Anyway. While driving through  Big Rapids the other day, I noticed an interesting painted sculpture of a dog and had to stop and take a picture. I discovered and interesting event entitled year of the dawgs. Hosted by the Leadership Mecosta, this is  designed to be a community art project. Twenty-five fiberglass bulldawgs, standing about three feet tall and four feet long, were painted by a local artist. They are now displayed at the sponsor’s business site. The art I saw was well done. Sometimes when I look at art, I think I could do better, but in this case I could not begin to match what these artists are doing.

Next time you travel thru Big Rapids on the way to your favorite lake, slow down  and have a good laugh. I promise it will brighten your day.

Hello Sister,

I got the letter, it is a dandy day here and I have made thirty cents this for noon and will make sixty more this afternoon. Got a letter from bro Fred this morning and one from mother the other day. I will answer your letter tomorrow, so good by till I write.

Bro Carl

This postcard with it’s intriguing message, is dated Sept. 22.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to read the year, but because of the type of card it is, we can assume it was between 1901-1907.

The picture you see on the postcard is of the Fairman Block in Big Rapids, Michigan. The building was built by Ferdinand Fairman in 1880 and from the postcard we can tell that the corner store housed Fairman’s Drug Store.  Today the corner store is home to Fairman’s Apparel, a women’s apparel shop owned by the great and great-great granddaughters of Ferdinand Fairman.

The next time you are in or near Big Rapids, be sure to check out this important piece of Big Rapids history.

Where they grow thickest, you can often see broad stretches of rich, open maple and beech woods carpeted with white, as if someone had strewn popcorn through the hardwoods. Of all the spring wildflowers, the great white trillium is the icon of this time in the northwoods when the forest floor comes alive with color.

For the past two weeks I had been laid up with a nasty bug. I finally reemerged from my enforced confinement, where life had been reduced to four walls and many a bowl of homemade chicken soup, to discover that spring had not waited for me. What had a short time before been just the first hints of emerging greenery—wild leeks popping up in the woods, the first Canadian anemones and a few pioneer trout lilies showing their blooms—had become a full-blown explosion of color and life.

My first tentative, post-convalescent hike told me that I was by no means up to snuff yet physically. But by my second outing earlier this week, I had improved greatly, and was in good enough shape to finally enjoy the season’s progression along the Coldwater River.

Stately sycamores grace both sides of the river along the Dolan Trail where I went walking. Their striking olive, beige, and gray mottled bark so much resembles camouflage that you’d swear nature had cloaked the trunks in RealTree. The woods along the trail are marked by large trees of every kind—huge sycamores, big maples, immense old beeches. With large branches spreading high overhead, the understory is thin, and the presiding mood is spacious, ancient, and cathedral-like, the way I have always pictured Sherwood Forest. Pileated woodpeckers nest there, and I once watched an enormous gray owl hopscotch through the treetops. On this day, as I sat by the bluff just below where the fast-flowing river forks into two channels, an otter slipped along the opposite bank and disappeared into a hole.

Virginia bluebells were at their peak, covering large patches of the woodland in an Impressionistic azure wash. Fat bumblebees moved busily among the flowers, poking their heads into the long, bell-like tubes. I’ve never been stung by a bumblebee and I hope never to acquire the experience. Judging from their size, I’m sure the bees pack a wallop. But they seem to be docile, peace-loving creatures that pay little attention to me. We’ve ranged through the same stands of bluebells together for many springs, coexisting, the bees pursuing with single-minded purpose their mission of pollinating the flowers and ensuring that in the few places where this rare Michigan wildflower grows, it spreads and prospers in profusion.

Unlike the Virginia bluebell, the great white trillium is fairly easy to find. Most Michigan residents know it by sight. With its three rich, creamy white petals and three broad leaves, Trillium grandiflorum is a flamboyant plant, commonly growing in colonies too large to overlook. Not that it grows everywhere. I don’t find it in oak woods, which tend to be a bit sterile overall. The trillium is a friend of maples, beeches, and rich, black soils, and it prefers woods edges and settings where light can filter through rather than deep, heavily shaded forest interiors.

From now until late May, this queen of the spring wildflowers holds court. In another week or two, look for some of the older flowers to start turning pink. Another species of trillium has dark red petals, but the two plants are distinctly different. There are in fact a number of trillium species native to Michigan, most being considerably rarer than the great white trillium. The toad trillium’s hallmark is its odd, mottled leaves; the painted trillium has a striking, crimson V on each of its three white petals; the diminutive snow trillium is one of the earliest of the spring wildflowers.

But the great white trillium is the belle of them all–showy,  stately, graceful, an emblem of the Michigan wildwoods in the spring.

I don’t know how many Blue Lakes are in Michigan, but there are a number of them. The Blue Lake I am going to highlight today is located in Morton Township, Mecosta County. Located adjacent to Round Lake and Lake Mecosta, it is just north of School Section Lake and north east of Canadian Lakes. Blue Lake is part of the headwaters of the Little Muskegon River.

Blue Lake has 235 acres of surface waters with reported depths of up to 50 feet. The lake is part of the Tri-Lakes Association, a lakefront property owners association. You will see their signs everywhere.

The lake area is a highly sought after area and the homes and cottages often sell quickly.

A  Michigan lake of 37 acres, with reported depths of 26 feet,  Lake Twenty Eight is about 50% developed with a mix of seasonal cottages and year round home. There is no known public access to the lake.

Many times we can be so busy going here or there and in such a hurry to get there, that  we forget about the  lifestyle of fishing and relaxation that life on a Michigan lake can bring.  We are just moving about to fast.

I would like to know why they called it Lake Twenty Eight.  If you have any thoughts on this,  let me know.

A sign explains a bit of the history: Opening in 1881, the Paris Fish Hatchery was the state’s second fish rearing agency. This area was selected because of its abundant sources of water and excellent railroad connections. The Paris Fish Hatchery was a major supplier of salmon and brown trout fingerlings. Fish in milk cans painted a distinctive red were shipped throughout the state in railroad baggage cars, the most famous of which was the “Wolverine,” which was used from 1913 to 1938, when motorized vehicles began to dominate shipment. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) renovated and expanded the facility in the mid 1930s. It continued to operate until 1964, when it was closed by the Department of Natural Resources. The site was acquired by the Mecosta County Park Commission in 1973, refurbished as a park and reopened in July 1976.

Today, the Paris Park consists of forty wooded acres, with about ½ mile of Muskegon River frontage. The park also consists of 68 campsites, modern restrooms, volleyball court, canoe launch and three camp-n-cabins. A Camp-n-Cabin is a 12×12 rustic cabin, ½ log siding, concrete floors, and a 5×12 covered porch. These three cabins are on the southern end of the park, overlooking the beautiful Muskegon River.

In our opinion, Mecosta County does an above average job of taking care of their parks.

Much of the Little Muskegon’s riverfront is natural, it’s riverbanks lined with a variety of oak, pine, ash and elm. Michigan deer, as well as a wide range of other wildlife and waterfowl, make their home here, enjoying life in their natural habitat.  Fisherman report catches of small mouth bass, walleye and perch.

Due to the brush, low hanging limbs and the trees that have fallen into the river, as well as the seasonal water levels, canoeing is only possible in the lower third of the river.

As with much of the waterfront on Michigan’s lakes and rivers, much of the property along the river is privately owned. Please respect the rights of property owners by not trespassing.