Category Archives: The Michigan Pages: History: Magazine

Jerry Linengar: Five Months in Space

February 8, 2008 – 9:59 am

Jerry Linenger is one of more than a dozen Michiganians who have been (or still are) astronauts. Born in 1955 in Eastpoint (a Detroit suburb), Linengar graduated from East Detroit High School and earned a degree from Wayne State University. After many years of hard work, schooling and experience in the military, Linengar was accepted [...]

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George Romney – a “brainwashed” candidate?

November 1, 2007 – 9:18 am

Forty years ago this past September, George Romney sat down with Detroit television host Lou Gordon. Responding to a question about an earlier visit to Vietnam, the Michigan governor said that he “had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get when they go over to Viet Nam.” The use of that one word changed Romney’s [...]

By farlane | Also posted in Articles, Community, Government, History & Libraries, Media, Radio & Podcast, Technology & Internet Media, Television & Internet Video | Comments (2)

Michigan History: Up North with the Hemingways

October 29, 2007 – 6:47 am

After entirely too long, we welcome back Michigan History Magazine! Spending time “up north” in Michigan is one of summer’s special delights. The rituals are repeated year after year–making friends (and saying goodbye), enjoying beautiful water and longing all winter for the next summer. A century ago, the Clarence and Grace Hemingway family summered in [...]

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Michigan History: Making money at the Straits BEFORE the Bridge

July 30, 2007 – 9:21 am

Mackinac Straits Ferry from MDOT part of the Michigan State Ferry Album Before the Mackinac Bridge opened in November 1957, the hundreds of people waiting to take a car ferry across the Straits of Mackinac (especially during deer-hunting season) provided an economic bonanza for local residents. Most drivers stayed with their cars to avoid losing [...]

By farlane | Also posted in Articles, Community, History & Libraries, The Michigan Pages, The Michigan Pages: History | Comments (0)

Michigan History: Soaring Beneath the Bridge

July 6, 2007 – 10:42 am

U.S. Air Force Captain John S. Lappo had the heart of a jet pilot–skillful, bold and committed. However, the personality traits that served him so well on bombing missions during the Korean War and covert spy-in-the-sky missions over the Soviet Union also “grounded” him after a playful-but dangerous-stunt that involved the Mackinac Bridge. On April [...]

By farlane | Also posted in Community, Government, History & Libraries, Michigan, Offbeat, Recreation & Sports | Comments (3)

Michigan History: They Paid the Highest Price

June 28, 2007 – 9:06 am

Louis Stepman was lucky. His desperate hold on thin strands of metal was the only thing keeping him from a 400-foot plunge to a watery grave. Two other men who were with him were not so lucky.On the afternoon of June 6, 1956, Louis “Big Louie” Stepman and three other workers were stringing a catwalk [...]

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Michigan History: Bridging the Straits

June 20, 2007 – 7:46 am

As early as the 1880s, Michiganians talked about building a bridge across the Straits of Mackinac. When the Grand Hotel opened on Mackinac Island in 1888, railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, a member of the hotel’s board of directors, declared, “What we need is a bridge across the Straits.”No bridge was forthcoming, but in [...]

By farlane | Also posted in Articles, Community, Government, History & Libraries, Media, Michigan, Photo, Technology & Internet Media, The Michigan Pages: History | Comments (1)

Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge

June 18, 2007 – 8:24 am

2007 is the 50th Anniversary of the Mighty Mac. We’ll be telling the story of the Mackinac Bridge piece by piece here on Absolute Michigan and on Michigan in Pictures and we’ll post links to the photos and stories below. If you have some links to share, please add them in the comments. If you [...]

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Lapeer: A tale of Two Courthouses

June 6, 2007 – 8:09 am

Lapeer County Courthouse by Larry the Biker (click for a closeup of the marker!) In the summer of 1831, brothers Alvin N. and Oliver B. Hart left New York state and headed west in a quest for land. They camped along the fast-moving Flint River, at a place their guide called LePierre. The men returned [...]

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Michigan’s First MEMORIAL DAY

May 30, 2007 – 9:09 am

On May 30, America will pause once again to remember the men and women who have died in defense of this nation. Memorial Day officially started in 1868 when Major General John A. Logan, head of the postwar Union veterans’ group called the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that on May 30, “the choicest [...]

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