Reflections

Living Large (But Small)

I spent my youngest years in a beautiful small town in Connecticut. My siblings and I frequently walked (some of us toddled), without adults, to the corner grocery store. As I recall it now, there was just one main road.

To get to the store you crossed the road, followed it up a slope, and there it was — the swinging door that led to a magic world brimming with Atomic Fireballs, Bazooka bubble gum, and Good Humor ice cream bars. At this treasured emporium, everyone knew us — and likely knew exactly what we were looking for. After my father was transferred to Ohio and then Michigan, my countrified life was gone. Now I live in a pretty big city in metro Detroit (when we married, my husband and I chose to live equidistant from both of our parents’ homes), but over the years I’ve wanted to make my life small again. My outdoorsman husband, who hadn’t seen snapping turtles or leaping fish in far too long, and I found our something small amid very big trees, big lakes, and big rivers, by accident.

In July of 2001, we were Up North golfing and saw a for-sale sign at the end of a long driveway that led to a tidy cottage in a tiny town on an inland lake. Almost faster than a great blue heron took off from the cottage’s dock that day, we purchased exactly what our hearts needed. The first time we drove down its pinelined driveway as the cottage’s owners, we slowed the car to a turtle’s pace, put the windows down, and just breathed in northern Michigan. (We still do that every time we arrive.) I always say I wish I could bottle the scent of Up North — pine mingled with fresh air, bark, and earth. When our sons were younger, they’d complain as we approached the cottage and asked them to turn off their devices and let the crisp breezes and the sounds of nature in. Today, they cherish that tradition.

I know how Lindsay Navama felt when she started to sense a need for small-town connectivity and more nature. Navama, who wrote a cookbook called “Hungry for Harbor Country” (featured in this issue), was living a pretty hectic life in Chicago before she got serious about finding a cottage in southwest Michigan. “We wanted to pivot … to find a sense of community in a smaller place,” she told me. Oh, do I understand. Since day one of owning our cottage, we’ve sought out small, familyrun grocery stores, farms, and restaurants. When we find them, I sense yesteryear wrapping around me. One farmer we recently met invited us to jump in his truck and offered to take us through the acres of trees he’d grown; he was happy to spend an entire afternoon chatting with us. He also grows the sweetest U-pick raspberries. Then there’s the chef/owner who scurries over to greet us whenever we enter our favorite eatery. Because she discovered my husband follows a gluten-free diet, she now tells us before we sit down when there’s a gluten-free dessert with his name on it. And I can’t forget the bike shop owner who takes extra time to dig out a map and enthusiastically show us the trails where he hears eagles screech.

Kim Mettler, this issue’s Postcard contributor, says: “I often refer to living (Up North) as a Norman Rockwell-type experience; you know at least a handful of people anywhere you go in town.”

Back in 2001, we also discovered what my family and I call “the general” — as in “general store” — which is so similar to the one I adored as a kid. These days, a grown woman can be seen there regularly, eyeing the candy and purchasing Atomic Fireballs (in the intervening years, she’s given up the Bazooka bubbl gum).

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EDITORIAL EDITOR: Megan Swoyer COPY EDITOR: Anne Berry Daugherty CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Ellen Creager, Jamie Fabbri, Ron Garbinski, Sally Hallan Laukitis, Jeanine Matlow, Kim Mettler, Marla Miller, Giuseppa Nadrowski, Lindsay Navama, Mark Spezia, Dianna Stampfler, Patty LaNoue Stearns, Khristi S. Zimmeth

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WATERWAYS

14

The Detroit River near the MacArthur Bridge attracts paddlers aplenty.

10 Field Guide

Water cleanup opportunities, lighthouse tours, an island-themed paperback, and more. 10 Sky, Sand & Surf

Freshwater turtle friends and where to see them, and the fascinating history of Holland’s Big Red. 12 Get Outdoors

Exploring the amazing

Arcadia Dunes, and a Belle

Isle State Park primer. 20 Headwaters

Two novelists and a musician share Great

Lakes State inspirations.

FIELD GUIDE

Exploring Michigan: Tips, trends, and tidbits

WATER CLEANUP: The MI Paddle Stewards program, offered by Michigan Sea Grant, is now available online. It trains paddlers to help identify and report invasive species, and teaches how to prevent the spread of these harmful plants. michiganseagrant.org/ educational-programs/

SUMMER FUN: Check out the online maps/guides for the Lake Michigan Lighthouse and Lake Michigan Circle Driving Tours. Some 100 lighthouses are highlighted, and the circle tour guide inspires stops along the way. Search lighthouse tour at wmta.org

ONLINE GAME: A $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Digital Projects for the Public will help the Grand Rapids Public Museum develop a web-based mobile game, “River of Time.” It will feature interactive content on the history along the lower Grand River area. grpm.org

ISLAND-HOPPING: A Maureen Dunphy paperback, “Great Lakes Island Escapes: Ferries and Bridges to Adventure,” takes a look at more than 30 islands accessible by bridge or ferry. She also mentions 50 other islands that are worth a visit. Search by book title at wsupress.wayne.edu/books

GRAND HAPPENINGS: New this season at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island will be a revamped pool area with 15 new cabanas. An improved restaurant and health facility are also in the works. grandhotel.com – Compiled by Ron Garbinski

Have news that pertains to Michigan travel and exploration offerings? Send a note to MSwoyer@Hour-Media.com.

Freshwater Friends

Springtime showcases the secret life of Great Lakes turtles

By Ellen Creager | Photography by Carl Sams

T hey outlasted dinosaurs and surely will outlast us. And here’s a surprise: Turtles can talk. “In the last decade, it was discovered that turtles actually vocalize, just at a decibel that humans can’t hear,” says Chelsea-based herpetologist David Mifsud, an authority on Great Lakes turtles.

In their small secret lives, Michigan’s turtles go about their business with little fuss. They bask in the sun to thermoregulate. When sleeping or distressed, they will use their shells for protection. After 10 to 15 years or so, some species start breeding. Some can be reproductive in three to five years. Some turtles have a longevity of up to and even exceeding 100 years. Other species, Mifsud says, may live 20 to 30 years.

It may be that the turtle you saw in a certain cove last week is the exact same turtle your grandfather saw 25 years ago at the very same spot!

“Great Lakes turtles don’t migrate like sea turtles,” says Julie Champion, from the Lake St. Clair Metropark Nature Center. “They know that what they’ve got right here is what they need.”

Through his company, Herpetological Resource and Management, Mifsud works to protect the state’s declining turtle populations. Julie Champion, Eastern District interpretive supervisor for Huron-Clinton Metroparks, educates visitors on turtle lore and care.

Michigan has no tortoises or sea turtles, but it does have 11 species of freshwater turtles, and some can grow to a foot long. The rarest is the tiny Spotted Turtle. The most common are the Painted, Snapping, Northern Map, and Red-Eared turtles. All have a carapace (hard shell), and most are aquatic.

To see some turtles, Mifsud and Cham-

pion recommend checking out fallen logs in quiet coves, on muddy riverbanks, or around inland ponds on a sunny day, especially in spring. Even better is spotting them from a kayak or canoe, where you can drift closer.

If you don’t have luck out in the open, head to a Michigan nature center. Lake St. Clair Metropark in Harrison Township, for example, has eight of Michigan’s turtle species in large aquariums. There, you can better appreciate the strange variety: the cheerful Painted Turtle; the rubbery, beige Eastern Spiny Softshell; the noble, rare Blanding’s; or the saucy, Red-Eared Slider. You may find turtle displays at other nature centers around the state, as well.

More closely related to dinosaurs and crocodiles than lizards or snakes, turtles have survived 200 million years due to their shell protection and cautious ways. A turtle will look at you, size you up, and decide whether you’re safe or scary. Its mot-

This page: The Blanding’s Turtle is one of Michigan’s rarest. Opposite page: The Painted Turtle is the state reptile of Michigan. to? Retreat to the shell, and all will be well.

Michigan’s native Anishinaabe people believed Mackinac Island was formed by the shell of a great turtle. Even older native legends say that North America itself rests on a turtle’s back.

For those who live by the water or love the water, that sturdy image is comforting.

“Turtles have been on Earth for a long time,” Champion says, “and they’re still here.”

Here are more turtle secrets: • Turtles live in every corner of Michigan, even on the remote Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. • Some species have great vision and can hear through vibrations. • Turtles have no teeth, but they use powerful jaws to eat small snails and crustaceans. • The Painted Turtle is Michigan’s official sate reptile. • Aquatic species of turtles survive Michigan winters by digging into mud at the bottom of ponds and lakes. Incredibly, they absorb enough oxygen through their skin to stay alive underwater, even under the ice. • If you see a turtle on a road, it’s probably a female looking for a spot to lay eggs. Only pick up a turtle on the road if it is safe to do so. When moving one, carefully place it to the side of the road where it was facing. • Never take a turtle home. They have enough trouble surviving the loss of habitat, pollution, and the danger posed by raccoons and skunks without having to deal with you.

You can help biologists keep tabs on Michigan’s turtles by reporting sightings to Herp Atlas at miherpatlas.org.

Pandemic restrictions may affect operating hours at the various Huron-Clinton Metropark nature centers, so check ahead at metroparks.com.

Big Red Legends

The public’s love affair with Holland’s treasured lighthouse endures

By Sally Hallan Laukitis

The Holland Harbor Lighthouse, affectionately known as Big Red, reigns as the most photographed lighthouse in Michigan. But what many folks don’t know is that Big Red wasn’t always red.

“The lighthouse used to be yellow and purple. In 1956, the U.S. Coast Guard sandblasted the tower and painted it bright red, satisfying a requirement that all navigational aids on the right side of a harbor entrance must be red,” says John Gronberg, president of the Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission and a member of the Michigan Lighthouse Alliance. Thus began Holland’s love affair with their famous Big Red icon.

That love affair came close to ending in 1971, when the U.S. Coast Guard declared the lighthouse was surplus, and said it could no longer justify the expense of maintaining and repairing the old light.

As one who spent his summers playing in the shadow of the lighthouse, Gronberg joined the Holland Harbor Historical Lighthouse Historical Commission’s board of directors, a group whose goal was to save the lighthouse, in the 1980s. That group of passionate citizens crafted the name Big Red as a way to generate awareness of the lighthouse’s possible demise. And it worked.

In 1978, the Coast Guard granted the lease of Big Red to the Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission, of which Gronberg’s mother, Hester, was a founding member. Thirty years later, in 2008, the commission was granted a quit claim deed for the lighthouse through the National Lighthouse Preservation Act.

With ownership, the lighthouse commission jumped at the opportunity to share Big Red’s history.

Holland was founded in 1847 by the Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte, a Dutch pastor, who knew Lake Michigan access was critical for the fledgling community to

Both pages: Holland’s lighthouse was painted red in 1956 and, since then, has been called Big Red. It’s a favorite landmark among boaters and sunset-lovers.

flourish. However, Black Lake (now called Lake Macatawa), which could offer that access, was silted in. Van Raalte petitioned both Michigan’s governor and the U.S. Congress for funds to build a much-needed channel. When those funds didn’t come, the settlers banded together and in the late 1850s, armed with pick axes and shovels, they hand-dug a channel to Lake Michigan that was deep enough to float barges.

Between 1866 and 1872, federal money finally came through, and in 1870 the first lighthouse was built using those federal funds — 20 years before Holland Harbor was finished. The current lighthouse, which was electrified in 1932, has guarded the harbor for more than 100 years.

There were only four lighthouse keepers over the years and all of them lived ashore while tending to the Holland light each day. The last keeper retired in 1940, after the U.S. Lighthouse Bureau was abolished and all lighthouses came under the auspices of the Coast Guard.

Big Red has captured the hearts of locals and visitors alike. Artists sketch it; boaters, kayakers, canoers, and sailors glide past it; and visitors to Holland State Park delight in it from across the channel.

Walkers, and joggers often climb the 200-plus steps to the top of Mt. Pisgah, a towering sand dune rising 157 feet above the state park, for a bird’s-eye view of the famous icon. Locals and visitors snap pictures, and barge and tugboat deckhands wave to sunbathers as they pass by on their way to drop off or pick up loads of limestone, aggregate, or scrap iron at commercial enterprises located on Lake Macatawa.

“The Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission maintains the structure and records of Big Red, and relies on contributions of local residents, visitors, and friends to do so,” Gronberg says. “The lighthouse is typically repainted every 10 years at the commission’s expense. About three years after it was last painted (in 2009), the paint job began to fade and Big Red started to turn pink.”

Two local companies, Lamar Construction and Repcolite Paint, stepped in and donated their services to restore the lighthouse to its famous brilliance.

“We also maintain an American Flag at Big Red year ’round. The flag is larger in the summer and smaller in the shoulder seasons. We light the flag so it can remain up 24 hours a day, and we try our best to raise and lower it per the instruction of the governor’s office,” Gronberg says. “Mariners use it as an indication of wind direction and velocity. If we go bare pole, we hear about it quickly. We use between eight and 10 flags each season.”

Today, thanks to dedicated supporters such as Gronberg, the public’s love affair with Big Red continues.

PLAN IT! Holland Harbor Lighthouse bigredlighthouse.com