With this very issue the Grand Traverse Journal marks its one-year anniversary.  Like proud parents, the editors have watched the accomplishments of the foundling with much pride.  It charmed us with Bill Scharf’s description of gulls on Gull Island; it confronted us with the truth about the so-called ghost of Bowers Harbor in Julie Schopieray’s October piece; it informed us how a frame church could be moved through the streets of Traverse City in the eighteen nineties thanks to Amy Barrit’s explanation in the November issue; it acquainted us with a new friend in Mud Turtle Jack, Valerie Himick’s remembrance of her grandfather.  Thanks to the Journal, readers know about The Great Meteor of 1879, the history of local railroads, the first bus line in Traverse City, and the experiences of nurses, farmers, and veterans of World War II.

Our Grand Traverse Journal has uncovered relics from the past: an old recipe book, a 1919 editorial decrying the abuses of the “5 percent,” an account of a midnight ride through the Peninsula in the nineteenth century, a poem written in 1890 that touches us with its description of Grand Traverse Bay in the language of the time.   

The Journal has exposed its readership to images of history all around us: images of an art-deco granite eagle on the Union Street post office, the profile of an Indian on a pump house on Front Street, the stretch of sidewalk at Clinch Park that honors the Anishnaabek presence in the Grand Traverse Area, a road marker emblazoned with the words Hamilton Way found at the Garfield Township hall just outside the city limits. 

We cannot count all of the articles writers have submitted, the feedback readers have submitted, the comments—all approving—we have heard regarding our one-year-old magazine.  In response we wish to thank our supporters–in particular, all of the writers and readers who offered their time to make us a success.  With your continued help, we look forward to another year of growth.

Richard Fidler and Amy Barritt

November is a windy month, some of its worst demonstrations giving rise to howling gales that sink ships and drive sensible people indoors to a warm fire.  The wind also has a more benevolent side such as when it polishes and erodes pebbles on an isolated beach.   Richard Fidler engages that topic in the Nature category in his article about lag gravels and ventifact fields.

A lovely old poem about Grand Traverse Bay written by Mary K. Buck (1849-1901) tells about that body of water in any kind of weather.  With its regular meter and rhyme, it strikes us as quaint, perhaps, but it displays a love for this place that resonates in our hearts still.

Gini LeClaire faithfully recorded her grandmother’s memories about growing up near Silver Lake more than 110 years ago.   Growing Up Wilhelm: Childhood Memories of Life on the Farm reminds us of the simple pleasures of rural living at a time when horses provided transportation and local crops the bulk of our food.

While history can be recorded with pen and ink, nowadays it can also be told with digital techniques to preserve images and words.  Amy Barritt shows how a tool called hashtag can be used to archive images for study and enjoyment.  Find her article in Exploring History by Street and by Hashtags.

Railroads cut into our awareness only occasionally when we hear an occasional whistle on the solitary line that extends to Traverse City.  Not so a hundred years ago when the sounds of steam locomotives filled the air from Traverse City through Lake Ann to Manistee.  Richard Leary paints a picture of the Manistee and North Eastern Railroad when it provided the main means of transportation for logs, crops, and human passengers.  His article, Remembering the Golden Age of Railroads: The Manistee and North Eastern and its Traverse City Connections, can be found in the History category.

This month’s mystery picture reminds us that history does not have to be “old” to reflect an earlier time.  See if you can recognize the neon sign in the lower floor of a local business.  Search as you will, nowadays you won’t find what it advertises.

And if the sculpture pictured in last month’s Journal puzzled you, find out where it is below.

October is a month of the brightly colored leaves, the fall harvest, and Halloween ghostly tales.  The present edition of the Grand Traverse Journal addresses all three topics.  Amy Barritt reflects on the splendid arboretum surrounding the former Traverse City State Hospital, a park conceived by James Decker Munson, the first superintendent of that institution.  Certainly, the leaves of sweet gum, tulip trees, and copper beech can be collected there before the first frost.

The autumn harvest is celebrated in our mystery photo of a sculpture called by that very name.  It was created far away in a place formerly regarded as enemy territory–part of the USSR–the Republic of Georgia.  Readers should send in their thoughts upon its location as well as find out the answer to last month’s mystery photo.

Apples certainly comprise a bountiful share of the autumn harvest in Northern Michigan, but what about “oak apples?”  Richard Fidler explains how oak trees can produce swellings that superficially resemble apples, but hardly make ones you can eat.  Not every “apple” has a crunch.

The lead article of this issue comes from Julie Schopieray’s examination of a famous building and a famous ghost tale of the Grand Traverse region: the Mission Table restaurant of Bowers Harbor (formerly known as the Bowers Harbor Inn).  Not to give away the story, we will only say that the clear-cut splendor of an architectural treasure is to be appreciated more than a tale constructed from speculations and gossip.

In the same vein, Richard Fidler looks at the widespread belief in ghosts present in the 1920’s.  A home in our area had a major outbreak of the supernatural variety—or so it appeared.  Alternatively, mischief could have been afoot, the ghosts staying clear to avoid the clamorous antics of curious onlookers.  Read Fortney’s Ghost to learn about Traverse City’s fascination with the occult in an age of séances, mediums, and spiritualists.

Finally, under Celebrate the People, we present an oral history recorded by the Women’s History Project of Northwest Michigan concerning Gretchen Votruba.  The transcript dates from 2002 and only now, in 2014, we are able to publish it in abridged form.  The Grand Traverse Journal encourages submissions of oral histories because they represent a form of history telling that intimately connects the life story of a single individual to an audience of readers.

How did they move a large frame church building in the 19th century at a time before wide-load rigs and hydraulic jacks?  Through historic photographs and careful research Amy Barritt examines this question in her piece, When Horsepower Was Literal: Moving Buildings in the 1890s.  Although the entire building is no longer present, remnant pieces and design features still remain in the Episcopal Church at the corner of Boardman and Washington Streets.

A wonderful description of another 19th century activity, day trips by horse-and-buggy, exists in Martha E. Cram Bates’ account of an August journey she made along Old Mission Peninsula, To Traverse Point and Return.  Far from being a “day trip”, she began her adventure at 5:00 P.M. and returned well after midnight, telling us about a glorious sunset, the passing farms, the crashing Bay, and the moonlit ride home.  The tale provides a contrast to our harried trips out to see the Old Mission lighthouse, all done in the space of an afternoon within the cabins of air-conditioned automobiles.

Annie Spence visits a public beach in Elk Rapids with her infant son, reflecting upon Nature, parenthood, and an unspoiled place close to her home in her essay, The Tonic of Wildness.  If you listen carefully, you can hear the voice of Henry David Thoreau in the crash of the surf.

One plant she might have trampled on is the humble horsetail or snake grass.  Its tough jointed stems and deep roots may frustrate those who wish a bare sandy beach, but it has its virtues–as Richard Fidler tells us in the Nature category.

Mud Turtle Jack is not about a reptile, but about Valerie Himick’s discovery of a box of poems written by her grandfather many years ago.  She was astounded by the work of a man she scarcely knew, a man who expressed his love for the Great Lakes—especially the area around Frankfort–in a lifetime of writing poetry.  We include a generous selection of his poems along with commentary by his granddaughter.  Readers may elect to read the entire piece by clicking at the end of the article, which may be found in the Celebrating the People section.

Finally, another mystery photo confronts us, this one a mosaic in front of a downtown business on Front Street in Traverse City.  Can you name the business that now occupies the place?  Can you tell anything about the business that existed there a hundred years ago?  Email us if you can, share what you wish on social media—and keep sending us photos and articles for the Grand Traverse Journal!

This month we offer a mystery solved: Hannah St. Mary’s: A Treasure.  Written by thirteen year-old Hannah Carr, one of the winners of the Floyd Webster Teen Prize, 2014, it exemplifies the kind of work we welcome here at the Journal, an authentic telling of a historical event long forgotten.  The piece also exemplifies the authors we want to hear from: writers with curiosity and a passion for research.

Have you ever wondered about those yellow signs informing drivers that a fire station is nearby—or a playground, or a deer crossing?  Who designed and approved them?  Just when did they appear along highways?  Why do they reflect such antiquated pictures of fire trucks and tractors?  You will find answers to your questions in Windows to Our Past: Warning Signs Along Small Roadways, an article in our “Then and Now” section.

Speaking of other things we take for granted, what are those pimple-like things you see on maple leaves this time of year?  You may be surprised to learn they house creatures far smaller than the head of a pin.  Check them out in Growing Your Own House: The Mites of Maple Bladder Galls in Nature.

Traverse City is a town of festivals: the Cherry Festival, the Film Festival, the Comedy Festival, and more to come, no doubt.  In August, 1911, Traverse City celebrated—itself!—in a grand festival.  “Farmers came with their families, and city folk, too.  The rich and poor mingled.  Young and old.  Factory workers and their bosses.”  All came out for a picnic at the present Civic Center.  There, among all other entertainments, a speech greatly relevant to our modern world was given.  Read about it in Traverse City Day.

One of those picnickers might have come from Almira Township, Benzie County.  Read about the founding mothers and fathers of that place in Richard Leary’s Earliest Settlers of Almira Township under “Celebrating the People”.  We hope others will tell us about their explorations of local history.

Finally, the Mystery Photo, the answer to last month’s and the challenge of this month.  A reader correctly identified the location of last month’s after hours deposit box, as you will discover if you peek in that section.  Now a granite eagle confronts readers.  Where is it?