BIG Thumb BIG Change

[econ expat]

I have noticed this as long as I can remember. My grandparents had a farm in Avoca. As a kid my dad worked on many farms in the area. When we would visit he would say "Look at that old farm falling into disrepair." Now they just tear down the fences and plant one crop in a hundred acres.

Fortunately, it is too far from any major cities to become subdivisions.
Still some of the most fertile farm land in the country.
Mega farmers seem to have have taken over, planting 100's of acres.

But some small farms survive there- The Amish communities in the Thumb have grown- they're attracted to that good farm ground, and reasonable land prices.

[econ expat]

It's a long drive, but a nice one, and you'll never meet a nicer family than the Ordus's. We have a mutual acquaintance who suggested them to me.
Yes, Almont is 40 Mile and Van Dyke, unofficially. It's about an hour and a half up to Bad Axe, but there's no traffic.

[[And no traffic lights)

I have always heard the same about Ordus Ford.
Hope that the family continues the business.
RIP George Ordus, he passed away last month.

http://huroncountypress.mihomepaper...._19422010.html

[jcole]

I knew that he had passed. I believe the boys are keeping the business going.

[gazhekwe]

I agree the small town dealership is worth traveling to. I used to take my van up to Marlette Chrysler. In addition to the beautiful drive, the same day reasonably price service was a big treat for me.

[schulzte]

As a former resident of the thumb, its pretty cool that Lowell posted some pics of the Owendale-Gagetown-Pigeon area. BTW, that isn't a beet harvester, that is a beet piler to but the harvested beets into pile, but good guess. My Dad worked at one of the sugar factories back in the 70's. Also Eastburn's claim that manure is flowing down a creek into Lake Huron is complete lunacy. That is just silty sediment. Eastburn clearly has no clue about agriculture, just environmentalist talking points. The field tile are buried four feet into the ground, applied manure would never make it that far into the soil profile without the nutrients being used by plants or adsorbed to the heavy clay soil prevalent in the Thumb. Get a clue.

[Eastburn]

How bout when you get a nice nor' Easterner come wintertime??

Dealt with that for the 1st 4 years we lived here. It beat us up. Bought a winter place in Florida. Best of both worlds.

[Eastburn]

As a former resident of the thumb, its pretty cool that Lowell posted some pics of the Owendale-Gagetown-Pigeon area. BTW, that isn't a beet harvester, that is a beet piler to but the harvested beets into pile, but good guess. My Dad worked at one of the sugar factories back in the 70's. Also Eastburn's claim that manure is flowing down a creek into Lake Huron is complete lunacy. That is just silty sediment. Eastburn clearly has no clue about agriculture, just environmentalist talking points. The field tile are buried four feet into the ground, applied manure would never make it that far into the soil profile without the nutrients being used by plants or adsorbed to the heavy clay soil prevalent in the Thumb. Get a clue.

Come to the lake shore some time & take a sniff. Recent DEQ studies have shown that the 2 largest contributors to the shoreline muck are agricultural runoff and failing septic systems.

[Lowell]

Thanks for the correction Schulzte. I have amended my text accordingly. It makes more sense. It was beggaring my imagination as to how that thing could be motored across the fields. Ages ago I worked at a pea vining station in Wisconsin for the Green Giant company. Truckloads of pea vines were delivered to them for threshing. Eventually those stationary contraptions, close to the size of the pilers above, were motorized into huge reapers and vining and threshing all happened in the fields. Hence my mistaken guess.

As for the manure going in the rivers, I seriously doubt that too. However the runoff from chemical fertilizers and insecticides is a problem, for the watershed, the workers who apply them and the people who live nearby.

[Zimm]

As a former resident of the thumb, its pretty cool that Lowell posted some pics of the Owendale-Gagetown-Pigeon area. BTW, that isn't a beet harvester, that is a beet piler to but the harvested beets into pile, but good guess. My Dad worked at one of the sugar factories back in the 70's. Also Eastburn's claim that manure is flowing down a creek into Lake Huron is complete lunacy. That is just silty sediment. Eastburn clearly has no clue about agriculture, just environmentalist talking points. The field tile are buried four feet into the ground, applied manure would never make it that far into the soil profile without the nutrients being used by plants or adsorbed to the heavy clay soil prevalent in the Thumb. Get a clue.

schultze, i'm afraid it is you who is clueless. the beaches between Oak Beach and Sleeper State Park have been ruined for about a decade and a half. beachfront property owners pointed to the farms, and the farmers who run Hume Twp dismissed them. studies by college students traced the problems to animal waste, and the farmers who run things there dismissed them. then the DEQ finally got involved and traced the problem to farm runoff and the farmers still did not acknowledge blame. too late for beachgoers who endured a decade of thick green muck where clear water and sand once were. but the farmers run the politics there and reap the benefits of the massively taxed beach properties, as they always have.

[kathy2trips]

"Michigan, my Michigan..."

[douglasm]

Beautiful pictures and commentary, Lowell. Reminds me of a time when every crossroads seemed to have a general store with a couple of Imperial Gas pumps out front.

It reminded me a lot of drives we take through Eastern Washington, where some of the old wheat towns hold on by their fingernails.....

http://www.harringtonbiz.com/Business-Recruitment.html

and some whose nails broke long ago.

[EMG]

Thanks for the memories of the Thumb. For quite a few years I would celebrate Mother's Day by taking my mom out for a drive on M-25 going all the way around the thumb, and we always made a point of stopping at some of the parks, especially Lighthouse and Jenks. Too bad about those beaches - walking the beach at Jenks and skipping stones was one of our favorite highlights of the trip. We would always culminate the trip with an all you can eat Frankenmuth chicken dinner. I also remember seeing or at least passing by road signs pointing to many of the other towns mentioned in some of the earlier posts.

[DetroitDad]

Sigh, the only thing worse than the state we have left our urban places, is what we have done to the countryside, and the natural lands and forests.

An ecosystem is a system of check and balances that allows the existence of the human habitat [[city, town, farming village). How we ever thought everything was human habitat and nothing must be maintained for the stability of the system, is something a future civilization would probably be very puzzled by.

[professorscott]

In a drive through the Thumb you see many things but not everything. The small towns run the gamut; some have figured out how to do well, while others wither on the vine.

There are still plenty of family farms, but long-standing government policies favor what we might call corporate agriculture. But many, many of our communities [[I'm a thumber) have weekly farmers' markets all summer where we can buy locally-grown produce, and my year's supply of meat comes from the annual St. Clair County 4-H auction, so I know exactly where my pork comes from: what pig, who raised her, and where. There are two active farmers and one retired farmer among the nine people on my Township's planning commission. We have tried, despite Michigan laws, to institute anti-sprawl policies [[with mixed success).

My chickens have the run of the place, and though the coyotes take some of them, the rest of them are giving me pretty-close-to-organic eggs much of the year. [[I can't be truly organic, since my neighbor who raises soy and corn uses pesticides, and I can't help but that some of it blows onto my land.)

Still, I can't help but remember the small business owners in and near Grindstone City a good fifteen years ago, telling me at a barber shop exactly why the area was going to Hell in a handbasket. "Yep," one of the elderly customers said in a weird nothern drawl, "things ain't been the same around here since they built the Wal Mart in Bad Axe."

So our beautiful thumb combines the traditional with the new, and has its ups and downs, its thriving communities and its struggling ones, its good and not-so-good schools. We manage without a four-year college or university anywhere in sight, and the farmers join the environmentalists in our up-and-coming Watershed Management Councils [[your Prof is a founding member of one such) to figure out exactly how to manage all the poop.

So like everywhere else on Earth, it kind of works and it kind of doesn't, and some do well and some do not. But we manage. Come visit! Tell 'em Professor Scott sent ya. Lowell, next time you come up this way, let me know and lunch is on me.

[Wintersmommy]

.

. But many, many of our communities [[I'm a thumber) have weekly farmers' markets all summer where we can buy locally-grown produce,

Still, I can't help but remember the small business owners in and near Grindstone City a good fifteen years ago, telling me at a barber shop exactly why the area was going to Hell in a handbasket. "Yep," one of the elderly customers said in a weird nothern drawl, "things ain't been the same around here since they built the Wal Mart in Bad Axe."
.

I adore the Farmers market in P.A. I am a die hard fan of the Tamales at one of the stands and if I am just going up for the weekend I make sure to drive up friday night to make sure I am in town nice and early so as not to miss out


I have heard several local people express the same thoughts about wally world. Not sure how true it is though as most of the business I remember from my childhood are still around so its not like they put many competitors out of business. Maybe its just that the small town vibe gets lost behind the mega store

[DetroitDad]

In a drive through the Thumb you see many things but not everything. The small towns run the gamut; some have figured out how to do well, while others wither on the vine.

There are still plenty of family farms, but long-standing government policies favor what we might call corporate agriculture. But many, many of our communities [[I'm a thumber) have weekly farmers' markets all summer where we can buy locally-grown produce, and my year's supply of meat comes from the annual St. Clair County 4-H auction, so I know exactly where my pork comes from: what pig, who raised her, and where. There are two active farmers and one retired farmer among the nine people on my Township's planning commission. We have tried, despite Michigan laws, to institute anti-sprawl policies [[with mixed success).

My chickens have the run of the place, and though the coyotes take some of them, the rest of them are giving me pretty-close-to-organic eggs much of the year. [[I can't be truly organic, since my neighbor who raises soy and corn uses pesticides, and I can't help but that some of it blows onto my land.)

Still, I can't help but remember the small business owners in and near Grindstone City a good fifteen years ago, telling me at a barber shop exactly why the area was going to Hell in a handbasket. "Yep," one of the elderly customers said in a weird nothern drawl, "things ain't been the same around here since they built the Wal Mart in Bad Axe."

So our beautiful thumb combines the traditional with the new, and has its ups and downs, its thriving communities and its struggling ones, its good and not-so-good schools. We manage without a four-year college or university anywhere in sight, and the farmers join the environmentalists in our up-and-coming Watershed Management Councils [[your Prof is a founding member of one such) to figure out exactly how to manage all the poop.

So like everywhere else on Earth, it kind of works and it kind of doesn't, and some do well and some do not. But we manage. Come visit! Tell 'em Professor Scott sent ya. Lowell, next time you come up this way, let me know and lunch is on me.

A great perspective Professor. Maybe we just see the grand ruins of the past, both in the real world and in our minds, and imagine a past that was much better than it ever really was.

I guess I really just don't know.

[Lowell]

My mother-in-law has summered in Caseville for a couple of decades so I have found my way there many times over the years. Whenever time permitted, sometimes when it didn't, I deliberately choose to take a different route, to and from, using my Delorme Atlas and now google GPS maps on the iPhone to find backroads and small towns.

I find the flat-as-far-as-you-can-see landscapes hauntingly beautiful. They allow one to see for great distances. The towns are charming for their successes and failures. It is very pleasant for cruising and the eyes can wander as little attention is required. Traffic is rare, the roads straight as arrows, well maintained and often paved. It is like the flat prairies of central Illinois. The scariest thing are the often 10-15 foot deep drainage canals that run beside most roads.

BTW, I was the the farmer's market in Port Austin. It was wonderful and the selections great and varied. Smoked fish, fresh Amish baked goods, local honey and vegetables and more.

The 'Cheeseburger Festival' was at full throttle in Caseville. The last time I was there when it was being held it was in its second year and was a modest gathering of townies, farmers, summer residents and tourists. Oh how that is changed. It now resembles a Fort Lauderdale spring break as throngs of college-agers pack overflowing sidewalks and the beach. Several thousand now visit this Jimmy Buffet-flavored event with entertainment stages and countless events.

[schulzte]

Something to remember, without those big productive farms to the north, large cities like Detroit wouldn't be possible. Commercial farming is what makes big cities possible. If everything were grown organic, half of us would still be farming, most of whom would be poor and unable to pursue other professions. My grandfather who farmed back to the twenties would often say "the good old days weren't so good"

[Mikeg]

Something to remember, without those big productive farms to the north, large cities like Detroit wouldn't be possible. Commercial farming is what makes big cities possible.

From the Detroit Free Press, Tues. Nov. 16, 1869: “Exhilarating - a walk out on the Gratiot road in the morning and meeting a hundred loads of wood and fifty tons of hay coming to market, gives a grand idea of the great city and its powers of consumption.”

[Meddle]

Something to remember, without those big productive farms to the north, large cities like Detroit wouldn't be possible.

Not sure about the time frame, but remember that Detroit and the 'burbs didn't always sprawl so far. There's a big house on Greenfield between Midland and Pilgrim that used to own much of the area as a farm. Most of Farmington and Northville used to be very rural.

[Mikeg]

Not sure about the time frame, but remember that Detroit and the 'burbs didn't always sprawl so far.

Back in 1869, where was all that wood and hay on the "Gratiot road" coming from? Warren Township, Clinton Township, maybe from even as far away as Chesterfield and Lenox Townships, but that would have meant an all-night wagon ride on rutted roads to get to Detroit. You can be sure that similar loads were also coming to market along the Woodward road, the Grand River road and the Michigan road from the outer reaches of Oakland and Wayne Counties.

Who was cutting all that wood and hay?

They were hard-working folks who lived in rural, semi-rural and incorporated areas of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. They lived, farmed and worked outside the Detroit city limits, relying on the "the great city and it's power of consumption" for their financial success and also to purchase the extras for their household that they couldn't grow or make by themselves or locally.

At this time, the Thumb area was the source of millions of board feet of white pine each year. However, the devastating forest fires of Oct. 1871 opened up large areas of land for farming. Over the next ten years, many of the small farmers in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties bought large parcels of land in the Thumb and moved lock, stock and barrel to stake their future in the north. The railroads began hauling their agricultural products to market as the Thumb's lumbering industry collapsed. The Great Thumb Fire of 1881 devastated a million or so acres but forever changed the Thumb into the great agricultural region that remains to this day.

[Novine]

"As for the manure going in the rivers, I seriously doubt that too. However the runoff from chemical fertilizers and insecticides is a problem, for the watershed, the workers who apply them and the people who live nearby."

I can't believe that anyone still believes that CAFOs aren't largely responsible for the massive increases in pollution of Michigan inland rivers and streams, which flow to the Great Lakes. This effect has been well documented on the No CAFOs web site. Why does anyone believe that this is happening in southern Michigan but not the Thumb?

http://nocafos.org/tiledischarges.htm

[terryh]

Did you discover an small wooden schoolhouses? I used to explore them when I lived in Lapeer County, some still had desks and chalkboards intact.....

[Eastburn]

A good way to get a look at life in the thumb in the late 19th century is to check out Huron City, just off M25 between Pt. Austin & Pt. Hope. http://huroncitymuseums.org/ You can tour the buildings by appointment on weekends. The town & its surroundings are still owned by descendants of the founder, Langdon Hubbard. Huron City was the major sawmill and lumber transshipment area in the northern thumb. A 1/2 mile long pier ran out into Lake Huron from there. Michigan's Poet Laureate, Edgar A. Guest, spent a great deal of time in Huron City.

[reddog289]

Good thread Lowell, You gave me some vacation ideas.