The Blue Lady – The Ghost of Canton, Michigan’s Denton Road Bridge

In the spirit of Halloween, I offer up the generations-old legend of The Blue Lady – the Ghost of Canton, Michigan’s Denton Road Bridge. Enjoy and Happy Halloween! For as long as anyone can remember, residents of Canton, Michigan and neighboring communities have grown up with the story of the historical, wooden one-lane bridge over
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Cherry Hill House – Focal Point of Canton, Michigan

Throughout most of its history, Canton Township, Michigan was primarily forests and farm land. The area’s earliest European settlers established two small crossroads villages in the township: Sheldon Corners and Cherry Hill. Cherry Hill, settled in 1825, was originally known as Ridge because it developed at a curve in a ridge that was once the
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Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald

Today is the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior (November 10, 1975), a tragic event that will forever be etched in Michigan’s memory. Four decades after its demise, the Edmund Fitzgerald continues to capture our imaginations and evoke such intense emotion that even seemingly the most typical family
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Michigan’s Ghost Towns – Kensington Village

Did you know that beneath the bucolic waters of Kent Lake in the Kensington Metropark once existed a town bristling with life, death, and scandal? This is the story of the Village of Kensington, Michigan. We begin in 1825, when great numbers of easterners, mostly from New York, began migrating to the Great Lakes region
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Grand River Plank Road Stagecoach Toll House – Hickville Hotel in New Hudson (Lyon Township), Michigan

Here are some photos from my rural exploration today in Lyon Township, Michigan. This is all that remains of the 1840s-era Hickville Hotel and Toll House, located at 53517 Grand River Avenue, New Hudson, on the southwest corner of Grand River and Haas Road. This building is one of the last-standing original stagecoach stops on
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Old Glory Returns to Detroit’s Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Building

Tomorrow, for the first time in over 50 years, Old Glory returns to Detroit’s Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Building. On Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 1:30 p.m., a special ceremony will take place as the United States Flag is once again raised over the GAR Building at 1942 Grand River Avenue. An exciting
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150 Years Ago Today, the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Marched Out of Detroit and Into History

150 years ago today, my Great Great Grandfather Abner Delos Austin, as a newly-enlisted 16-year-old private in the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, marched out of Detroit and into history. At 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 29, 1862, to the cheers of thousands of onlookers, he and his regiment marched out of Camp Barns (located at
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Ladies’ Protestant Orphan Asylum / Children’s Home of Detroit (1836 – 2007)

The oldest benevolent society in Detroit, the Ladies’ Protestant Orphan Association, has its origins in 1818, when a number of women from prominent Detroit families met at the home of Mrs. Benjamin Larned and organized the Ladies Society of the City of Detroit. Its purposes were charitable, with particular emphasis upon the needs and care
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Detroit’s Newly Purchased Grand Army of the Republic Hall – GAR Building to Be Renovated

One of Detroit’s most notable Civil War landmarks, the historic Grand Army of the Republic Hall at Cass and Grand River, is soon to receive a new lease on life thanks to a plan from a Detroit media firm. It took nearly six years, but downtown Detroit’s castle-like building originally used by Union Civil War
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Coming to PBS in November: “The Michigan Experience: The American Civil War Years”

Coming to your local PBS station this month is “The Michigan Experience: The American Civil War Years”, a Michigan-based production from Executive Producers Rodney W. Brown, Leon Collins, and Donna Ullrich and iMichigan Productions (iMp) in East Lansing. As the descendant of two Michigan Civil War soldiers, I am thrilled that this statewide broadcast will
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