Touring Michigan - Manistee's Victorian Sleighbell Parade and Old Christmas Weekend.

If you are enamored by the Victorian era, this is a must-do event!

We began our adventure with tea at the Buckley, a privately owned fantastic Victorian home. Afternoon tea was served in the third floor ballroom, complete with dainty sandwiches, flaky scones and delicious dainty sweets.

A tour of the home followed and it was stunningly beautiful - the ornate woodwork, the leaded glass, the plasterwork ceilings and original lighting fixtures. It made me very nostalgic for my former 1908 home!

Following tea, we toured the Manistee County Historical Museum, located right downtown in Manistee and the building remains as it existed in 1905.

For Christmas, a huge number of Victorian era trees and decorations are displayed in settings depicting a variety of traditions.

One of my favorite displays/presentations was the Magic Lantern show of the "Night Before Christmas". Magic lantern shows are always fascinating, but this one was made even better by having the narration supplied by an Edison player with a wax cylinder.

The Magic Lantern is the forerunner of the modern slide projector. It has a long and complicated history and, like lots of fascinating inventions, many people were involved in its development. No one can say for sure who invented the Magic Lantern. The Magic Lantern has been used to educate and entertain audiences for hundreds of years.

Another highlight is the working display of vintage toy trains - it's just amazing!

After the museum, we walked the downtown area, enjoying the sights and sounds, including a trombone band:

and hot roasted chestnuts: DELICIOUS!!!

Everyone joins in the fun:

Then it was parade time!

No motor vehicles, everything is horse-drawn or foot powered:

The most amazing sight is the 30+ foot tree, on a sledge, being drawn by a team of four draft horses right down the middle of the street!

They had to work hard this year, with no snow to help it slide.

Upon reaching the end of the parade, the tree is lit and the sky fills with fireworks.

Even with no snow, the town was filled with happy, enthusiastic people, truly full of the spirit of the season - we'll be back!

Touring Michigan - Manistee Part 2

Most people don't consider winter a good time to visit the beach, but they would be wrong.

Visiting in the winter means solitude, just you, the lake, the sand and the sky.

The is the Manistee North Pierhead Light - the first lighthouse to mark the entrance to the Manistee River was a two-story gabled dwelling with a light tower protruding from one end of the roof. The lighthouse was in operation for a year, when it was destroyed by the fire of 1871. A nearly identical light was built the following year and served until 1875. The present cylindrical tower and attached elevated catwalk were placed on the pier in 1927, note the ice buildup on the catwalk.

Visiting in winter also means the opportunity to enjoy Nature's ability to create sculpture, using no more than sand, wind and water:

Water, pooled and frozen in sand, revealed only when the excess sand is scoured away by the ever present wind - so delicate and fated to disappear, leaving no trace.


Water and wind again, but with such differing results, but equally ephemeral:

And, yes, I was in the water to take these - there are advantages to living the rural lifestyle, like owning and wearing really warm and waterproof boots!

Touring Michigan - Manistee

We live on Michigan's crown jewel, Mackinac Island, but Michigan has plenty of other intriguing places to visit. Recently we took a bit of time away and I thought I'd share a few impressions of our trip.

We started in Manistee; named after the river which passes through it and according to legend it is an Indian word meaning "The Spirit of the Woods".

Just like Mackinac, Manistee was an outpost of the American Fur Company in the 1820's. Around this same time Manistee was considered one of the busiest commercial fishing ports on Lake Michigan.

On October 8, 1871, the same day as the great Chicago fire, the fire alarm sounded in Manistee. Monday found the city a scene of desolation and ruin. Over 1,000 men, women and children were left homeless.

Rock salt deposits were discovered in 1879 and salt continues to be mined today.

In 1885, there were forty sawmills cutting millions of feet of lumber annually and the city of Manistee a roaring, thriving community of 16,000 - about three times as many as today.

So, furs, fishing, fire, lumber and salt define the history of this lakeside town, which is today defined tourism.

We spent the night at the Ramsdell Inn, a delightfully renovated former commercial building. Built in 1891 as a bank, news reports of the time emphasis it's fireproof construction - memories of the fire of 1871 were still strong.

The renovation was incredibly well done, the architectural details of the past have been preserved and the modern code requirements kept as unobtrusive as possible.

Above the former bank vault is "Miss Manistee", a symbolic representation of the city and the men who made her what she is - she holds a civic key of salt crystals and a twig of pine. The background includes lumber piles, salt derricks and schooners and she is surrounded by Indians, voyageurs, a river driver, etc. This graphic representation of of the city's past has been carefully restored and preserved - it glows in the light.

Even in the winter, the downtown area is filled with antique shops, boutiques and galleries.

Check out this window display at the River Street Gallery

The figures and animals are life sized and formed of nothing more than corrugated cardboard - the detail and imagination is incredible. It was created by the owner's wife and will be moving to University of Dayton's Marian Library collection of creches.

A random ice sculpture (yes, I know, ice again!) in a parking lot - a leftover from a holiday party maybe?

Love the fish sculpture - the painted design is the markings of a Petoskey stone or fossilized coral.

A must see is the Manistee County Historical Museum, especially at Christmastime.

The vintage trains are amazing, and not just the trains themselves, but all the accessories that go with them - working fountains, gates, building, and people. I could have spent hours trying to absorb all the details.

Each year, the rooms upstairs are decorated for the season to reflect the customs of a specific ethnic background, this year was Swiss and French Canadian.

As is typical for most small local museums, they rely heavily on volunteers, and as one volunteer told us, they are a "stuff museum" - they need to work with the "stuff" that is donated to them. Often that can lead to some rather random displays, but I was impressed with the work here; everything was quite cohesive and they had done a great job of working with what was available, yet showing a good, reasonably accurate representation of the past.

So what do you think - any interest in more "Touring Michigan"?