We are closed for an extended Labor Day Weekend

We will be closed for an extended Labor Day Weekend beginning Thursday, August 30 until Tuesday, September 4. Any gift baskets ordered after 5 p.m. Wednesday, August 29th will be shipped on Wednesday, September 5th. Have a Great Day!

The Top 10 Michigan Wonders

I put together a list of the Top 10 Michigan Wonders. The criteria were simply that they needed to be places and/or thing in Michigan that are unique and interesting. I figure the list will expand beyond 10 because I feel that there are way more than just 10 things about Michigan that deserve distinction. You can view the list at the Top 10 Michigan Wonders page I created. The list includes pictures and descriptions of the individual items plus some videos that complement the wonders.

Some of the things that made the list -

• Sleeping Bear Dunes
• The salt city beneath Detroit
• Soo Locks

Visit the Top 10 Michigan Wonders

New page about Anatomy of a Murder

I created a new page at Squidoo that gives some background on the actual murder that the book and movie were based on. You will also find information on the area that the movie was filmed (in Michigan's U.P. at Big Bay, Ishpeming, and Marquette) back in 1959. I tossed in videos of the movie trailer and links to learn more about the cast as well as some photos from the movie and area in which it was filmed. Here it is the link - www.squidoo.com/anatomy-of-a-murder

Crews continue to make progress in U.P. forest fire

The Sleeper Lake Forest Fire is estimated to be 67% contained and the chance of some more rain showers on Thursday would definitely be a help. Firefighters continue to battle the blaze with the help of marshmasters (they look like mini-tanks), three Blackhawk helicopters, and two CL-215 water bombing aircraft. Read today's Marquette Mining Journal article about the fire.

Update on the Edmund Fitzgerald life preserver

I recently mentioned a story about a family that discovered a battered orange life preserver with Edmund Fitzgerald stenciled on it. Many wondered if this was a hoax of some kind or if it could possibly be the real deal. Cynthia Edwards has apparently put to rest any ideas of the ring's authenticity or chance that it was a hoax. She is quoted in the Marquette Mining Journal as saying -

. . . her father acquired the orange preserver more than 20 years ago and stenciled ‘‘Edmund Fitzgerald’’ on it.

The ring was kept at the family’s cabin along Lake Superior and the Eagle River — not far from where it ultimately was found in the Upper Peninsula’s Keweenaw Peninsula — until it was lost about two years ago.

Her father painted the ship’s name on the ring as kind of a remembrance of the ship.

She also stated that, "It was never to trick anybody or make anybody think it was real."

Marquette celebrates new Jimmy Stewart stamp

Anyone familiar with the Academy Award nominated film, Anatomy of a Murder, knows that it was filmed in the U.P. The movie is based on a true story that was turned into a novel written by former Michigan Supreme Court justice, John Voelker. Courtroom scenes for the movie were filmed in the Marquette courthouse and the other scenes in the movie were shot on location around the Marquette area of the U.P.

The movie starred Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, and a young looking George C. Scott. Anyway, the postal service is honoring Jimmy Stewart with a stamp and some of the locals who were extras in the film gathered at the Marquette courthouse for a stamp dedication ceremony last Friday.

© 2007 USPS

Joan Hanson was one of the extras in the film and wrote of her experiences in a book titled, "Anatomy of "Anatomy" The Making of a Movie." Numerous photographs of the filming sites, notes from the actors, and her personal accounts of her view of the actors and the filming process in Michigan's U.P. are quite charming and interesting. I read her book while staying at the Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast.

Incidentally, Big Bay is the setting for where the actual murder took place. Scenes for the movie were filmed at the Thunder Bay Inn (once owned by Henry Ford) which is still open as well as the scene of the actual murder, the Lumberjack Tavern.

Here is a clip of the film's premiere in Detroit at the United Artists theater -

If video player does not appear, click here to view the video.