This was the first stop of the day on a two-day ride to Lenawee and Hillsdale counties in October 2005. It’s just below the Ceresco Dam on the Kalamazoo River between Battle Creek and Marshall, Michigan.
A few minutes after I took this photo, the young man on the bridge came over to talk to me. He no longer lived around here, but used to fish and hang out here when he was younger. He was looking over the scenes of his boyhood (even though he was almost a boy yet) before going off to Army training camp, and then probably to Iraq. This was a place of a lot of memories for him.
I wonder how he’s doing now. I think of it because this morning in church we learned that a grandson had been wounded in Iraq and is on his way home for treatment. How badly he was hurt, I don’t know, but it didn’t sound minor.
The young man at the bridge told me of the best way to climb down close to the water for a photo.
As for the connection of this place to the Black Hawk war, I’ve started a page about it here. There’s more than that to say about John Bartram, though.
I lived in Three Rivers in southwest Michigan for a summer. Michigan they say gets more beautiful the further north you go. That was my experience, though the southwestern part was very nice as well.
These days I like traveling in agricultural areas and don’t care so much for the northern country. But there was a time when it was just the opposite for me. Who knows if my tastes will ever change again. But for now, my idea of beautiful is the country where the farms are.
[...] Rice Creek dam in Marshall, MI was my 2nd stop after the Ceresco Dam, on a ride to Lenawee County in fall 2005. There is a park here, and a place to make lunch. [...]
[...] previous time I was here was in fall 2005. That time I talked to a young man who seemed to be in a thoughtful mood. He was looking over some of the [...]