Tales of Michigan II


Book Description

As with the previous volume of this series, Tales of Michigan II is a collection of fifteen stories from across the “Great Lakes State.” Chosen to give the reader an insight into Michigan’s rich and varied historical heritage, each of these tales relates a different aspect of the state’s past. Among others, stories in this book include: Ø A misunderstanding between a bridge tender and a lake freighter captain that resulted in a collision that severed the only land link between the upper portion of the Keweenaw Peninsula and the rest of the state. Ø A mistake made by the overworked operator of an interurban railway car that led to a fatal collision near Monroe. Ø The pioneering effort by Captain Curtis Boughton to open the hungry markets of Chicago to western Michigan fruit farmers. Ø The days when dog sled teams provided many remote communities located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with their only connection to the outside world during the long winter months. Ø The devastation left behind by a fire that erupted in downtown Alpena during the summer of 1872. Ø The tragic Easter Sunday crash of an airliner that investigators initially blamed on its crew until new information came to light nearly seven years later. Ø The tale of a gasoline tanker stranded in Lake Michigan that prompted a series of dangerous salvage efforts to remove its valuable cargo. Ø An international railway tunnel constructed below one the busiest waterways in the world.




Tales from Michigan Stadium


Book Description

Here's a book that takes readers behind the scenes for some of the greatest moments in University of Michigan football history. From "Kip" Taylor, who scored the first touchdown at Michigan Stadium in the late 1920s, to Lloyd Carr, the Wolverines? current head coach, Michigan fans will be offered details of the stories they've heard about for years...and some that they have never heard. Players who knew Yost, Oosterbaan, Crisler, Elliott, and Schembechler tell their stories in Tales from Michigan Stadium about practice, famous plays, and games from one of the most tradition-rich football programs in collegiate history.




Detroit Tales


Book Description

The stories in Detroit Tales are tales about urban, working- class America. People struggle both to remain in the city and to escape the city. The three central motifs of this collection are the city, the workplace, and the automobile. If these stories have one unifying theme, it is that escape is not the answer. When the pulls of friendship and love and personal responsibility draw us back to our ordinary homes and our ordinary jobs, we must trust those pulls, and we must lead those lives with as much dignity as we can muster.




Tales of Michigan


Book Description

Chosen to give the reader an insight into Michigan’s rich and varied historical heritage, each of these tales relates a different aspect of the state’s past. Among others, stories in this book include: The life of George N. Smith, a pioneering missionary, who, along with his family, endured years of hardship living with the Native Americans. A man with a common name, but an uncommon life. The story of Detroit’s once proud status as “Stove Capital of the World.” The fiery head-on collision of two passenger trains at Battle Creek caused when one of the crews ignored their instructions. The tale of William Bryce, a Union soldier that returned home following the Civil War only to succumb to injuries resulting from his experiences as a prisoner of the Confederacy. The struggle to build a bridge across the Straits of Mackinac that lasted nearly seventy-five years before the Mackinac Bridge was finally completed. A freighter’s crew that entered into a life-and-death struggle with the Storm of 1913, the most destructive storm to strike the Great Lakes in modern history.




Michigan Legends


Book Description

A collection of stories drawn from Michigan’s rich folk heritage




Spooky Michigan


Book Description

Pull up a chair or gather round the campfire and get ready for twenty-five creepy tales of ghostly hauntings, eerie happenings, and other strange occurrences in Michigan. Set in Michigan’s historic towns and sparsely populated backwoods, the stories in this entertaining and compelling collection will have you looking over your shoulder again and again. Michigan folklore is kept alive in these expert retellings by master storyteller S. E. Schlosser, and in artist Paul Hoffman’s evocative illustrations. You’ll hear otherworldly voices and things that go bump in the night, and feel an icy wind on the back of your neck on a warm summer evening. Whether read around the campfire on a dark and stormy night or from the backseat of the family van on the way to grandma’s, this is a collection to treasure.




Tales of Times Now Past


Book Description




Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula


Book Description

Little known tales and lore from Michigan's Upper Peninsula uncover mysteries, curses, and strange beasts in this collection of offbeat and fascinating stories. That's the best I've ever seen you look," the barber said to the corpse. What kind of filthy decedent could inspire such derision? Learn the answer and read myriad other little-known tales from Michigan's northernmost region in Forgotten Tales of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Find out what happened after an aggrieved husband aimed a gun at his wife's lover and then asked the crowd, "Shall I shoot him?" Meet the sleeping man who rode the rails without a train. Discover the truth behind the rumors that one mining town was cursed with the ten plagues of Egypt, and learn why hugs terrified an entire city. And what were those hairy, bipedal beasts haunting the woods? Join Yooper Lisa A. Shiel as she brings to the fore these wonderfully offbeat and all-but-forgotten tales from the UP's history.




Under Michigan


Book Description

An exciting trip below the surface of Michigan's rocks and fossils. Most people recognize Michigan by its mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula and the Great Lakes embracing the state. Underneath the earth's surface, however, is equally distinctive evidence of an exciting history. Michigan rests on sedimentary rocks that reach down into the earth's crust more than fourteen thousand feet--a depth three-and-a-half times deeper than the Grand Canyon. Within these layers of rock rest all sorts of ancient fossils and minerals that date back to the eras when tropical seas spread across Michigan and hot volcanoes flung molten rock into its skies--long before mile-thick glaciers bulldozed over Michigan and plowed through ancient river valleys to form the Great Lakes. Under Michigan is the first book for young readers about the geologic history of the state and the structure scientists call the Michigan Basin. A fun and educational journey, Under Michigan explores Earth's geological past, taking readers far below the familiar sights of Michigan and nearby places to explain the creation of minerals and fossils and show where they can be found in the varying layers of rock. Readers will learn about the hard rock formations surrounding Michigan and also discover the tall mountain ridges hidden at the bottom of the Great Lakes. With beautiful illustrations by author Charles Ferguson Barker, a glossary of scientific terms, and charming page to keep field notes, Under Michigan is a wonderful resource for young explorers to use at home, in school, or on a trip across Michigan.




The Michigan Murders


Book Description

Edgar Award Finalist: The true story of a serial killer who terrorized a midwestern town in the era of free love—by the coauthor of The French Connection. In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, nineteen-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body—stabbed over thirty times and missing both feet and a forearm—was discovered, partially buried, on an abandoned farm. A year later, the body of twenty-year-old Joan Schell was found, similarly violated. Southeastern Michigan was terrorized by something it had never experienced before: a serial killer. Over the next two years, five more bodies were uncovered around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. All the victims were tortured and mutilated. All were female students. After multiple failed investigations, a chance sighting finally led to a suspect. On the surface, John Norman Collins was an all-American boy—a fraternity member studying elementary education at Eastern Michigan University. But Collins wasn’t all that he seemed. His female friends described him as aggressive and short tempered. And in August 1970, Collins, the “Ypsilanti Ripper,” was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. Written by the coauthor of The French Connection, The Michigan Murders delivers a harrowing depiction of the savage murders that tormented a small midwestern town.