Fire raged through the historic Michillinda Lodge on Lake Michigan in Fruitland Township early Sunday, December 2, 2012, leaving behind nothing but smoldering ruins.
Nearly every fire department in Muskegon County sent tanker trucks to provide water to battle the blaze in the four-story building at 5207 Scenic.
The Lodge dates back to 1904, but some argue the history of Michillinda Lodge stretches back to 1894 when the Rev. Theo Willson took three members of his congregation from Moline, Ill., on a walk south of Sylvan Beach, where they had been staying. Sylvan Beach began as a cottage community in 1883.
Since the fire, Michillinda Lodge consists of nine buildings offering 26 guest units in total. The resort positions itself as both family-oriented and historic in nature, and it includes numerous on-site amenities, ranging from an outdoor swimming pool and a miniature golf course to a campfire and a 400-foot (120 m) private beach on Lake Michigan. Additionally, Michillinda Lodge accommodates weddings and receptions, as well as reunions and other gatherings. Before the restaurant in the main lodge was destroyed in the fire, it provided dining for both resort guests and the general public.
For more history about the Michillinda Beach Resort, see Dave Alexander, “Michillinda Lodge traces its history back to between Muskegon County’s lumber and industrial eras“, MLive, December 3, 2012.
I was humbled this week to host a ceremony honoring Congressional Gold Medal recipient Dick Thelen, a survivor of the USS Indianapolis disaster.
The story of the USS Indianapolis is a distinctively tragic one. On July 30, 1945, a Japanese submarine torpedo struck the USS Indianapolis, sinking it within 12 minutes. Of the 1,195 sailors that served on the ship, 900 initially survived its sinking. Mr. Thelen, just 18 years old at the time, survived in shark-infested waters for nearly five days before he was rescued. He was one of just 317 who ultimately lived to return home.
Mr. Thelen, along with his family, were honored on this day by Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin. Also joining the event were members of VFW Post 701; Lansing Mayor Andy Schor; State Reps. Sarah Anthony, Kara Hope and Angela Witwer; and Zaneta Adams, director of the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. Click here to watch the video and read the article from the Lansing State Journal.
Dozens of Michiganders served on the USS Indianapolis, as the state of Michigan was the third highest represented home state within the crew. Today, Mr. Thelen is but one of only 11 remaining USS Indianapolis survivors in the country, and Mr. Thelen is the only survivor living in Michigan. Before the ceremony, I had a chance to speak with him, and he told me he stayed alive during those harrowing five days by thinking of his father and his promise to him to return home safely.
The bravery and selflessness Mr. Thelen showed nearly 75 years ago inspire me and reflect the values that we all should aspire to uphold. In recognition of his heroism and service to our country, we presented him with a Congressional Record Statement and a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol. At the ceremony, Lansing Mayor Schor declared December 2nd Richard Thelen Day.
Sincerely,
Elissa Slotkin
Member of Congress
Dick Thelan YouTube Interview, October 4, 2012
USS Indianapolis : Dick Thelen, April 5, 2016.
POST MARK COLLECTORS CLUB – POST OFFICE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
Post Office: Climax, MI 49034 (Kalamazoo County)
Date of Photo: circa 1896
Contributor: Paul E. Petosky, Postmarks from the Past
The first Rural Free Delivery mail service in Michigan was started in Climax in December, 1896. Two postmen, Lewis Clark and Willis Lawrence, Judge Eldred’s great-grandson, set out on their routes, one by horse and buggy and the other on a bicycle. The first RFD routes were around 25-30 miles long, and were based upon what a man with a horse and buggy could travel on unpaved rural country roads during a workday back then. The pay was only $45 a month, and the carrier had to provide his own horse, buggy, feed and water.
The Eckford post office southwest of Albion had the distinction of having the first rural routes in Calhoun County, and the second in the state of Michigan. The service was instituted on July 5, 1899 on an experimental basis that became permanent, and served as a model and inspiration for RFD in other post offices, including Albion.
Sources :
Michigan: Dates That First Rural Routes Were Established at Post Offices, through 1904
Climax Local History courtesy of the Kalamazoo Public Library
Despite the collapse of the U.S. stock market, the Ford Motor Company raised the pay of its employees from $5 to $7 a day on this day.
Source : Detroit Historical Society.
After signing a bill into law today that creates Cesar Chavez Day in Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said “it takes courage” to stand up and say that people should not be discriminated against. Courage was a word she used earlier in the morning to describe Chavez, the well-known Hispanic labor rights leader.
The governor was at the Cristo Rey Community Center in Lansing this morning to sign SB 352, sponsored by Sen. Buzz Thomas (D-Detroit), a bill that establishes March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day. The bill does not create a state holiday. The bill encourages folks to remember Chavez for his fight for reasonable wages, decent housing and the outlawing of child labor.
“Cesar Chavez is not only a hero to the Hispanic community but to all people who labor and dream for peace, social justice, and dignity,” Thomas said. “This legislation is long overdue. Cesar E. Chavez’s legacy has touched us all, and this fitting recognition will continue to inform future generations of his accomplishments.”
To speed the bill’s passage through the Legislature, days remembering the great work of Ford Motor Company Henry Ford (July 30) and former President Gerald R. Ford (July 14) were added to the bill during its movement through the legislative process. Thomas said the addition of a day for the former president was somewhat of a coincidence in that his grandfather played football at the University of Michigan with Gerald R. Ford.
House Minority Leader Dianne Byrum (D-Onondaga), Rep. Michael Murphy (D-Lansing) and Sen. Valde Garcia (R-Howell) joined Thomas at the bill signing
Source: MIRS Capitol Capsule, Wed., December 3, 2003. Note: MIRS News is available to the MSU Community and other subscribers.
The Pontiac Silverdome is going out with a bang on Dec. 3.
The city of Pontiac issued a permit in early November for the long-awaited demolition of the abandoned stadium, once home to the Detroit Lions.
Demolition is set to begin Dec. 3 with a dramatic explosion inside the 42-year-old sports venue. The blast is needed to break metal beams that support the Silverdome’s upper ring, which once held equipment used to keep its now-tattered roof inflated. The stadium’s original Teflon-coated fiberglass roof famously collapsed in 1985.
Source : JC Reindl, “Pontiac Silverdome set to explode with a bang on Dec. 3“, Detroit Free Press, November 28, 2017
Note: The Silverdome survived the first blast, but went down on a second attempt to blow it up.
On December 4, 1823, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass wrote Secretary of War John Calhoun warning him that the British were continuing to provide presents (government welfare) to Indians residing in Michigan. Although the British were officially forced to give up any claims to Michigan by losing the War of 1812, they would continue to meddle in Michigan internal affairs until at least 1829.
Source : Pasty Central Day in Michigan : December 4
For more information about Lewis Cass, see Bill Loomis, “Lewis Cass, the titan of Michigan’s early years”, Detroit Free Press, June 28, 2014.
The Battle of Windsor Historical Marker in front of Francois Baby House, Hiram Walker Historical Museum in Windsor Ontario
“Early on December 4, 1838, a force of about 140 American and Canadian supporters of William Lyon Mackenzie crossed the river from Detroit and landed about one mile east of here. After capturing and burning a nearby militia barracks, they took possession of Windsor. In this vicinity they were met and routed by a force of some 130 militiamen commanded by Colonel John Prince. Four of the invaders taken prisoner were executed summarily by order of Colonel Prince. This action caused violent controversy in both Canada and the United States. The remaining captives were tried and sentenced at London, Upper Canada. Six were executed, eighteen transported to a penal colony in Tasmania and sixteen deported.”
The Battle of Windsor was part of a plot by Patriots in 1837 and 1838 to seize the portion of Ontario between the Detroit and Niagara Rivers and place them under control of the United States of America.
Sources :
Battle of Windsor Wikipedia Entry
The Patriot War by the Michigan Department of Military and Veteran Affairs.
The patriot war, [electronic resource] by Robert B. Ross. Pub. in Detroit evening news, 1890. Revised by the author for the Michigan pioneer and historical society. Access limited to the MSU community.
Baptists opened Michigan Central College in Spring Arbor on December 4, 1844. It was the first in Michigan to grant degrees to women.
Nine years later, the college was moved to Hillsdale and reorganized as Hillsdale College.
Hillsdale was the first American college to ban racial, religious and sexual discrimination in its charter. It was the second to grant 4-year liberal arts degrees to women.
Mainly because of professor and preacher Ransom Dunn’s efforts, Hillsdale managed to survive the Civil War; 80% of colleges founded before the war did not.
Hillsdale’s students who fought in the Civil War received high honors, too. Of 400 Hillsdale students who joined the Union Army, four won the Medal of Honor from Congress and three became generals.
As a result of Hillsdale’s antislavery reputation and its role in shaping the Republican Party, many speakers such as Frederick Douglass and politician Edward Everett visited the school.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan and Emily Hopcian, This Week in Michigan History, Detroit Free Press, December 2, 2007, B.4.
Dr. Alfred Day Hershey won the Nobel Prize in 1969 for his pioneering work.
Hershey was born in Owosso on Dec. 4, 1908. He lived his first four years in Owosso, then moved with his family to Lansing, where he graduated from the old Lansing Central High School before attending Michigan State College of Agriculture & Applied Science (now MSU), where he received a B.S. degree in bacteriology and a PhD. in chemistry. Following graduation, Hershey served on the faculty and as a researcher (1934-1950) at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and later as a researcher (1950-1972) and Director of the Genetics Research Unit (1962-1972) at the Carnegie Institution’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, New York.
In 1952, Hershey and his lab assistant discovered, demonstrated, proved and confirmed that DNA carries the genetic Code of Life. Lauded as one of the greatest discoveries of the modern age, it serves as a foundation for advances in over 100 branches of biology, medicine and anthropology.
Hershey made additional discoveries, including the growth stages of viruses, spontaneous mutations in viruses, viral hybridization, the chemical later identified as messenger RNA, the genetic volume of viruses, how to weigh DNA, how to accurately divide and break DNA, and that some DNA is single-stranded and some circularized.
For his achievements, Hershey, already a PhD., was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Chicago (1967), and an Honorary Doctor of Medical Science by Michigan State University (1970). Additionally, Hershey was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1958), was co-winner of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Science Award (1958), was winner of the Kimber Genetics Award (1965), and in 1969 was co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for “discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses.”
In 2018, Owosso historian Fox, with financial support from current state Rep. Ben Frederick (R-Owosso) and former state legislator William S. (Bill) Ballenger, produced a 212-page application for a Michigan Historical Marker to honor Hershey. It was approved by the State of Michigan. This was a full half-century after Hershey had been honored with a House Concurrent Resolution (#277) passed unanimously by the Michigan Legislature back in 1969.
On May 20, 2019, Hershey, The scientist who discovered that DNA carries the genetic Code of Life, will be honored today with a Michigan Historical Marker at his birthplace in Owosso, Michigan.
Source : Bill Ballenger Report, May 20, 2019.