The Detroit Free Press reports that several Downriver communities and the Detroit River IWR are creating transient boat slips along the shore so that daytrippers can experience the area’s nature and culture:

Three Downriver communities and the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge may soon change that: Wyandotte, Grosse Ile and Trenton are considering installing slips for short stays.

They think the convenience will encourage boaters to stop in for several hours of shopping, eating and sightseeing that will bolster the local economies. And Humbug Marsh, which put in a 67-foot boardwalk Thursday, plans to add transient docks, according to spokeswoman Becca Sowder.

Last week, the Wyandotte City Council voted to match a $20,000 state Department of Natural Resources grant to pay for a transient-dock feasibility study, city engineer Mark Kowalewski said Tuesday. The first 20 slips in the approximately $1-million project would go by Bishop Park, directly behind the city’s main commercial strip.

And the Grosse Ile Township Recreation Commission might install 42 transient docks at the south end of the marina at Water’s Edge, the island’s public recreation center.

More here, including a photo of Monroe’s Paul Thompson helping to construct the Humbug Marsh boardwalk…

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/NEWS02/807300346/1118/rss

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a story related to a local Cleveland landmark known as Squaw Rock.  For over a hundred years, Ohio hikers have passed by the rock sculpture of a young Native American woman.  The location has so far remained oblivious to national moves to end the use of “squaw” in geographic naming.  Excerpts and link:

The term “squaw” is slowly being erased from the names of geographic features across the country amid complaints that the word is derogatory. This spring, a federal agency wiped 16 off the map, attaching new monikers to assorted creeks, peaks and other sites.

Since 1995, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has approved 167 changes to “squaw” names, according to Jennifer Runyon, senior researcher for the agency.

That leaves 917 features nationwide that use the term, Runyon reports. Only one is in Greater Cleveland.

The outdoor sculpture known as Squaw Rock sits under a leafy canopy along the babbling Chagrin River. A local artist and blacksmith named Henry Church carved a series of images — including one of an American Indian woman — into the massive chunk of sandstone in 1885.

Every year, countless hikers follow a trail from the Squaw Rock Picnic Area and descend into the valley to view the alluring landmark.

Metroparks spokesman Bob Rotatori said there has been no movement or local pressure to drop the name.

“From our perspective, it’s a traditional, historical name given by the folks who lived there,” Rotatori said. “It kind of stuck, and, as far as we know, nobody seems to mind.”

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/07/cleveland_metroparks_squaw_roc.html

MyNorth.com, the internet presence of Traverse Magazine, reports that the South Manitou Island Light in Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will be relit with a replica fresnel lens.  Excerpt and link:

For over a hundred years, boats navigating the treacherous Manitou Passage, which stretches between the Manitou Islands and the mainland, depended on the light beamed from the lantern room of the graceful South Manitou Island Lighthouse. Fifty years after the light was extinguished in 1958, the National Park Service is working with several local groups to make the light beam again by installing a replica Third Order Fresnel Lens–the same style once used at South Manitou–powered by a solar L.E.D. light. The beam will be visible from the Leelanau County coast and visitors to the South Manitou Island Lighthouse can view the lens. The total project cost is $93,000.

Find out how you can help relight the light.

http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/June-2008/Re-Lighting-the-South-Manitou-Light/

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a nice report on Ohio’s Hocking Hills area.  Excerpts and link:

Hocking Hills State Park - which is not one, but a collection of seven small parks located throughout Hocking County - attracted millions of visitors last year. Take a quarter-mile walk off the road, and you’ll see that the area’s popularity hasn’t spoiled its beauty.

The region is a hiker’s paradise, but you don’t have to be a backcountry adventurer to appreciate it. Two of the county’s most stunning areas - Ash Cave and Conkle’s Hollow - have paved, level walkways, making them perfect for young children and visitors in wheelchairs.

The horseshoe-shaped Ash Cave takes its name from the huge pile of ashes found by early settlers, believed to be from Indian campfires built up over hundreds ofyears. It’s the state’s largest recess cave - 90 feet tall,100 feet deep and wider than two football fields.

Acoustics inside the shelter made it a popular spot for meetings and church services years ago. The audio wonders still work: Be sure to check out the “whispering gallery” within the cave, where even the quietest voices carry hundreds of feet.

More here…

http://blog.cleveland.com/travel/2008/07/closer_to_home_byway_through_h.html

The Traverse City Record Eagle reports that the MI DNR and the Grand Traverse Conservancy are working on a plan to purchase a public access easement on 1,700 acres of land along a branch of the Manistee River near Kalkaska.  Excerpts and link:http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_213095248.html

KALKASKA — More than 1,700 acres of woods and water in Kalkaska County could soon be off limits from future development and open for public hunting, fishing and other recreation.

The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy is working with the state to buy the old Flowing Well fish hatchery and surrounding property, about eight miles east of Kalkaska.

State natural resources officials are considering the purchase of an approximate $3.4 million conservation and public access easement at the site, much of it bordered by state and federal land.

It will be the second largest conservation project in the local conservancy’s history, said Matt McDonough who’s their senior land protection specialist.

“There aren’t too many 1,700-acre tracts of property out there to protect anymore,” he said. The land is owned by a group of downstate residents who use it as a hunting and fishing retreat.

Jackson County’s Waterloo State Recreation Area is a popular local hiking location.  Well, hikers might want to be on the lookout for a 600 pound black bear in the coming days.  Police and animal control officials believe that the bear is an escapee.  Jackson Citizen Patriot excerpts and link:

A black bear destroyed bird feeders in a Waterloo Township yard and fled before police and Jackson County Animal Control officers arrived. The homeowners, whose house is in a woods on Jordan Road, saw a large bear in their backyard shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday.

“He was standing up at the bird feeders and ran into the woods when my husband opened the curtain,” the woman said. She asked not to be identified.

The bear, estimated at about 600 pounds, apparently had destroyed some bird feeders Tuesday night. The couple initially blamed it on raccoons. The bear returned to the bird feeders two more times before authorities arrived, the homeowner said.

More here…

http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-25/121751311253140.xml&coll=3

Charles Slat at the Monroe Evening News has a review of Senate testimony related to the proposed River Raisin National Battlefield Park.  Excerpts and link:

A group from Monroe returned from Washington, D.C., Wednesday night confident that they made a strong case that War of 1812 River Raisin Battlefield should be part of the national parks system.

“We came away heartened and encouraged,” said William H. Braunlich, president of the Monroe County Historical Society, who testified before a Senate subcommittee pondering legislation that would do that. “It was a very exciting day. I think all of us felt very heartened.”

But he noted that representatives of the national park system at the same hearing recommended to the Senate subcommittee that action on the legislation be deferred, possibly for two to three years until a special resource study of the idea was finished.

“I also said I thought the National Park Service neglected to consider that when considering a project like this, there’s a critical mass that’s achieved and it’s important to feed the momentum,” Mr. Braunlich said. “There’s a wave of community support we wanted to capitalize on, a critical mass now for the bicentennial, and I don’t think any of us will be around for the tricentennial. I seemed to get a laugh out of that one.”

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/NEWS01/562604380

One of the more obscure travel destinations in Lower Michigan is Charity Island in Saginaw Bay.  The island is roughly 300 acres in size and sits in a very vulnerable location at the mouth of the bay.  Like several Michigan destinations, the island is a maze of property ownership. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service owns about 80% of the island and manages the location from the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.  The island itself is contained within the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

Although the island is mostly in public ownership, camping is not allowed.  It appears that public visitation is not prohibited, although facilities are likely to be minimal on such a remote location.

The Nature Conservancy has been involved with some parcels on the island, most notably the Charity Island Lighthouse.  I am not sure whether the conservancy is currently a landowner or simply served as a transfer organization to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The island does have private ownership.  The old lighthouse keeper’s quarters were demolished several years ago and a private residence now sits on the foundation.  The owners run dinner cruises to the island.  The cost is $79 per person, but it seems like a great adventure.  The departure point is Au Gres, MI.  The video above shows what a typical cruise is like.

http://www.charityisland.net/index.html

The island’s history is interesting.  Here is an excerpt from charityisland.net:

Big Charity Island is also home to a very unique archaeological site. The limestone bedrock formation that outcrops along the Island’s northern shore has mineral deposits known as “chert ” embedded in it. Chert is a form of flint that was a very important material for making stone tools to the people who lived in this area long before there was contact with European explorers. Known as a quarrying site, Big Charity Island is heavily littered with the remains of the stone tool-making activity by generations of Native Americans from over 1500 years ago.

The lighthouse, itself, is being renovated by the Charity Island Preservation Committee.  This group is associated with the Arenac County Historical Society.

During my recent visit to Michigan’s Thumb, I snapped several photographs of the distant island.  These appear with this blog posting.  Additional video of the island can be seen below:

http://www.charityisland.net/all-in-a-days-drive.html

The archived broadcast of Wednesday’s U.S. Senate testimony in support of the proposed River Raisin Battlefield National Park is available at the link below.  The text of William Braunlich’s testimony is also available at this site:

http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=326e7534-974b-95f1-3dc0-fcc5a32223c1

This article is slightly dated.  It was published on July 17th, but it gives an Ohio take on a VERY local story:

The 2008-09 project is a $28,674 award for archaeological investigation, next spring and summer, of a sample of the peripheral areas of the battlefield identified during the program’s 2007-08 grant to Heidelberg’s Center for Historic and Military Archaeology, according to Dr. G. Michael Pratt, who will direct the study.

On Jan. 22, 1813, British and Indian forces attached Americans at Frenchtown along the River Raisin in what was one of the worst American defeats of the War of 1812. The massacre of prisoners and wounded soldiers after the surrender inspired the rallying cry “Remember River Raisin.”

The current award is the latest in support of a decade-long, multi-disciplinary research project involving Heidelberg faculty and students and researchers from Eastern Michigan University, the city of Monroe and several other public and private organizations.

Pratt explained that a 1998 discovery of archaeological remains of structures associated with the battle by the Heidelberg center helped stimulate a renewed interest in preserving the battlefield site. According to the National Park Service, grant funds will allow Pratt and his team to build on the work of the previous grant and conduct an archaeological assessment on areas recently documented as important areas of the battlefield. Recommendations will be made to address threats to the battlefield, and the findings will be presented at public meetings.

The project represents a tribute to the Americans who died during the historic battle.

http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080717/NEWS01/807170313/1002/NEWS01