Looking Back at Clare County, MI

Through the pages of old newspapers It’s amazing the interesting things one can run across in old newspapers.  For example, I was conducting some research into Windover Lake in Clare County, Michigan and found two articles in the The Clare Sentinel looking at the county’s history during the logging era (1870-1880).  One entitled “Story of Pioneer Days” had […]

A Lake Dock that Rises into the Sky

The Lake Coal Dock as seen from the west. A paved biking, walking and snowmobile trail is adjacent. Inside the trees to the left is the building and storage pit. The biggest dock in the small resort town of Lake doesn’t extend into the water, but reaches into the sky. This dock is also made […]

Blowing Stuff Up in Clare County

The following article appeared on Page one of the Dec. 4, 1925 issue of The Clare Sentinel .   Apparently, farmers back then could be trusted with dynamite.  However, as the note at the end of the article reveals, there was a dark side and some people used it for the wrong reasons, even back then. DO […]

Railroad History in Harrison, Michigan

This is a revised version of an article that appears in Harrison’s 125th Anniversary History booklet written and edited by Angela Kellogg to celebrate the mid-Michigan city’s quasquicentennial that was celebrated in August 2016.  Copies are available for $10 from the Harrison District Library.  In 1879, The Pere Marquette Railway pushed its tracks through to Harrison from Clare. […]

Henry Ford In Harrison, Michigan

(Above) Ford tractors undergoing testing in Harrison, MI Industrialist Henry Ford was a lousy tipper, at least when he got his shoes shined in Harrison. And at least according to historian and author T.M. Sellers, who wrote the book on John “Spikehorn” Meyers and penned a number of articles on Clare County’s history. Sellers said […]

The Great Flu Pandemic in a Small Michigan County

James Garrity was a Clare County farm boy, the only boy in a family of four sisters.  He was 19 years old when he convinced his mother, over the objections of his father, to join the Navy.  James  wanted to join his cousin, Arthur Looker, a Gladwin county resident, who had just joined the Navy.  […]

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book

Gangsters Up North

A review of Robert Knapp’s latest book on Michigan history I want to know more about Joe Barnes. Was this resident of Clare County that author Robert Knapp talks about in his new book Gangsters Up North, Mobsters, Mafia and Racketeers in Michigan’s Vacationlands REALLY Al Capone’s chauffeur as he sometimes claimed to be? And did Barnes […]

Clare County Murders 1871-2020

A review of a book by Jon H. Ringelberg Thou shalt not kill: Exodus 20:13 It’s one of the 10 Commandments and even people who don’t read the Bible know of that one. Sadly, it’s also a commandment that has been broken since the dawn of time (like so many other commandments). A new book […]

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