We often think of California having migrant workers, however, they traveled throughout the United States. In July of 1940, photo/journalist John Vachon took these remarkable photographs of migrant children in Berrien County, Michigan. Migrant child, Berrien County, Michigan July 1940 Migrant children, Berrien County, Michigan July 1940 Migrant child from Arkansas, Berrien County, Michigan 1940 […]
According to Author/Historian D.Laurence Rogers, Paul Bunyan may have been based on a real person in Michigan. The lumber industry in Michigan was once a booming business. The white pine was like “green gold” and many people became millionaires. This also attracted a rowdy, rough element which could have included a character like Paul Bunyan who […]
I Want to Go Back to Michigan is a song by Irving Berlin composed in 1914. It was a moderate commercial success when it was first released and afterward became a staple on vaudeville. Billy Murray, a popular singer during the period when the song was first composed, recorded it for Edison Records in 1914. Its […]
Migrant workers to Barrien, Michigan made the best of their lives under difficult living conditions in 1940. These photographs taken by photo/journalists John Vachon reveal what their lives were like. Photographs show migrant agricultural workers, and families from Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas harvesting cherries and strawberries. They lived in miserable housing in company […]
“Many men made huge fortunes from the logging industry. These men are often called lumber barons, and Michigan had many. There also many other results of logging, including the growth of cities around the mills, the quick spread of farming (the land was easier to clear) and the change in Michigan’s environment after the trees […]
The curators at the Michigan Historical Museum are stumped by this mysterious artifact in their collection that was donated to the Museum. Jeremy Dimick describes this unknown item that was donated early in the museum’s history, before record keeping is what it today (circa 1913). The artifact came from a mining ghosttown in Michigan’s Upper […]
