The Spokesrider

I had ideas of doing other minor league bicycle tours after that one, but I got distracted by the Black Hawk story. Just before the tour I had read Alan Eckert’s book about him, so in between ball games I rode to some of the sites of the 1832 war.

when the news of Stillman’s Run reached Michigan, it stimulated renewed militia activity. We don’t know when the newly arrived Thomas Burland heard the news, but he is not one of the settlers who served in the local militia.

This is the National House in Marshall, Michigan. The photo was taken in 2002, a year when I did not do much bicycling. I’ve ridden to this place many times, though. It’s about 20 miles from home. There are several stories in Marshall connected to the Black Hawk war scare, and the town is a [...]

The latest book I started reading is “The Geographic Revolution in early America : Maps, literacy, & national identity” by Martin Brückner (2006). Whether it’s a good book or not I’m not yet sure. I just barely got started. But in the introduction, Brückner calls attention to something I hadn’t ever thought of before. The [...]

I had been telling myself that of the several accounts of the building of Fort Hogan on Nottawa Prairie, only one was by a first-hand participant. But now I see that there is another. I’ve had it in my files for a long time, but found it today when looking through some of my St. Joseph County (Michigan) materials.

I must confess that I didn’t ride my bicycle to take this photo of the marker for Fort Beane in Goshen, Indiana. I’m not exactly sure why. I’ve ridden in, around, and through Goshen many times. But this marker isn’t on any of my usual routes. It’s on Hwy 33 and Reynolds Street. As far [...]

The 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. (I’m posting this now because someone on the Phred mail list is asking about Trangia stoves. What I have here [...]