examples of the best in American maritime architecture and were build a year apart in 1864 and '65 and they sank a year apart. The Lac La Belle met her fate in 1872 when sailing from Milwaukee. She was battered by a storm, sprung leaks and went down in Lake  Michigan with nine loss of lives. A year latter the Ironsides also left Milwaukee, was caught in a storm and met the same fate as the Lac La Belle. John Gee happened to be a passenger on both boat's last voyage  and survived both sinkings. A very interesting chapter describes the graveyard for ships along the Detroit riverbank where they were left to rot and even became part of Detroit's landfill. 

Anyone interested in Michigan's maritime history will find this a must read. Even those with only a casual interest in the Great Lakes will enjoy the stories and end up with a new appreciation for Great Lake's maritime history. I cannot fail to remark on the author's penchant for sprinkling rarely used and arcane words throughout the book such as encomium, mephitic, tenebrous, hyperborean, and quotidian. This is not a criticism. I enjoyed trying to figure out what the words might mean by the contexts in which they were used and learned to keep a dictionary close at hand. I even got a laugh out of the definition of quotidian. It means everyday or commonplace. The word itself is certainly not commonplace and neither is this book.

Tragedy and Triumph on the Great Lakes by Richard Gebhart. Michigan State University Press, 2024, 114p., $29.95.

Island and Main: Sudden Quiet Series Book 1 by Joshua Veith

I picked up this book with a good deal of trepidation and reluctance because I don't like dystopian novels or movies. In this novel 99% of the earth's population is wiped out by a manmade Covid variant. So I didn't think there was much of a chance of getting past the first dozen pages. What I didn't count on was how quickly I fell under the spell of this author. He is high school teacher, and maybe the only one who teaches a lit class on JRR Tolkien. And oh yes, he is a one hell of a fine writer. I certainly didn't expect to bond with the main characters so quickly or find myself totally immersed in the author's world. He creates an almost tangible closeness between the reader and the natural world. I flew through the first dozen pages and lost myself in the following three hundred plus. 

This new world is the work of a self-obsessed President who orders scientists to produce a Covid variant that only kills Chinese. Accidently or otherwise it escapes the lab and as viruses are prone to do produced a variant that all but wipes out humanity. The people of Beaver Island have not lost anyone to the virus because of their remoteness and because they shot down or sunk any plane or boat that even approached the island. It has been a year since the world went quiet and the island's ancient Indian medicine woman and psychic sends three islanders on a scouting party to the mainland. They find the few survivors divided into two groups. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), or Elves as they call themselves, live close to nature, are self-sustaining, and want to live in peace. But they will fight if provoked or threatened. The other group are well armed, remorseless criminals, and sociopaths. They comb the state for salvageable energy and equipment, make slaves of any survivors they find, or kill them if they can't be of use. The killers have an outpost in Charlevoix and want to capture the Elves, and then would like to get the Beaver Island ferry running and raid the island.  The scouts find the Elves very existence threatened by the killers. The group would like to settle in Beaver Island before the killers find them, if the islanders will allow them to come. 

I liked this book on so many levels. The writing at times is almost lyrical. The following sentence  describing any morning had me returning to it so often I dog-eared the page. "Beaver Island rolled towards the Sun." The author writes powerfully of the near criminal abuse of nature and the environment while framing it with a deep appreciation of its wonders large and small. And again he stopped me with this quote, "if...Earth is a body, then humans are its disease." The three main characters are well drawn and the two youngest of the three scouts come of age during their perilous exploration of a world that's gone quiet. Even the minor characters come across as real. And in addition to all of the above the book is at heart a thriller in which the pages fly by. It is also the first of a trilogy. I impatiently await volume two.

Island and Main: Sudden Quiet Series Book 1 by Joshua Veith. Mission Point Press, 2024,321p., $17.95

It Happened on the Mackinac Bridge by Mike Fornes

If it happened on Mackinac Bridge and was of note it's in this book. The author's herculean task of combing through thousands of bridge authority reports and local newspaper records and photographs has resulted in a virtual photographic slash narrative history of the bridge since it opened. The author does touch on some of the incredible facts dealing with its construction. I liked being reminded it was designed with a slide rule and logarithms. I have no idea what a logarithm is so I looked it up. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: "The power to which a base, usually 10, must be raised to produce a given number." Oh! But of course. 

Big Mac was designed to withstand 600 mph winds and the center span is capable of moving 35 feet either east or west due to high winds. If the engineering is fascinating and awe inspiring so are the strange, hardly believable, often laughable, occasionally tragic, officially obsessive-compulsive, and always interesting events and happenstances unearthed by the author. Three babies came into world on the bridge and a few motorists and a bridge worker exited the world there. The bridge authority records the number of vehicles that cross the bridge each day, month, and year. The daily average is 12,000 vehicles and the one day record is close to 40,000. A deer (photo included) made it to the center span before workers escorted it back to Mackinac City.  It probably wouldn't have been able to pay the toll. 

The bridge authority is touchy about collecting tolls. When a driver threw a hockey puck at the toll booth attendant the police chased the man down and found he was in possession of illegal drugs and carried an unregistered firearm. Proving you don't need to pass an IQ test to cross the bridge.  If further proof is needed the following examples of questions asked toll booth attendants should suffice. "How are Lake Huron and Lake Michigan connected? Is the Upper Peninsula lane cheaper? What time does the bridge swing over to Mackinac Island?" And lastly the book contains one of my all time favorite ironies. It took over 500 engineers and 85,000 blueprints to create Big Mac. Yet in the first several years a man was put in a 55-gallon drum (photo included) which was raised and lowered so he could paint the cables. Did the engineers need a logarithm to design that? This is simply a wonderful book filled with the fascinating history and stories of Big Mac.

It Happened on the Mackinac Bridge by Mike Fornes. Arcadia Publishing, 2024, 127p., 24.99.

Out of Service by Joseph Heywood

This is Heywood's twelfth Woods Cop Mystery featuring U. P. conservation officer Grady Service. The dozen novels offer a unique and compelling description of a Michigan conservation officer's daily experiences, immerses the reader in Yooper culture, an creates a memorable portrait of the natural setting. When you combine the latter with great characters, fine writing, and a plot that could only take place in the U.P. you have a great read. It is the humble opinion of this insatiable reader and lover of mystery novels, especially those set in Michigan, that Joseph Heywood deserves to be ranked alongside the incomparable Loren Estleman and Elmore Leonard. Each have set mysteries in Michigan. Each leave fingerprints of their unique literary style on every page, and each view Michigan's people, institutions, culture, and physical setting through a different lens. 

In the latest novel charting Grady Service's career he has gone undercover and ordered to penetrate an armed militia group run by a religious kook who believes he will replace God. Supposedly, Grady was sent to discover if the group is collecting and selling eagle feathers which is a criminal offense. But Grady can't make sense of his assignment when he learns an undercover FBI agent has gone missing. He quickly learns the life of any member of the militia is precarious at best, and the group's messianic leader seems unusually interested in old abandoned copper mines. When bodies are discovered in an abandoned mine Gardy finds himself at the center of a deadly mystery.

As in all Woods Cop Mysteries both major and minor characters are wonderfully eccentric, and leave the reader feeling they are unique to the U.P. Heywood has a great ear for Yooper dialect and his books are filled with delightful and often very funny dialogue. This and every mystery featuring Grady Service is just plain fun to read and grand entertainment. I have only one criticism. Six years is far too long to wait for a Woods Cop Mystery.

Out of Service by Joseph Heywood. Lyons Press, 2024, 339p., $29.95.

Remembering Crescent: Logging and Life on North Manitou Island 1907 - 1915 by Billy H. and Karen J. Rosa

This special book presents a vivid portrait of a remote but bustling horse and buggy village that came into being in 1908 and eight years later emptied of inhabitants faster than pulling the plug on a sink full of water. The village, as the title states, was located on North Manitou Island and came into being when a company bought thousands of acres of timber on the island. They brought in lumberjacks to harvest the green gold and A.J. White and Sons to build and oversee the sawmill operation. The village sprung up almost overnight as many of the workers brought their families. The White family descendants were in possession of a large collection of photographs taken during their eight years on the island and were given access to other private and public collections. The result is this book of photographs that captures nearly every aspect of life and work on North Manitou Island.

Each of the 200 and some photographs are identified by place with a short paragraph explaining what is happening, what it is a photograph of or who, or simply amplifying something of importance or interest that might be easily overlooked. I found the photographs of the construction of the 600-foot dock of particular interest. A steam engine was used to power a machine that rammed hundreds of pilings into the lakebed which was then covered by several layers of decking on which railroad tracks were laid. It took a year to build and was strong enough for a steam locomotive to carry a carload of lumber out to a waiting freighter. Twenty years later the dock began to surrender to the unrelenting work of Lake Michigan and in the 1970s all that was left where weathered and worn stumps of the pilings. Within a few years the deserted island was sold to a private association that introduced white-tailed deer on the island and managed it as a private hunting club. The island was eventually acquired by the National Park Service and became part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The book is dedicated to Esther (White) Morse, who arrived on the island in 1908 at the age of seven and is the grandmother of author Billy H. Rosa. She last visited the island in the late 1970s. Her visit is documented by photographs in the last section of the book. She found little evidence of Crescent or the lumber industry. Mother nature had worked its magic and returned the island to its wilderness state. The authors' work and dedication deserve high praise for this exceptional history of a time, a place, and its people. This highly focused piece of Michigan's local history is a gem.

Remembering Crescent: Logging and Life on North Manitou Island 1907 -1915 by Billy H. and Karen J. Rosa. Mission Point Press, 2024, 183p., $24.95.

 

 Post # 97  August 26, 2024

Quote for the day: The story of how the Upper Peninsula finally became a part of Michigan must have made the angels weep. And doubtless also giggle. John Voelker in the "Forward" to "They Left Their Mark" by Joh S. Burt. 1985.

Reviews

Needs More Burritos by Ben Schulz

Leo was destined to be a dedicated, hopelessly addicted super fan of the Detroit Lions. He was born on December 29, 1957 the last time the Lions won a championship. His parents named him Leo, for lion of course, and his father was taking him to Lions home games almost before he was out of diapers. The Lions became the be all and end all of his life. He did poor in school, graduated nearly illiterate, poor at math, and without the slightest vocation skills. As he grows older his life spirals downward but year after year he somehow manages season tickets plus alcoholism and drug addiction on income from bagging groceries at Krogers. His life becomes a metaphor for more than half a century of disappointment and failure by the Lions. 

In spite of the above paragraph this is a lapel grabbing novel that pulls readers in and keeps them turning pages until the inspiring conclusion. Leo narrates his story and he has a singular, engaging, and surprising voice. It is off-beat, often humorous, poetic, has a penchant for lists, and readers can often feel a musical beat or cadence in the prose. Leo tells his story a decade per chapter. The narrative captures the cultural feel of each decade through the popular music, movies, and the demand for drugs. Leo of course reviews the Lions' record in each decade and his abysmal personal finances that go from bad to worse. Leo also describes the slow crumbling and destruction of Detroit decade by decade from a native's point of view. 

This is the kind of guy you don't know, don't see, don't understand, and at first don't know why you're caught up in his life. Well because he's a kid who flunked Spanish in high school but is proud he remembers taco means taco. More importantly it is watching Leo take one last, slim, and final chance at redemption. 

Needs More Burritos by Ben Schulz. Palmetto Publishing, 2024,226p., $14.99. 

Off the Hook Too!: Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen

If at times you just don't always understand life then you need to read Nancy Besonen. Granted, reading this collection of her weekly columns in the L'Anse Sentinel isn't going to help you understand life or life's conundrums any better. But Besonen is a sharp-eyed observer of life and its absurdities and she is going to make you laugh at the often loose grip we have when dealing with life's perplexities.  

Besonen is consistently perceptive, refreshing, inspired, honest, and makes me laugh. She gave up candy for Lent when it was suggested by a nun when she was a youngster. She writes, "There's a reason those women wear black." And like most of us she admits, "There is a time and place for eating healthier. I have no idea when or where that is... ." And then there's my favorite. She notes that if Ben Franklin had his way the turkey would be the national bird not the bald eagle. If Ben had been successful Besonen writes, "when our new president stepped off Air Force One we could have proudly honored him/her with a big resounding: The Turkey has landed."

The nearly one hundred columns cover a lot of ground from cell phones, ice fishing, and fake news to Barbie dolls, thieving deer and everything in between. Many are Yooper inspired but no translation is needed. Until I was lucky enough to be handed a Nancy Besonen book I'd never read a newspaper column that is often the equal to an observational stand up comic's material and is just as funny.

Off the Hook Too! Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen. Modern History Press, 2024, 168p., $21.95.

Wilderness, Water  & Rust: A Journey Toward Great Lakes Resilience by Jane E. Elder

This is an autobiography of an environmentalist who has spent her life striving to save our shrinking wilderness areas and the Great Lakes from pollution, invasive species, and overuse. Readers quickly learn her life story is inseparable from her environmental work spanning half a century. As a result the reader gets to know a remarkable woman. Secondly, it only takes a few pages to realize the reader is in the hands of a  remarkably fine writer.

Her early work was in the promoting the development of wilderness areas and parks. She worked to create Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shores as well as the Sylvain Wilderness Area in the western U.P. The author's love of wilderness is felt on nearly every page. You wish you could have accompanied her as she recounts hiking Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes. She also has a fine sense of humor. When visiting Sylvain Wilderness she and another environmental activist were sitting at a picnic table when they heard a chainsaw. They walked over to where the man was cutting down trees that might endanger a camping area. Elder told the man a chainsaw is out of place in a wilderness area. He replied so is a picnic table. 

The author spent a good part of her career working to raising the awareness of the toxic pollution of the Great Lakes and the danger of invasive species. In an angry, detailed, and fact-filled chapter on mercury and other contaminants found in the Great Lakes it almost seems as if humans are hell-bent on making our world unlivable. It's nearly unbelievable, but harmful and dangerous toxins have been found in the largest inland lake on Isle Royale, which means there is no escaping them.

This is an important and timely book and the subtitle fore shadows the hope of recovering the nearsighted poisoning of our world. In addition to science and renewal the author offers hope for the future based the wonders of our world and natures restorative power. It seems fitting to end the review with two quotes from the book. First is from the author standing on Pictured Rocks. "Our enjoyment comes from feeling part of this place, the rhythm of the seasons and even the deep time written in the history of the sandstone cliffs....These are riches that never show up on a bank statement or a gross national product index." The last from Congressman Dale Kildee after walking another wilderness area on a Michigan shoreline. "When you think of it, wilderness is the mind of God expressed."

Wilderness, Water & Rust: A Journey Toward Great Lakes Resilience by Jane E. Elder. Michigan State University Press, 2024, 311p., $39.95.

Silent Springs the Panther: Historic Accounts of Michigan Big Cat Attacks by Aaron J. Vesselenak

I found this book absolutely fascinating for a number of reasons. First of all I was surprised at the number of actual attacks on humans by panthers, mountain lions, cougars, or whatever you wish to call them, in Michigan over the course of Michigan's history. The author's extensive and careful research documents roughly two dozen attacks on humans occurred from the 1820s to the present. And only of few of those resulted in death.  I was also surprised that cougar attacks occurred within less than 10 miles from where I live. Granted the attacks happened more than a 150 years ago but it leaves me with a new sense of local history and a reminder that my house sits on what was once was wilderness. 

The author taps first person accounts and local newspaper reports to effectively capture the suddenness and ferocity of an attack by a mountain lion. The author includes descriptions of similar attacks by the big cat that occurred in other states in order to document the typical behavior of an attack and uses the out-of-state reports because so few attacks have taken place here. Veselenak also describes mountain lion behavior and the many times a cat will chase prey with no intention of eating it, but just out of curiosity. He also estimates that for every panther seen by a human, hundreds if not thousands have quietly observed humans without their ever knowing it. 

The last mountain lion in Michigan was supposedly killed in 1906. The author's thorough research documents countless sightings over the years to positively refute that claim. Until recently the DNR refused to acknowledge that mountain lions inhabited the state. They went so far as to claim a photograph of a mountain lion taken in the lower peninsula was a hoax. When a DNR official saw a cougar in Alcoma County the agency had to back track. This book conclusively presents evidence that mountain lions are here and probably were never extinct in the state. 

The only confirmed cougar in the lower peninsula is a photograph of one taken in Clinton County. If a cougar has made it that far south they must be present further north. Just weeks ago my son-in-law was driving home from their cottage near Bellaire when he saw a mountain lion run out of the woods, streak across the road, and disappear in another stand of woods. He described a mountain lion to a T. When he saw the mountain lion on the cover of this book he acknowledged that's exactly what he saw south of Torch Lake and just a couple of miles south of M-72. Of course my son-in-law's sighting made this book a very special reading experience.  But there's no doubt that anyone who opens this book will find it both fascinating and gripping.

Silent Springs the Panther: Historic Accounts of Michigan Big Cat Attacks by Aaron J. Veselenak. Mission Point Press, 2024, 137p., 17.95.

 Post # 97  July 29, 2024

Quote for the Day: "If any person, or persons, shall exhibit any puppet show, wire dancing, or tumbling, juggling or sleight of hand, within this territory, and shall ask or receive any pay exhibiting same, such person or persons, shall for every offense pay a fine not less than ten nor exceeding twenty dollars." Michigan Territorial law, enacted on April 13, 1827.

Reviews

The Burden of Sparrows by Debra Payne

Buddy Robertson is one of the most interesting and memorable characters I've had the good fortune of meeting in recent fiction. He has been a school custodian in the Kalkaska area for 25 years. He's lived a simple life with his common law wife Mags in an old house that's a constant mess and in need of repairs. He lives somewhere below the financially comfortable, but that was alright because even as a kid he knew, "he wasn't going to be blessed with greatness." He just "wanted to be blessed with an absence of trauma." From his childhood through late teens Buddy suffered from chronic emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that is fully examined and would have have destroyed most children. He has never told a living soul what he endured. The only healing he finds is in nature, gardening, and the unusual relationship with Mags.

His history of abuse has made him sensitive in recognizing others who have or are currently suffering from the same. A boy in his elementary school gives off strong signs of being a victim. Buddy's attempt to help the boy draws a rebuke from the principle which increases after it becomes known there will be legal proceedings brought against a person who sexually abused the boy. If Buddy reaches out to help the boy deal with describing in court what he has suffered, and convincing him he is not at fault, Buddy will have to reveal his own tragic history of abuse. What Buddy doesn't know is the profound and positive effect it will have on his life when he decides to help the boy.

This assured, realistic and sensitive portrayal of Buddy's deeply troubled life, his relationship with the natural world, and the finely drawn minor characters make it hard to believe this is the author's first novel. In an afterword the author states Buddy the character, "has been in my mind and heart for years." On finishing this novel I thought I'd be at a loss for words in describing what a deeply emotional and moving novel I'd just read and how Buddy and this novel would stay with me for a long time. My former publisher once told me an author should never be at a loss for words. I hope I've done justice to this extraordinarily fine novel. 

The Burden of Sparrows by Debra Payne. Mission Point Press, 2024, 283p., $17.95.

Old Victoria: A Copper Mining Ghost Town in Ontonagon County by Mikel B. Classen

This is the first volume in the Yooper History Hunter Series in which each installment will explore the history of a specific, and often overlooked aspect or subject of U.P. history. Based on the first in the series, each volume will be composed of numerous historic photographs interspersed with contemporary, full-color images that compliment a precise, fact-fill historical narrative that is fascinating without wasting a word.   

The author couldn't have chosen a more interesting subject for the inaugural volume than the ghost town of Victoria. In spite of being listed in the National Register of Historic Places it is probably one of the fewest visited or even generally known historic sites in the Ontonagon area. The village rests atop a mountain within the spectacular Ontonagon River Gorge in the rugged Gogebic Mineral Range. The last couple of miles to the village is up a bone-jarring rock-strewn road.  To call Victoria remote is a grand understatement.

Copper was discovered here in the 1600s but for 200 years it couldn't be profitably mined. Then came Thomas Hooper who built a Taylor Hydraulic Air Compressor by digging three 400-feet-deep shafts into which the Ontonagon River and air were directed. The result (somehow) was compressed air that powered the entire mining operation and even a locomotive powered by compressed air. Mining became profitable, the village grew and prospered. The author covers working conditions (one in seven miners died in the mine) and the social and living conditions in the village. The mine closed in 1917. The village emptied, and the buildings fell victim to time and neglect until the Society for the Restoration of Old Victoria was founded and began restoring the village. This is a pure and highly polished nugget of Michigan history. 

Old Victoria: A Copper Mining Ghost Town Ontonagon County by Mikel B. Classen. Modern History Press, 2024, 27p., $14,95

Make It Goo... In The Snow: People and Ideas in the History of Snowmobiles by Larry Jorgensen

Michigan plays a minor yet important part in this detailed history of snowmobiles. The first snowmobile was created in 1913 by a Ford dealer in New Hampshire. He took the rear wheels off a Model T and replaced them with dual wheels covered by tracks and replaced the front wheels with skis. He patented his invention and called it a snowmobile. A company later bought the patent and made 3,500 kits a year. 

As the author makes it abundantly clear, over the years backyard tinkerers, highschoolers, and just guys with a vision created snowmobiles of all shapes and sizes. There was the motorized toboggan, the propellor driven snow version of the swamp buggy, the Ford Motor Company converted a Fordson tractor with rear tracks and front skis, and then there's the screw-propelled snowmobiles featuring grooved rotating cylinders. The last is hard to imagine. As tired as I am of hearing it from wait staff to bank tellers -- "No Problem." The book is packed with photos that compliments a thorough narrative history of snow machines.

Of particular note to Michiganders, there is a full chapter on Marquette's Peninsula Pathfinders club. Their mission was to promote snowmobile touring and the encouragement of snowmobile trails.  To this end, in 1968 they made their first long distance ride, a 498 mile four-day jaunt across the U.P. The second year they snowmobiled from Copper Harbor to Green Bay, Wisconsin and in year three they were the first snowmobilers to cross Big Mac in a trip from Marquette to Cadillac. In 1972 they did what seemed impossible, driving snowmobiles from Marquette to Yellowstone National Park. Also of interest is a chapter devoted to homemade snowmobiles. Included is the story of three high schoolers from Calumet who salvaged an engine to which was attached a wooden propeller they made in shop class and away they flew. Then there's the man from Saginaw who built a small snowmobile to take him ice fishing. It earned the nickname the "Pizza Oven."  Photographs of both are included.

If you have any interest in snowmobiles you're going to ski-doo through this book. 

Make It Go... In The Snow: People and Ideas in the History of Snowmobiles by Larry Jorgensen. Modern History Press, 2024, 186p., $21.95

Michigan Indian Boarding School Survivors Speak: A Narrative History by Sharon Marie Brunner

The historical record of our country's shameful treatment of  Native Americans is well documented. One of the worst examples is the recently discontinued Native American boarding schools in which children were taken from their parents and sent to schools with the goal of stripping them of their culture. Michigan had three such schools and this book is a study of  the treatment, and their long term effects on students at the Mt Pleasant Boarding School and the Holy Childhood Boarding School of Jesus in Harbor Springs. The latter was the last of the schools to close in 1983. Much of the book is based on nine interviews of former students.

Students were forbidden to speak their native language and, in a country based on the principle of freedom of religion Native American religious beliefs were banned. In some severe cases it was beaten out of the children. The Mt Pleasant School concentrated on teaching students domestic and vocational skills. Like all the boarding schools it had very strict rules, but they seemed to be fairly enforced and some students forcibly removed from their parents appreciated being in a stable environment.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Catholic run school in Harbor Springs. The goal of the Holy Childhood school clearly seemed to be the conversion of the children to Catholicism through cruelty and "humiliation." The children were told they were "evil, black savages, and heathens," and they had to become Christians or burn in hell. Physical punishment was common. If a child wet the bed, they were either beaten with a rubber hose, or were wrapped in the urine-soaked sheets and made to stand outside. And the above is far from the worst the children had to children endured. A former student said he knew, "a lot of [former students] still don't believe in God because every time they got hit, beat or whatever, it was in the name of the Lord." In one way or another the years at the boarding schools will always be with the children. It is remarkable as well as a testament to the human spirit so many of the children endured and survived this cruelty.

The book is infuriating, sad, and often difficult to read. But it is vitally important to pull aside the curtain and reveal yet another injustice imposed on the youngest Native Americans. I have only one issue with the book. It is subtitled "A Narrative History." The book is based on the author's master's thesis. It is a report. With subchapters entitled "Operational Definitions, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Standpoint Theory, and Implications for Further Research" it does not fit the format or read like a narrative history.  Calling the book a report rather than a narrative history reduces neither the impact or importance of the book.

Michigan Indian boarding School Survivors Speak Out: A Narrative History by Sharon Marie Brunner, MSW. Modern History Press, 2024, 166 p., $22.95  

 

Post # 97 June 24, 2024

 Quote for the Day: "There are few places in the contiguous United States more remote and less hospitable or, to the lover of wild places, more starkly and supremely beautiful." William Ashworth describing the Keweenaw Peninsula in The Late Lake Great Lakes. 1987.

Reviews

The Last Huck by J.D. Austin

This slim novel is remarkable for several reasons. It's a first novel of great maturity, written with immense confidence, and portrays family dynamics with touching honesty. The author first set foot in the U.P. in 2019 but writes of the peninsula as if his family has spent generations within the land washed by Lake Superior. The Keweenaw Peninsula is engrained in the characters lives, memories, and seemingly their DNA. 

Brothers Jakob and Niklas Kinnunen and nephew Peter, who is treated like a third brother, grew up together on their family's berry farm on the Keweenaw Peninsula. They idealized their childhood and the rugged but beautiful Keweenaw area. When their uncle died, he willed the three boys his 40-acre fruit farm. Niklas and Peter settled in Milwaukee and Jacob is serving an eight-year stretch in the Northern Michigan Penitentiary. Peter and Niklas don't head to the Keweenaw often, but they take great pride and comfort that it's there and theirs. Peter is married, laid off and is shattered when he learns his son has Leukemia. Peter calls Niklas and suggests they sell the old farm so he can pay medical bills with his share of the sale.

Niklas is adamantly against selling the land but agrees to go north with Peter in hopes of talking him out of selling. The heart of the novel is the long weekend Niklas and Peter spend in the Keweenaw where they recall their childhood amid a land that continues to call them back, and if you are a Yooper, you are never a stranger. They continue to argue over the sale even as they long for the past and a return to it. The argument over the sale makes each of them re-evaluate their friendship and themselves. Even the minor characters spring whole from the page with lines like, "You know my whole damn life I been waiting for tomorrow. But den I wake up and its always today!"

Memorable whether in setting, character, theme, plot, or simply the magic that pours forth from Austin's keyboard.

The Last Huck by J.D. Austen. Modern History Press, 2024, 189p., $21.95.

Soldiers Untold: Biographies of Civil War Soldiers from Wyandotte, Michigan by Martin N. Bertera & Mary-Johna M. Wein

This unique book, which was never meant to be a book, presents Civil War buffs a fascinating mosaic comprised of the lives and service of over 140 Civil War veterans. They have one other commonality besides taking up arms to preserve the Union. They lived in Wyandotte, Michigan either before or after the war. Each soldier's birth, death, place of birth, marriage, unit in which he served, and their final resting place. The brief biography records wounds, death by combat or illness during the war. Many of the short biographies contain photographic portraits.  The most interesting contain short contemporary accounts describing his unit's action in a specific battle or a brief account of a unit in camp, on the march, or receiving medical care. William Wells was wounded at Gettysburg and the typical medical procedure for amputating a leg is told in detail. He died from his wound.

Flipping through the book surprised me by the number of soldiers who were born in Europe and the many pre-war occupations ranging from day laborers, to blacksmiths, farmers, boatmen, clerks, musicians, and a variety of other jobs. Taken as a whole the 140-plus Civil War veterans here probably make a fair cross section of the Union men-at-arms. Except, of course, the many Black soldiers who also served the Union cause.

Previous to this book the city of Wyandotte did not have a list of its Union soldiers. The authors original goal was to create a master list and be done with it. But they became drawn to collecting more information on the veterans, started a bibliography, and researched the men's ancestry. What began as maybe a few articles, grew into a pamphlet, and swelled to book length. They ended up contacting some 700 relatives of the 140+ men in the book and the authors were repeatedly asked about a book they never meant to publish.  Ultimately they decided to publish the book and donate all proceeds to the Wyandotte Historical Society. Because the authors never intended any eyes but theirs to view their work accounts for some obvious amateur publishing mistakes. These include no title page, a few historical mistakes, and typos. But that takes nothing away from the authors' dedication to research or the result of their accomplishment. 

 

Soldiers Untold: Biographies of Civil War Soldiers from Wyandotte, Michigan by Martin N. Bertera & Mary-Johna M. Wein. Independently Published, 2024, 275p., $15.

We Live Here: Detroit Eviction Defense and the Battle for Housing Justice by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer

This powerful graphic book is the story of the other Detroit. Not the glamourous, highly touted creation of a new downtown by millionaires and billionaires into a tourist attraction, the home of pricey corporate headquarters, and multi professional sports venues. This book is about the Detroit in which Black homeowners are saddled with subprime inflated mortgage rates and preyed upon by lending institutions who would rather evict them than restructure a loan. Or, the homeowner falls behind in city property taxes. Wayne County buys the delinquent taxes and makes millions in profit by charging an extra fee for collecting them. In either case if eviction is initiated the homeowner becomes a victim of a process aided and abetted by the legal system.

Eight families tell their stories of being threatened with imminent eviction when they couldn't pay their mortgages because of illness, loss of a job, a reduction in government assistance, or other legitimate reasons. They explored every legal and reasonable method to stop the eviction and found they were powerless. Banks  and/or mortgage companies, courts, and speculators simply refused to work with them. A bank told one family a loan modification was reasonable. When the family paid their next payment the bank sent it back and told them not to make more payments while a a loan modification was in the process. The next thing they heard from the bank was an eviction notice for non payment of their mortgage. 

The eight families felt powerless to save their homes but stubbornly failed to give up and contacted the Detroit Eviction Defense group (DED). The group simply doesn't know how to quit. They picket banks, flood court hearings, court publicity, pack yards so foreclosures can't be served, and park so many cars on a street dumpsters can't be dropped off. The last is usually the point at which an eviction can't be halted. The DED has stopped close to a hundred evictions. An afterword tells how speculators buy tax foreclosure houses at an auction for an average of $1,300 and in one typical case a speculator tried to sell the house back to the former owners for $40,000.  When the former owners turn the outrageous offer, the speculator then tried to rent their home to them at above market prices. The latter is a major factor for why in a city where Black homeowners used to vastly outnumber Black renters those numbers have been have been turned upside down. This is a powerful, moving, and blistering account of the  gross unfairness suffered by Black homeowners in Detroit. 

The book was drawn (literally) from a doctoral dissertation. The author didn't want his work buried in a university library. He wanted to inform the public why Black ownership of homes is literally under attack in Detroit and its effect on a city that once lead the nation in Black homeownership.

We Live Here: Detroit Eviction Defense and the Battle for Housing Justice by Jeffrey Wilson and Bambi Kramer. Seven Stories Press, 2024, 238p., $16.95. 

U.P. Reader : Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Vol. 8 Editors Deborah  K . Frontiera and Mikal B. Classen

Every year it's the same. The U.P. Reader arrives in the mail. I unwrap it, crack the cover, and wait for literary lightning to strike. Thumbing back to front it is the last poem on the last page entitled "River Gypsy" by Edd Tury describing the St. Mary's Rapids that literally leaps off the page like a clap of thunder:

The morning fog lingers calmly over the boil,

serene mists blanket holy chaos,

muffles the ten-thousand-year roar that argues its way to the sky.

It's not only the heart-stopping image that moves me. It's that the poet has let the reader share the same awe and breathtaking experience the First People, Father Marquette and countless more down through history experienced when encountering the rapids. 

Nina L. Craig's essay entitled "Rootedness" recalls the unique little diners that used to be found in nearly every small town strung along U.S. 2. All of which seemed to feature "hot roasted turkey sandwiches...and real mashed potatoes." She captures the smells, ambience, and how strangers and tourists were given the once over by the regulars. And of course: "The coffee has to be good or nothing else will work." I'm old enough to remember those diners and lament their passing only to be replaced by identically cloned fast-foot drive thru franchises. 

Not to be missed is "All Customers Great and Small" by Nancy Besonen a retired postal clerk who delivered mail to two U.P. towns I had to find on a map. She reflects on her 20 years delivering mail and describes the characters she met daily. She calls them, "a bunch of woofers." They were dogs who obviously didn't get mail, resented it and, "went for me, instead." She says even doggy treats didn't modify their disappointment. When an old toothless chihuahua that, "had the jaws of a bear trap," went for her ankle it took a snow shovel to save her from being a "mail lady who was accessorizing with an aged chihuahua." 

I was delighted to find a short story by award-winning author Hilton Moore. Moore has created his own fictional town in a remote corner of the U.P. called Nelson where his stories are set. The characters are quirky but very real, they are always emotionally involving, and the stories often spin off in unusual directions. Nelson frequently proves to be the downfall of clergy. Moore's stories are always singularly entertaining. The same can be said for the story of the first profession hockey team and hockey league, both of which were born in the U.P. Among my many other favorites was the loving remembrance of a grandmother's cooking and her hand-written recipe for made-from-scratch apple pie on a worn index card dating to 1951.

These annual collections of poems, essays, and stories are great guides to the U.P. A travel guide will tell you how to get to Grand Marais or Crystal Falls and what to see but this and earlier U.P Readers will take you where no road map can -- into its culture, social history, and character. And there isn't a page in this book that won't make you smile, inspire, laugh, cry, or ponder. When you pick up this book you're holding a guide to the soul of a unique place and people. 

U.P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World V0l. 8 edited by Debora K. Frontiera and Mikel B. Classen. Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association, 2024, 181p., $19.95.

 

 

Post # 96 May 27, 2024

Quote for the Day: "In these days when patriotic chambers of commerce label every whistle-stop the gateway to something or other, St. Ignace is with daring originality hailed as the 'Gateway to the North.' " John Voelker. The Troubler-shooter. 1943.

Reviews

The Unsolved Mysteries of Father Marquette's Many Graves by Jennifer S. McGraw 

The last time I was in St. Ignace I stood in front of a monument marking Father Marquette's final resting place. After reading this book it seems doubtful the remains of the famous Jesuit explorer and missionary were under the monument. 

It is pretty much an indisputable fact that Father Marquette, on returning from exploring the Mississippi River with Louis Joliet, died near present day Ludington on May 18, 1675, and was buried there with a wooden cross marking his grave. Two years later a group of Native Americans dug up his bones and carried them to St. Ignace where they were laid to rest under the St. Ignace de Michilimackinac mission church. In 1877 a wealthy St. Ignace landowner while clearing a piece of his property of brush and trees exposed what turned out to be the foundation of an ancient building as well as evidence of early French occupation including Jesuit rings. More digging unearthed birch bark pieces and bone fragments. It was assumed Father Marquette's tomb had been discovered. News spread and it became open season for anyone to dig in the area. One man came across 39 bone fragments and turned them over to the Catholic priest who was charged with determining if Father Marquette's burial site had been discovered. Ultimately it was decided it was Marquette's grave. Some of the bones were buried once again, others were sent to Marquette University and some were even given away to individuals. 

A hundred years later archeologists studying St. Ignace's early French period and digging near the Jesuit mission church area concluded the bones under the monument site were not Marquette's they weren't even human. They were animal bones. The author has done a fine job of describing the the efforts in 1877 to determine if indeed Father Marquette's burial site had been discovered, and the scientific tools and methods used by archeologists a century later to conclude his grave had yet to be discovered. This slim book presents a concise and absorbing account of Father Marquette's extraordinary life and travels in the Great Lakes and the current confusion and debate over his final resting place. The book also contains a brief but fascinating history of the Jesuit missionaries in the Midwest. This is a great little book on early Michigan history and was picked as a U. P. Notable Book.

The Unsolved Mysteries of Father Marquette's Many Graves by Jennifer S. McGraw. Pine Stump Publications, 2022, 137p., $16.95.

Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime by Michael Delaware

This collection of true stories of murder and mayhem from the southwestern corner of the state during the Victorian Era reveals an entirely different side of what is generally considered a genteel and refined society. But maybe I've been brainwashed by two seasons of the Gilded Age on HBO. The often astonishing murders recounted in this book and the obvious absence of morality are chilling. 

There is the mother of three who poisoned her children because the man she wanted to marry didn't want the burden of caring for children. Then there's the twice divorced man who who went to a state home for orphans and adopted a ten-year-old girl who he planned to marry when she was old enough. On the way home with his newly adopted daughter he realized the impossibility of marry a young woman the public would come to know as his daughter so he killed and raped her before  reaching home. The author thoroughly but concisely covers the main and most interesting aspects of the murder from introducing the major characters, the police investigation, the trial and imprisonment. The book provides an interesting glimpse into the darker side of Victorian life and the customs and living conditions of the ordinary Michigan citizen during the era. Arsenic proved to be a popular mode of  dispatching victims. Fathering a illegitimate child was known as Bastardy and living with a lover and not being married was call "improper intimacy." The condition, treatment, and protection in which orphans were treated was shocking.

Photographs and maps enhance the well-written narrative. Aficionados of true crime books or those interested in the darker side of Michigan history will devour this book.

Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime by Michael Delaware. History Press, 2024, 188p., $24.95.

yooper poetry: On Experiencing Michigan's Upper Peninsula edited by Raymond Luczak

When creating this blog it never crossed my mind I would have to read and review poetry. A high school English class taught me to avoid poetry. This sixteen-year-old was presented with and graded on poems so far over my head they could have been commercial airlines at cruising altitude. They left a contrail as they passed overhead but I could only guess at their destinations. It is through this blog and books of poetry like this wonderful collection of poems by Yoopers that has created an appreciation for poetry. 

First, kudos to the editor for selecting strikingly unique poems from nineteen talented poets that together capture all aspects of living in the U.P. The poems describe the cultural uniqueness of the area as well as celebrating the remarkable landscape that help shape the culture. There are poems on copper and iron mining, towns and villages, crossing the Straits before Big Mac was built, education, and a bus ride through the U.P. with the driver singing an Iggy Pop song. Turning to the natural world poems describe the landscape, the changing of seasons, wildlife and all things U.P. including Rutabagas.  

On my first thumbing through the book, I found it addictive. Who can resist reading poems entitled "Bigfoot and Jim Harrison Skinny Dip in Morgan Pond on Father's Day," or "Olson Bros. Waste Management," and "A Union Soldier Drifts in His Canoe Toward Lake Superior Shore," or its last sentence which reads, "He knows his prayer is only whiskey once drunk in a tin cup at Sharpsburg." And the title to end all titles, "Portrait of Virgin Mary as Skunk." As a collector of great sentences, I'm adding "She was pressed into a private school teaching Grammar, the sticky stuff of sentences," to my list. I could wear a trail on the pages as I read and reread these memorable poems about Michigan's peninsula north of the bridge.

 

yooper poetry: On Experiencing Michigan's Upper Peninsula edited by Raymond Luczak. Modern History Press, 2024, 155p., $19.95.

Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by William S. Crowe

Seventeen-year-old William Crowe stepped ashore in Manistique on May 29, 1893 at the height of lumbering in the U.P. He quickly found a job with a lumber company and lived the rest of his life in Manistique. In 1952 he published a book about his life in Manistique and described in colorful detail his eyewitness account of the white pine era of the late 1890s through the early 1900s in Manistique and the U.P. Two of his grand daughters have reprinted a 70th Anniversary edition of the book with the addition of many historic photographs, a short biography of their grandfather, and a glossary. 

The book is a significant primary source of early Manistique history and captures in great detail the lumber industry and the life of lumberjacks at the height of lumbering in the U.P. The book is filled with simply staggering numbers. For instance, the mills in Manistique worked 24-hours a day and cut 100 million board feet of lumber a year. Or, logs cut in Seney, 125 miles by river from Manistique, could take as long as 3 - 5 years to reach the mills. In a year the mills produced $40 million worth of of lumber and $4 million worth of sawdust. The young man who stepped off the boat in 1893 landed an office job in a lumber company. The five workers in the office kept track of 1,500 employees on the payroll, kept the company's books, in addition to the books of the telephone and railroad company. And did it without carbon paper, card indexes, vertical files, or calculators. The author also wrote of the skills and dangerous work of the lumberjacks both out in the tall timber and driving the logs down river.

The book also offers an authentic portrait of life in Marquette in the Gay 90s. Crowe gives a virtual tour of 1893 Manistique as he remembers it. It is hard to believe that as late as the 1890s the town was cut off from the world for four months each winter, except for weekly mail that arrived by snowshoe from Escanaba. The author stresses it was the age of strong family life, a multitude of fraternal orders that were well attended, bicycling was highly popular, and cows were allowed to wander Manistique's streets. In the winter sleight rides and barn dances were popular.

This memoir is a significant contribution to the history of both Manistique and lumbering industry in the U.P

Lumberjack: Inside an Era in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by William S. Crowe. Modern History Press, 2024, 131p., $21.95.

Post # 95 April 25, 2024

 Quote for the day: "The misunderstanding runs very deep, as deep as the name itself: Great Lakes. In no conventional sense are these lakes, ... they are something else, something separate and unique and wonderful." William Ashworth. The Late Great Lakes. 1987.

News and Views has a complete list of the 2024 Michigan Notable Books

Reviews

Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and the Ships on the Great Lakes 1817 - 1940 by George D. Jepson.

First of all I must tip my hat to the publisher. From page layout and design including the prolific use and presentation of old photographs, maps, the reproduction of countless paintings and draftsmen's outboard profiles and deck plans of various Great Lake vessels this book is a gorgeous piece of work. And the lively narrative chronicling the history and development of wooden vessels that turned the Great Lakes into a vast and important commercial highway compliments if not inspired this superb example of book production.

The author credits the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 for the boom in schooner production throughout the Great Lakes which in turn spurred lakeside villages to become port towns. Before railroads reached the Midwest schooners literally peopled the Great Lakes territories and states with immigrants then shipped all manner of goods and products to and from the new or growing communities. The author describes schooners as"... the eighteen-wheelers of their day." The author vividly describes both what makes a schooner a schooner and life abroad a commercial Great Lakes schooner.  Subsequent chapters recount the development of steam-powered commercial carriers and the introduction late in the 1800s of wooden bulk carriers that reached the extraordinary length of 300 feet. There is a lengthy chapter on the Truscott Boat Manufacturing Company of Grand Rapids and later St Joseph.  It was the first major manufacturer of wooden pleasure boats. It sold a wide variety of pleasure craft from 16' to more than 50' throughout the country. The book closes with a surprising chapter on Dan Seavey a Great Lakes pirate and a last chapter covers the memorable life and exploits of  a Great Lakes sailor who died in in 2018 at the age 103.

There is not a boring page in the book. The author brings sailing on the Great Lakes alive with countess human interest stories that compliment his historical narrative. And scattered throughout the book are stand alone essays and historical excerpts such as the account by Charles Dicken's sailing on Lake Erie 1842, or the detailed loss of a schooner and the archeological diver who dove its remains, There is a historical account of the remarkable voyage of the first recreational powerboat on Lake Superior, and many more arresting stories. Any reader fascinated by the Great Lakes or even mildly interested in its maritime history will lose themselves in this wonderful book. 

Sailing the Sweetwater Seas: Wooden Boats and Ships on the Great Lakes, 1817 - 1940 by George D. Jepson. Sheridan House, 2023,178p., $45.

The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? by Dave Dempsey

This simple idea for a book on the Great Lakes is fun to read, filled with surprising information, and debunks often widely held beliefs about the lakes that simply aren't true. The book's simple format begins with a statement such as on page one that reads, "The Great Lakes have tides" The author researches the statement then labels it Fact or Fake. But it is the author's summation of the research that makes the book so interesting.

 

In the above statement about tides the author reveals the lakes rise and fall to the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun a measly 2 inches. But of special interest is that high water levels occasionally occur when high winds pile up water on one side of the lake as high as 22 feet and then the wave surges back across the lake. They can cause fatalities and are are called seiches. There is also an event called meteotsunamis in which storms cause atmospheric pressure changes that can cause waves up to 20 feet high. In 1929 a meteotsunamis killed ten in Grand Haven and  in 2003 seven  were killed in Berrien County. Who would have guessed Michigan could be hit by a tsunamis? Then there is the absolutely stunning facts such as a drop of water in Lake Superior takes 202.7 years to reach the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand my favorite bit of nonsense concerning the Great Lakes are the websites with pictures of whales in Lakes Superior and Michigan. Supposedly there is even a Whale Watching station on Beaver Island. Every now and then I go to the websites just for a laugh and am surprised anyone would have taken whale watching on the Great Lakes as a fact. 

If you want to know if the Great Lakes shelter a fish that is bigger than the average man or woman, whether some Great Lakes fish are on Prozac, or if the Great Lakes contain the loneliest place in North America you will have to pick up this entertaining and painlessly readable book. 

The Great Lakes: Fact or Fake? by Dave Dempsey. Mission Point Press, 2023, 133p., $16.95.

The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River by Thomas A. Buhr.

Jumping to conclusions has landed me in hot water more than once. This time it was a first, the cold waters of the Au Sable. I was sure this book was a history of fishing the world famous trophy waters of the Au Sable stretching roughly from Mio to Lake Huron. Nope. There's a lot about fishing here, but the essence of this fine book is an in-depth local history of the Au Sable Valley area from prehistoric times to the present. The book covers a lot of ground and is full of arresting historical detail, and a great example of local history at its best.

The narrative begins with the first people to arrive in the area who hunted the large game there, including wooly mammoths, as the last ice age receded. It concludes in the present century and the concerted environmental efforts to improve the health of the river and creation of new trout fly-fishing lures to land the wily 20+ inch lunkers of the Big Water. In between the first and last chapter the history of the area unfolds highlighted by the excellent use of primary source material to help bring historical events fully alive and tell great stories that reaffirm the uniqueness of the area. Such as the story of the first survey team to penetrate the area in which trees were so thick they had difficulty finding their way and ran up against an half-a-mile-wide wind wall of downed white pine that defied crossing. A rescue party was dispatched to find the group. Or, the story of the CCC camps in the 1920s that reforested the lumbered our area and included young Joe Lewis. Known as a promising fighter the camp organized a fight that drew hundreds. Joe was knocked out. There is the famous fly fisherman who tied his own flies with Model T coil wire.  There's the case of conspicuous consumption in an 1874 account of a fishing trip to the Au Sable in which 120 pounds of Grayling where killed and salted one day and 120 addition pounds the next.  Grayling were gone from the river in a decade. Lastly, in 1927 a 75-car KKK caravan toured the Au Sable Valley and national forest. And these are only a sampling.

The mix of a fine narrative that consistently holds your attention and is filled with attention grabbing facts and stories is a great formula for telling the generally unknown local history of  one of Michigan's famous natural attracts. This book is a prefect example that good history is good storytelling. 

The Big Water: A History of Michigan's Lower Au Sable River by Thomas A. Buhr. Mission Point Press, 2023, 291p., $16.95.

Killer Women of Michigan by Tobin T. Buhk

With the exception of the first chapter the author proves to have an extraordinary eye for sifting through countless cases of women who were convicted of murder from the post-Civil War years to the 1990s and unearthing singularly interesting killers and cases. Throughout the book the author focuses on why the women committed or was an accomplice to murder. The victims usually were husbands, lovers, children or step children. The first chapter covers the 34 women who served life sentences from 1866 to 1925 which corresponds to the period when women serving life imprisonment did so in the Detroit House of Correction. Each of their stories is covered in a paragraph or two. The following chapters focus on in-depth descriptions of the killer or killers and why the murder and convictions was of special interest.

The accounts that really grabbed my attention were the ones that bordered on the weird. Like the woman who was convicted of killing her three children and was sent to Jackson State Prison where she became a housekeeper for the wardens and cared for their children. Then there was the cop who put a sheet over his head and played the ghost of the murdered husband. When the "ghost" accused the wife of his murder she confessed. And finally there was the woman who strangled her husband, dragged the body to a bed and went for a walk. When she returned she worked a crossword puzzle and fell asleep. Awaking she cut up her late husband, and loaded him piece by piece into the back seat of her car. She wanted to bury him in Kentucky but the car broke down in Toledo and the mechanic couldn't fix what he found in the back seat. Back in Michigan she observed that killing her man proved to be "the best medicine for her recurring migraines."

Each reader will surely find their own favorites among the weird, tragic, surprising, sad, and unusual but always interesting accounts of Michigan's real femme fatales.

Killer Women of Michigan by Tobin T. Buhk. History Press, 2024, 173p., $24.95.