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Michigan History Magazine

Published since 1917, Michigan History is about-and a part of-Michigan's fascinating past. To learn more about the Society, visit www.hsmichigan.org.
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Michigan History magazine was first published in 1917 as a journal and evolved into its current magazine format in 1978. The publication is part of the non-profit Historical Society of Michigan, the state's oldest cultural organization. Is there a story that you would like to see published in Michigan History? Send your idea to [email protected]. All subscription inquiries can be directed to [email protected].

11/08/2024

Any Chips out in the audience? This issue of Michigan History’s “Then and Now” section explores the history of Central Michigan University’s oldest building—Grawn Hall.

Grawn Hall was designed by Ernest W. Arnold of Battle Creek, Michigan, and was dedicated on July 8, 1915, as the Science and Agriculture Building. In 1940, it was renamed in honor of Charles T. Grawn, who was appointed by the Michigan Board of Education as university principal in 1900 and became the first university president in 1908. Grawn served as president until his resignation in 1918. Over the years, the building has welcomed three renovations and has narrowly escaped destruction by fire twice. Many of the original departments housed within Grawn Hall moved to the newly constructed Brooks Hall in 1964—leaving Grawn to serve as a general classroom building before undergoing its first remodel. Grawn Hall underwent a second renovation in 1988—totaling $2.1 million. The newly remodeled building housed the Robert M. Perry School of Banking, Office and Management Information Systems; the Materials Resource Center; and a student computer lab. Today, Grawn Hall boasts a beautiful atrium—a 2017 renovation—in addition to collaborative workspaces to help ensure the success of the university’s young business professionals.

Interested in more historical “Then and Now”s? Check out https://hsmichigan.org/join/household-memberships to learn about the benefits of becoming a member!

11/06/2024

When Gerald R. Ford was inaugurated on August 9, 1974, he already had a national reputation for demonstrating unwavering honesty and integrity. President Ford was the first—and so far, the only—President to come from Michigan, and his legacy is a point of pride for many Michiganders. But did you know that President Ford was not actually born here in Michigan, and was also not, technically, a Ford?

The article “Family Foundations: The Parents of President Ford” in this issue of Michigan History magazine dives into the origins of the man who would become the 38th president of the United States. Gerald R. Ford Jr. was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska to Dorothy Ayer Gardner and Leslie King in 1913. King’s abuse of Gardner started almost immediately after they were married, which led Gardner to gather up her son and leave in the middle of the night, escaping to Chicago. She settled with her family in Grand Rapids, where she met Gerald Rudolff Ford and married him in 1917. Ford Sr. had only an 8th grade education and left school early to work in the trades, but was regarded as hard-working, upstanding, and honest by the community, the church, and the various societies he was a part of. Everyone started calling little Leslie Jerry or Junior, but it wasn’t until after college that he legally changed his name. Of his adoptive father, President Ford wrote “He was the father I grew up to believe was my father, the father I loved and learned from and respected. He was my dad.”

To read the full story, grab your copy of Michigan History magazine at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

11/04/2024

Is Fred Bear one of your idols? He holds a special place in many Michigan hunters’ hearts for being arguably one of the best bow hunters of all time. If that sounds like you, you can now pay your respects to the legendary archer in Grayling!

More than 3,500 people attended the unveiling of a seven-foot bronze statue honoring Fred Bear on September 7, 2024, in Grayling, Michigan. Bear was an innovator and promoter of bow hunting, founding Bear Archery in Grayling. He produced films on bow hunting and held many patents related to archery. The event included guest speakers, historical displays, food trucks, and a performance by musician Ted Nugent. In July 2022, the Grayling City Council gave permission to Fred Bear Day, Inc. to erect the statue in Grayling City Park along the shore of the Au Sable River. Ben Watts, the statue’s artist, also created a statue of Bear for the Archery Hall of Fame and Museum in Springfield, Missouri.

To keep up with more Michigan News, get your copy of Michigan History magazine at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween, Michiganders, from all of us at HSM! Let’s talk haunted houses—here are some of the best haunted houses/Halloween attractions in Michigan!

• The Decaying Swamp in Wolverine
• Warehouse of Screams in Cadillac
• Manistee’s Ghost Ship in Manistee
• The Edson Incident in Bay City
• Past Tense After Dark in Lapeer
• Abandoned Acres Farm in Spara
• Azra Chamber of Horrors Haunted House in Madison Heights
• Niles Scream Park in Niles

Did your favorite not make the list? Feel free to plug them in the comments!
If you need help looking for Halloween attractions by city or county, check out this guide at https://www.michiganhauntedhouses.com/local-attractions/

There’s nothing spookier than missing out on Michigan history! Become a member of the Historical Society of Michigan and gain access to our lectures, publications, and more. Sign up today at https://www.hsmichigan.org/join/household-memberships.

10/29/2024

Oh DEER—it’s time for a new issue of Michigan History magazine! Check out this issue’s cover story about how the filming of the holiday movie Prancer in Three Oaks brought some real-world holiday cheer to a small Michigan community. Is “Prancer” in your rotation of must-watch Christmas movies?

In this issue, join us as we learn about what made Three Oaks the perfect place to film this enchanting story and explore other fascinating topics, including a celebration of the long and illustrious career of Mackinac Island’s most famous gentleman golfer, the story of how Pinconning became the cheese capital of Michigan, and a history of the Detroit Light Guard—Detroit’s original “Tigers.” And don’t forget to take a look at our list of winners for the 2024 State History Awards!

Read all of these compelling articles and more when you order your copy of the November/December Michigan History magazine at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/25/2024

Can you identify these four Michigan ghost towns and the communities in which they are located? Leave your guesses in the comments below! Answers will be revealed in the comments as well.

Check out Michigan History magazine for more Michigan-related quizzes at https://www.hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/23/2024

Settled in 1668, Sault Ste. Marie is Michigan’s oldest city—and is among the oldest cities in North America. Have you ever had the opportunity to explore its local history?

The Chippewa County Historical Society (CCHS) History Center is located in an 1889 building that originally housed the Sault Ste. Marie News, owned by Chase S. Osborn, the only elected Michigan governor from the Upper Peninsula. Within the museum, a detailed O-gauge model train layout represents Chippewa County’s past and helps illustrate its logging and mining industries. Other exhibits include an American café, a Native American history collection, and changing displays that cover the area’s economic, social, and cultural history. CCHS promotes the local history of the county and the city of Sault Ste. Marie. The city’s location along the shores of the St. Marys River has provided the community with a rich and varied story dating back to the 1600s.

All issues of Michigan History magazine highlight two history hot spots in the Great Lakes State. Don’t miss out on more historic locations when you subscribe today at https://www.hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history.

10/21/2024

Any Civil War history buffs out there? Recent archaeological scans and historic maps have revealed the location of six barracks at Camp Ward, a training site for African-American soldiers from Michigan and Canada who made up the 102nd United States Colored Troops.

The scans of the ground around Campau Park on Detroit’s east side were completed by researchers from the Michigan Underground Railroad Exploratory Collective, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and the University of Michigan’s Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. African Americans were not permitted to fight as soldiers in the Civil War until the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Nearly 1,400 men from Michigan and Canada joined the 102nd, many of them freedom seekers who had journeyed to the area along the Underground Railroad. The small team working on the project hopes to complete more scans in the future, which may lead to an excavation of the site. The barrack structures—which were made of wood—may be gone due to decomposition, but the hope is that other artifacts remain that can deepen the understanding of the impact of African-American soldiers during the Civil War.

Want to keep up with more Michigan historical news? Read more in Michigan History magazine at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/17/2024

We wanted to take a moment to highlight one of three Good Reads featured in the September/October 2024 issue of Michigan History magazine. Check out “Michigan’s Venice: The Transformation of the St. Clair Maritime Landscape, 1640-2000” by Daniel F Harrison:

For more than two centuries, the Ken-O-Sha watershed declined in water quality and safety; it may have been doomed if not for the intervention of the Plaster Creek Stewards in the greater Grand Rapids, Michigan, area. The Plaster Creek Stewards— founded by scholars, ecologists, and authors Gail Gunst Heffner and David P. Warners—utilized “reconciliation ecology.” The strategy draws from aspects of multiple disciplines, including history. By examining ecological and human history, Heffner and Warners harness the past to create long-term solutions for the health of Ken-O-Sha and the communities who live along its waters.

Did you know Michigan History magazine can be accessed online if you are a member? Learn more at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/15/2024

The Bath School Disaster in Bath Township, Michigan, remains the deadliest act of school violence in United States history, yet most Americans have never heard of this tragedy—or of its perpetrator, Andrew Kehoe. The massacre, while remembered by Bath residents, is largely overlooked by modern American mass media. In our September/October issue, we remember the tragedy in “Heroism and Horror: Press Coverage of the Bath School Disaster.”

On the morning of May 18, 1927, hundreds of pounds of dynamite hidden in Bath Consolidated School exploded, tragically killing 38 children and six adults, and injuring 58 others. This type of violence had never occurred before in American history, and both the national and local media were quick to cover the devastating story. In the week following the massacre, there were 174 articles published locally in the area surrounding Bath, as opposed to just 19 articles in national newspapers. The local papers focused heavily on the heroism of the town—the five construction companies who called men off jobs and sent them to the school to assist in the rescue, the electric companies who provided additional lighting in preparation for nightfall, and the women of Bath who prepared coffee and sandwiches for hundreds of working men sorting through the rubble. However, two days after the bombing, Charles Lindbergh embarked on his famous solo flight from New York to Paris, becoming an instant celebrity and causing the national newspapers to pivot from stories of tragedy and death to tales of ingenuity and technological innovation. These alternating and conflicting national headlines over the next several days led to a lack of national media coverage on the Bath School Disaster, allowing it to fall into obscurity in American memory, though the Bath and Greater Lansing communities will never forget.

To read more about the media portrayal of this tragic chapter of Michigan history, check out the September/October issue of Michigan History magazine at https://www.hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/11/2024

The log cabin—an iconic symbol of frontier America—has historically been intended for temporary use. A family would build a log cabin quickly, simply, and cheaply to provide a roof over their heads while clearing land to farm. Once a larger and more stylish home was built, many log cabins were razed or left to decay. But that was not the case with Bell House, an 1888 log cabin in Sheridan Township that is designated as a Michigan Heritage Home.

The Bell House in Clare County was built by Thomas and Margaret Bell. Thomas was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1845 and married Margaret Wallace in 1867. In 1883, they immigrated to Michigan, where they managed a large farm near Saginaw until 1887, when they bought land in Sheridan Township. The Bells regarded the log cabin as a permanent dwelling and lived there for decades, rather than upgrading to a new home. The Bell House went through a succession of owners in the twentieth century. Robert and Marci Herrick bought it in around 1985 and embarked on an extensive restoration project that included demolishing a lean-to addition, jacking up the cabin, and rebuilding the foundation. Today, Robert Knapp owns the historic cabin.

Do you live in a historic home? Our Michigan Heritage Home program recognizes houses that were built at least 100 years ago and are in substantially original condition. To see if your home qualifies and to learn more about this program, please visit https://www.hsmichigan.org/awards/michigan-heritage-home.

10/09/2024

Do you have ancestors that trained at Fort Custer during its many decades of operation? Established to provide troops for an American victory in World War I and greatly expanded during World War II, Fort Custer also trained thousands of soldiers for the Korean War and served as an air defense base during the Cold War.

Originally named Camp Custer, the military facility was named after General George Custer, the prominent 19th century army officer who spent much of his life in Monroe, Michigan. After the U.S. entered the Great War in 1917, the camp became one of 16 military districts built to support the war effort, and more than 90,000 soldiers trained there. In 1940, the camp was renamed Fort Custer and was modernized and expanded by the military. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Fort Custer became the reception center for Lower Peninsula inductees, with an estimated 30,000 service members beginning their military career on base. One of the fort’s best-known units was the 5th Infantry Division, which fought on the beaches of Normandy and at the Battle of the Bulge. As the Allies neared victory, Fort Custer became a labor camp for 5,000 German prisoners of war (POWs), some of whom are shown in the photo below. The U.S. utilized this opportunity to educate the POWs about American democratic ideals, which proved largely effective as a “rehabilitation” effort—surveys found that many German POWs became anti-Nazi and pro-democracy during their imprisonment.

Love Michigan military history? Learn more about Fort Custer in the current issue of Michigan History magazine, available at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/07/2024

Any Grand Traverse Area genealogy enthusiasts or history buffs out there? If that’s you, be sure to check out one—or more!—of the Traverse Area District Libraries local history collections.

The Traverse Area District Library (TADL) believes in being a working part of the community. The main branch of TADL—located in Traverse City—is the home of the area’s historical archives. As the largest collection of published and unpublished works concerning the Grand Traverse Region, the archives date back to the Traverse City Old Settler’s Association, a social club organized in the 1920s. That group eventually became the Grand Traverse Historical Society (GTHS). TADL is a network of six community libraries including the Main Library, East Bay Branch Library, Kingsley Branch Library, Fife Lake Public Library, Interlochen Public Library, and Peninsula Community Library. The historical archives can also be accessed digitally.
All issues of Michigan History magazine highlight two history hot spots in the Great Lakes State. Check it out at at https://www.hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/03/2024

Henry Ford is known as a pioneer of industrialism, whose resume includes conceptualizing the assembly line, promoting the Five-Dollar Workday, and, most notably, developing and engineering the newly invented automobile. But many do not know he possessed a deep interest in electricity as well.

As an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company, Ford worked in direct current (DC) electricity, which was favorited by his long-time friend and mentor, Thomas Edison. However, a new form of electricity—alternating currency (AC)—was invented by German-born genius Charles Proteus Steinmetz. AC current’s power had an advantage over DC for industrialists—it could be transmitted over long-distance power lines and was not dependent on localized power plants with short ranges like its DC predecessor. With power pioneer Edison in one camp and AC adapters in the other, the “power wars” between the two electricity types erupted in 1888, with competing plants on both sides operating until the long-range advantage of AC power beat out the “old guard” of DC pioneers. In a move that will not surprise Michigan historians, Henry Ford stayed stubbornly with Edison’s DC power even beyond the industry-wide adaptation to AC. His private residence remained on DC power until his death in 1947.

Read all about it! Explore the full article and learn more in Michigan History magazine at https://hsmichigan.org/read/michigan-history

10/01/2024

Have you heard of Shipwreck Coast, Lake Superior’s treacherous 80-mile stretch of shoreline between Munising and Whitefish Point? According to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, at least 200 of the more than 350 shipwrecks discovered in Lake Superior lie along this perilous coast—including the 1891 wreck of the Atlanta, which wasn’t discovered until 2021.

The Atlanta was a 172-foot barge tasked with carrying 1,350 tons of coal to Ashland, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1891. The schooner was in tow of the Wilhelm—a steamer—when both vessels were caught in a violent northwest gale. The towline snapped, leaving the sail-less Atlanta at the mercy of the churning Lake Superior. The crew took to a lifeboat and watched the Atlanta crash beneath the waves just ten minutes later while attempting to row 20 miles to shore. Within site of the Crisp Point Life-Saving Station, the lifeboat capsized twice, leaving all but two survivors—both sailors from Saginaw—beneath the icy waves. The wreck was not discovered until 130 years later, when the Great Lakes Shipwrecks Historical Society located it about 35 miles off Deer Park, Michigan, at a depth of 650 feet. The frigid Lake Superior waters have preserved the wreck astonishingly well—the ship’s ornate name board can still be read, as seen below.

Love reading about shipwrecks? Check out Michigan History magazine for more shipwreck content at https://hsmichigan.org/join/subscribe-michigan-history

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Michigan History Magazine

Published since 1917, Michigan History is about—and a part of—Michigan's fascinating past. Every issue tells the exciting stories of all of Michigan’s peoples and their impact on their communities, nation and world. The magazine covers a variety of history topics ranging from military history to historical Native American recipes and everything in between. It is published by the Historical Society of Michigan.

The Historical Society of Michigan, the state’s oldest cultural organization, helps to connect Michigan’s past to students, educators, historical organizations, and the public through education programs, conferences, publications, awards, workshops, referral services, networking opportunities, and support for local history organizations. It is a 501(c) nonprofit.

To learn more about Michigan History or the Historical Society of Michigan, visit www.hsmichigan.org.