Northern Michigan, 1947

[Ray1936]

Friend of mine sent me this link to a Utube clip of a travelogue show about northern Michigan in 1947 [[before Big Mac). Pretty interesting. Runs about 7 minutes. Covers the Traverse City area and the Upper Peninsula well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=QMR7veI78f8

[Maof]

thanks ray! never heard of spikehorn meyers but i found all kinds of stuff on him.

http://www.kitschy-kitschy-coo.com/2...rein-bear.html

[gazhekwe]

I love it! Not too long after that, my family started its summer northern odysseys, when my dad would take us "up home" to Bay Mills. I have a picture of us up there, I was almost 2. The road from the highway was dirt then, about 14 miles of dirt road. I remember waiting for the ferry. We would walk up and down the street in St. Ignace on the way back. There was an old time Indian village there, with people actually living in it. Well, I guess they were just there to show what it looked like. I thought they actually lived there, though. Haven't thought about it in all this time. We would drive up either 27 or 23. On 23, up by Alpena somewhere, there was a dinosaur park, with a brontosaurus that you could walk into. There was a doorway in its side. We'd stop for lunch maybe in Topinabee on the way down or Standish on the way up. I remember two lanes of lots of traffic. Trains running alongside the road were exciting for us kids.

We were moving up there some years later, before the bridge was built. We got to Mackinac and just missed the ferry, so we were the first car in line, right up at the chain across the end of the dock. A big cargo truck was behind us. The driver kept his engine running the whole time, and he was singing a lot of the time. It was really exciting when his foot slipped off the brake and the truck rolled forward and hit us! My dad had the emergency brake on and he laid on the foot brake and the horn as we were slowly pushed forward. He yelled at my mom to get the kids out and she was getting out when the guy woke up and backed up. My dad went and got somebody and they took the guy out of line, because we were scared of him and his truck by that time.

[lit joe]

My wife and I were Driving in the U.P it was around 10:45 we came into a small town. What to my surprise A & W root beer, of course we had early lunch. That was 1993 wonder if it still there?

[Maof]

[QUOTE=gazhekwe;On 23, up by Alpena somewhere, there was a dinosaur park, with a brontosaurus that you could walk into. There was a doorway in its side.[/QUOTE]

i think it's still there! actually, not sure if it's the same one but i do have pictures with my kids from about 13 years ago.

[old guy]

Nice find Ray.

[gazhekwe]

The brontosaurus IS still there! Dinosaur Gardens in Ossineke:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9235

[Detroitnerd]

Grandpappy Detroitnerd took the Detroitnerd kids up in 1941, before the war. They went back up "home" to Harbor Springs.

Along the way they stopped in mid-Michigan and found the old Detroitnerd mill, which was then just a hummock of earth by the old Shea rail tracks. Grandpappy and the boys used to grease the rails on the incline to see the giant engines suddenly chug their drive wheels, slipping, until the sand came on.

Also, the whole Detroitnerd clan was inducted into the Native tribe by Chief Ettwaghesik, who still lived in a tar paper shack. I have some photos somewhere of Pappy and Auntie and Uncle with the Chief. Grandpappy is wearing a headdress. I am proud of this honor. Very few white folks received it then, and probably none did until the 1930s. But Grandpappy and the natives always got along because they were serious ball players and loved sport.

[Maof]

The brontosaurus IS still there! Dinosaur Gardens in Ossineke:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9235

hahaha, that's it gaz! i have pictures with the native people and the "walk-in" dinosaur