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Barry County MI

• 02.09.09
  Banfield Road
  Barry County MI, Calhoun County MI (0)

  After no riding since mid-late November, the roads were finally good enough for me to get out for a couple of short rides this weekend. This is on Banfield Road, north of Bedford, Michigan. I had always assumed Banfield Road was an old Indian trail, since it's one that weaves gently back and forth instead of following section lines or a straight diagonal. However, I just now looked at Hinsdale's 1931 atlas. No trail is shown there. I suspect the surveyors who did this part of Barry and Calhoun counties just didn't do a good job of recording ...
  
  
• 07.23.08
  North side of Bristol Lake
  Barry County MI (2)

  I took a day off from work today to go on a long bike ride, but ended up doing a short bike ride instead, and spending the afternoon working on the yard and house. Moral of the story: Never again should I trust wunderground.com. Use Accuweather instead. I was looking for a couple of settlement-era history places in Johnstown Township in Barry County, which is the next township to the north of the one where I live. The ride was a little over 30 miles altogether. One of the two places of interest ...
  
  
• 06.26.08
  Scales Prairie
  Barry County MI (0)

  On Monday's ride, I stopped to look at this milkweed plant along the border between Barry and Allegan counties. The field behind it looked prairie-like. Did Scales Prairie extend this far to the west? A modern map I use for riding shows the prairie, but doesn't delineate its boundary. So tonight I worked at making a map of this part of Barry County. My progress so far is shown here. My bike route is shown in green. H marks the place I wrote about yesterday, where I stopped to take a ...
  
  
• 06.25.08
  Northwest corner of Irving Township
  Barry County MI (0)

  This is another shot from Monday's ride. It was starting to sprinkle just a bit -- I got out the rain cover for my handlebar bag and stowed my electronics -- but managed to ride ahead of what little rain there was. The farmers on the John Deere tractors kept cutting hay. This scene is in section 8 of Irving Township, Barry County, Michigan. It's not the best agricultural land. Much of it is part of the Middleville State Game Area. Just a mile to the northwest some Odawa families had bought ...
  
  
• 06.24.08
  Farms on Charleton Park Road
  Barry County MI (0)

  This is the last photo I took on yesterday's ride. It's about 20 miles from home, just south of Charleton Park in Barry County, on Section 1 of Baltimore Township. Charleston Park Road is mostly an arrow-straight road that follows the section lines, but here it makes a gentle curve around the pond below this barn. The scene is an old favorite of mine. Just for fun, I looked in the GLO land patent database to see who the original purchaser was, and then searched for the name in the county histories. In the 1895 atlas (from which the image below ...
  
  

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