Jerome Pohlen - Oddball Michigan: A Guide to 450 Really Strange Places

2014 by Jerome Pohlen

All rights reserved

First Edition

Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61374-893-0

The author has made every effort to secure permissions for all the material in this book. If any acknowledgment has inadvertently been omitted, please contact the author.

Cover and interior design: Jonathan Hahn

Map design: Chris Erichsen

Cover photograph: Courtesy Tom Lakenen, Lakenenland

All photographs courtesy of Jerome Pohlen unless otherwise noted.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pohlen, Jerome.

Oddball Michigan : a guide to 450 really strange places / Jerome Pohlen.

pages cm. (Oddball series)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-61374-893-0 (pbk.)

1. MichiganGuidebooks. 2. Curiosities and wondersMichiganGuidebooks. 3. MichiganHistory, LocalMiscellanea. I. Title.

F564.3.P65 2014

977.4dc23

2013043882

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

FOR
MARY ANN,
MIKE, AND COLE

CITY INDEX

SITE INDEX

Si quaeris peninsulam mirum, circumspice.

If you seek a strange peninsula, look about you.

M ICHIGANS UNOFFICIAL MOTTO

M ichigans destiny as a weird state was probably determined by none other than Thomas Jefferson while coming up with ways to divide and name the Northwest Territory. For the southern half of the lower peninsula he chose Metropotamia, and for the northern half, Chersonesus; the Upper Peninsula would be called Sylvania. And though mapmakers eventually settled instead on Michigan, derived from the Chippewa word majigan, meaning large clearing, or perhaps misshikama, Ojibwe for big lake, the die was set. Michigan would be unique. Michigan would be different. Michigan would be odd.

How odd? Where else in the United States will you find museums dedicated to pipes, agates, pop bottles, nun dolls, celery, the US Postal Service, and the ice-harvesting industry? Monuments to fluoridation, snurfing, the designer of the Jefferson nickel, and the once-famous Mr. Chicken? Or festivals honoring tulips, Christmas pickles, blueberries, and a 38-acre fungus? Michigan! And where will you find the Worlds Largest Cherry Pie Tin? A doughnut shop owned by the towns police department? A restaurant known far and wide for its delicious, tender gizzards? Michigan, Michigan, Michigan, home to not one but two different three-landing bridges or as they call them, tridges.

The Great Lakes State has also been the location of strange historical events that youre probably already familiar with, but never knew happened here. Its where Harry Houdini perished on Halloween and the Flying Wallendas became the Falling Wallendas. Its where ice skater Nancy Kerrigan got whacked and Jimmy Hoffa got really whacked. Its where James Jesse Strang crowned himself king in 1850, where Paul Bunyan was born in 1906, and where Elvis was spotted a decade after his death. Four times.

Dont get me wrong, theres plenty to see in the state that isnt weird, hilarious, or borderline disturbing. Every time I see one of those Pure Michigan commercials I want to relax on a dune and watch the sun set over Lake Michigan. But I inevitably end up distracted by the big lugnut atop a Lansing smokestack, the Lunkquarium in Edwardsburg, and the Man-Eating Clam in Cheboygan. Because lets face it, you can see a sunset from your backyard, but if you want to see Thomas Edisons last breath, you have to come to Michigan.

While Ive tried to give clear directions from major streets and landmarks, you could still make a wrong turn, particularly with those damn Michigan lefts. Dont panic. Remember these Oddball travel tips:

1. Stop and ask! For a lot of communities, their Oddball attraction might be their only claim to fame. Locals are often thrilled that youd drive out of your way to marvel at their underappreciated shrine. But be careful who you ask; old cranks at the town caf are good for information, but teenage clerks at the Gas N Go are not.
2. Call ahead. Few Oddball sites keep regular hours, but most will gladly wait around if they know youre coming. Michigan is a seasonal travel state, especially in the Upper Peninsula (UP), and sites can be closed for the winter at a moments notice. And in the UP, September can be winter. Always call ahead.
3. Dont give up. Think of the person whos sitting in a tiny museum dedicated to an obscure topic, and know that theyre waiting just for you. (Actually, theyre waiting for anyone so youll do.)
4. Dont trespass! Dont become a Terrible Tourist. Just because somebody built a sculpture garden in their front yard doesnt mean theyre looking for chatty visitors.

Do you have an Oddball site of your own? Have I missed anything? Do you know of an Oddball site that should be included in an updated version? Please write and let me know: Chicago Review Press, 814 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610.

S omething happens when you drive north across the Mackinac Bridge into Michigans Upper Peninsula, or UP as its referred to in shorthand. The trees get a little denser, the service gets a little slower, and the backwoods drawls get a little thicker. Its almost as if youve entered a different state, and certainly a different state of mind.

In fact, the UP might never have been a part of Michigan. Back when Michigan was a territory hoping to become the nations newest state, there was a border dispute over the so-called Toledo Strip; two early maps drew the southern boundary at different parallels. (Ohio had the better argumentit had been a US state with an established border since 1803.) Between 1835 and 1837, both Ohio and Michigan sent militias to the area to assert their claims. The Toledo Gazette sniffed that the Michigan militia was composed of the lowest and most miserable dregs of the community low drunken frequenters of grog shops, who had been hired at a dollar a day, and events bore that out. The so-called Toledo War turned into a series of shoving matches and liquor-fueled brawls, but nobody was ever killed defending Toledo. Which seems right.

Finally, President Andrew Jackson brokered a deal. In exchange for ceding its claims to the Toledo Strip, Michigan was given statehood and three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula, which was then part of the Wisconsin Territory. On January 26, 1837, Michigan became the 26th state in the union.

But not everyone was, or is, happy about the deal. In 1978 a bill was introduced to the Michigan state legislature by Rep. Dominic Jacobetti making the Upper Peninsula its own state: Superior. Perhaps because of concern that Toledo might be forced back upon Michiganders, the bill failed.

Bessemer

Big Skier and Bigger Hill

Its hard to miss the large fiberglass skier in a very unstylish red coat, tan ski pants, and Roy Orbison sunglasses that marks the turnoff to Big Powderhorn Mountain northwest of Bessemer. His skis are barely as long as the bunny hill he stands oncant somebody find him a more size-appropriate slope?

As a matter of fact, there is one, just up the road from Big Powderhorn Mountain. At 170 meters tallthats 50 meters