• « Previous Entries

Category

St. Joseph County MI

• 06.17.08
  Findley, Michigan
  Amish country, St. Joseph County MI (0)

  Findley, St. Joseph County, Michigan On the ride to Mongo on May 31, I tried something different when I got to the south end of Farrand Road. Every time before I've turned left. This time I turned right to go to the spot on the map called Findley. I was surprised to see that there actually is a community at the spot on the map, with a larger cluster of houses than I had expected. Not only that, but there is a businessplace. The sign on this elevator says Burr Oak in smaller letters underneath the rest. I enjoy ...
  
  
• 03.21.08
  Township halls
  Barry County MI, St. Joseph County MI (0)

    This photo of Woodland Town Hall in Barry County, Michigan, was taken on the first day of my ride to Drummond Island, which trip I started to tell about here. You can read the marker here at www.michmarkers.com. At the time I thought this and other old township halls had no particular significance for the history I was studying, but later I started to think otherwise. I came across this township hall in July 2006, on my way back home on a two-day self-contained tour to a place just across the border in Indiana. It's in Sherman ...
  
  
• 03.21.08
  Goodrich Prairie 2
  St. Joseph County MI (0)

  Can one still tell Goodrich Prairie from the surrounding vegetation types? Maybe. My first blog post about Goodrich Prairie showed some relatively open land. The above scene was taken at about point A on the map below, just to the west of the old prairie boundary. (There are a lot of Amish people living further west in the next township, on Nottawa Prairie.) The prairies are shown in a goldenrod color. The larger brownish/tan areas were savanna at settlement time. BTW, Lorancie Schellhous, who bought the land at the northeast part of the prairie didn't call it Goodrich Prairie. ...
  
  
• 03.17.08
  Farrand Road
  St. Joseph County MI (1)

  More from Sunday afternoon's bike ride. This house is on Farrand Road in Colon Township, St. Joseph County. It's just south of the St. Joseph River. I had noticed it on my very first ride here, back in June 1996. That was before I had any idea of doing a "Black Hawk Slept Here" project. But on some of my training rides I had started to wonder about these old houses in rural southwest Michigan. I figured there must be some history to go with them. This one made an impression that ...
  
  
• 03.17.08
  Goodrich Prairie
  St. Joseph County MI (2)

  Today I rode to Goodrich Prairie just south of the St. Joseph River in St. Joseph County, Michigan. Well, technically it's already Monday now. It was a Sunday afternoon ride, my first ride of the year other than commuting to work this past week. I've been to this area many times before, but had never before turned right on this gravel road just after crossing the bridge over the river in Colon Township. This road cuts through the entire length of Goodrich Prairie, not that it's that long. One of the Black Hawk ...
  
  

• « Previous Entries