Monday, September 1, 2008

Michigan and Home again

Daddy D and I have returned to our short Labor Day vacation to Michigan. We did see several sites. We saw the Old Rugged Cross Church, where the old Methodist hymn written by Reverend George Bennard was first performed. The church itself was built in 1862 as a hops barn. When the hops industry failed in 1876, a Methodist Episcopal congregation bought the building and converted the barn into a church. In 1915, the church building was sold to a farmer and was used as a barn for 83 years. In 1998, a local couple purchased the building and with others founded The Old Rugged Cross Foundation, a multi-denominational non-profit organization. The organization is in the process of renovating the building to a church.
Today, we left Niles traveling down US 12 to Three Oaks and then on to New Buffalo. In Three Oaks, we discovered a delightful concern called the Featherbone Factory, which is a gift and curio store as well as a manufacturer of concrete stepping stones. The Featherbone Factory building once housed just that, a company that produced bones of corsets in the 19th century. The bones of the Featherbone Factory were actually made from ground-up turkey quills. Edward Warren developed a process to use the featherbones in corsets revolutionizing an industry that had been relying on whalebones to provide structure in women's corsets. The inventor also was responsible for preserving the Warren Dunes shoreline.


Finally, in New Buffalo we stopped at the beach. After all what is a trip to Michigan, without visiting one of the Great Lakes?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love seeing the old historic places....and am very glad that the corset bones have gone by the wayside!!!!

Looks like a fun trip.

daddy d said...

Great trip. I am glad I was there the whole way along. Different towns are a way to gain a relative idea of our own living space.

Sunshine said...

Your photos are always great, I feel like I was on the trip!

Jenni said...

I love the stories of the church/barn and the factory! How fascinating!

Unknown said...

What neat places you saw! I have wanted to get to the UP all summer and STILL haven't made it. :( I love that turkey!

Pamela said...

I'd love to visit that place.
I'm always inviting myself along with all the blogger trips.
but always after the fact. sigh

Biddie said...

Sounds like a relaxing trip...I would love to take a mini vacation and visit some historic sites.
I loved the turkey, btw.

debi said...

As always you share the greatest pictures. It's so nice that you and Daddy D can take off and have such adventures. Thanks for popping in. I do miss you. Cannot wait for tomorrow and Baby Watch. I know Frema will keep us posted. Seems like just yesterday we were all waiting for little Kara to arrive.That time flew by.

Beccy said...

What a great trip, looks and sounds fab.

wendishness said...

Historical places are great to visit, I wish we had more here. The pic of the great lakes is nice, it looks like the coast.

Anonymous said...

I love visiting churches/cathedrals and graveyards!! just love the picture and story to go with your church