The Meecheegander Missives: Information on Michigan and Detroit to Prepare Information and Referral Professionals for the 2011 AIRS Conference in the ‘D’ June 5 – 8, 2011 The Meecheegander Missives.doc i The original posts to the AIRS Networker listserve were made daily from April 10, 2011 to June 5, 2011. During June, July, and August, the posts were collected into a single document, corrected when necessary, reformatted, garnished with illustrations pirated from the Internet, and indexed. Final edits were made August 10, 2011. The Meecheegander Missives.doc ii Introduction When it was announced that the 2011 Annual Training and Education Conference of the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS) was coming to Michigan, those of us on the board of the local affiliate, MI-AIRS, knew we had our work cut out for us. With the help of Sharon Galler (who has coordinated AIRS Conferences from coast to coast), we divvied up assignments and set to work. I volunteered to write an FAQ for the Conference (a copy of which can be found at the back of this document) to be posted on the MI-AIRS Web site. And I also impetuously volunteered to contribute daily postings promoting the conference to the AIRS Networker , the listserv that’s followed by most people in the profession of community information and referral. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I enjoy writing, and how much work could it take—15 or 20 minutes a day or so? WRONG. It wound up taking a lot more time and effort than I had anticipated. But it also turned out to be incredibly rewarding. The positive feedback I got as the postings began appearing convinced me that I was doing the right thing. I initially thought I would limit the postings to Michigan trivia and an overview of both the state and metro Detroit. But as time went by, I realized I also wanted important historical stuff and landmarks. And I realized I needed to address some uglier sides of the state and the city. Both Michigan and Detroit have been through some hard times. Ours was the only state to actually lose population since the 2000 Census, and Detroit lost 26% of its residents (though the city is appealing the count). I found myself telling the story of loss and rebirth. I also found myself revealing more about my own life than I had planned. When the project came to an end with the 57 th consecutive daily posting on June 5, 2011, I felt . kind of empty. So I’ve gathered all the postings together in chronological order, corrected numerous typos and a handful of factual errors (I was disturbed to see that my original text seemed to indicate that John C. Fremont was elected the 15 th President of the United States!), added illustrations (which Yahoogroups really didn’t permit), and created a pretty extensive index. I think of this being part of America’s long tradition of bathroom literature. It’s meant to be sampled during idle moments. You can open it at random, scan through the table of contents, or browse through the index to find topics about which you’ll think what the hell does THIS have to do with Michigan . (That damned index nearly drove me to drink. After indexing hundreds of entries using Microsoft Word ’s indexing feature, I found that the automatically generated index was approximately accurate to within a page or two)but not 100% accurate. So that led to the even more tedious process of verifying and updating every index entry.) The Meecheegander Missives.doc i Despite my gripes, it’s been a blast. I hope readers of the original posts and of this document find it half as informative and entertaining as it was for me. I also hope it’s the start of a tradition. I’ve publicly challenged Louisiana AIRS to undertake a similar publicity campaign leading up to the 2012 AIRS Conference in New Orleans. Lets see what you’ve got, Louisiana. Educate us about crawfish and your state dog and state drink (you’ve got both) and Huey Long. —Dick Manikowski (June 27, 2011) PS—Fearing that this isn’t fully out of my system, I’ve also begun a sporadic blog at meecheegander.blogspot.com The Meecheegander Missives.doc ii Table of Contents Posting Date ..... Topic .............................................................................. Page .......................... Introduction ............................................................................i .......................... Table of Contents................................................................. iii 4/10/11.............. First State to Ban Death Penalty...........................................1 4/11/11.............. Great Lakes State & Water Wonderland...............................2 4/12/11.............. First Mile of Paved Concrete Highway in the U.S..................3 4/13/11.............. Salt Mine Beneath Detroit .....................................................5 4/14/11.............. Giant Uniroyal Tire ................................................................6 4/15/11.............. Wolverine State.....................................................................7 4/16/11.............. The Funk Brothers: Motown’s House Band..........................8 4/17/11.............. Political History......................................................................9 4/18/11.............. Tax Day Blues.....................................................................12 4/19/11.............. Underground Railroad.........................................................13 4/20/11.............. Detroit Population Soars, Plummets ...................................14 4/21/11.............. Reconfiguring a Downsized Detroit.....................................17 4/22/11.............. Rabble Rouser Comes to Dearborn....................................19 4/23/11.............. The Mitten State..................................................................21 4/24/11.............. The Nain Rouge..................................................................23 4/25/11.............. The Upper Peninsula ..........................................................26 4/26/11.............. The Mackinac Bridge ..........................................................29 4/27/11.............. Mackinac Island ..................................................................33 4/28/11.............. Great Lakes Shipping Industry............................................35 4/29/11.............. Henry Ford ..........................................................................39 4/30/11.............. Joe Louis.............................................................................43 5/1/11................ Muhammad Ali ....................................................................46 5/2/11................ Invention of Four-Way Traffic Signal...................................48 5/3/11................ Isle Royale ..........................................................................49 5/4/11................ Belle Isle .............................................................................51 5/5/11................ The Great Bath Schoolhouse Massacre .............................54 5/6/11................ Robocop Coming to Detroit.................................................56 5/7/11................ What to Call Michigan Natives ............................................58 5/8/11................ Michigan Cuisine.................................................................60 5/9/11................ Music Made in Michigan......................................................63 The Meecheegander Missives.doc iii 5/10/11.............. The Floating ZIP Code........................................................66 5/11/11.............. Kelloggs of Battle Creek......................................................68 5/12/11.............. Michigan and Octopi ...........................................................70 5/13/11.............. Vernors Ginger Ale: Deliciously Different ...........................73 5/14/11.............. Michigan’s Industries...........................................................75 5/15/11.............. Michigan Writers .................................................................77 5/16/11.............. Michigan Place Names .......................................................79 5/17/11.............. Movies Shot in Michigan .....................................................82 5/18/11.............. Michigan in Radio and Television........................................86 5/19/11.............. Michigan’s Lumber Industry ................................................89 5/20/11.............. More on Michigan’s Lumber Industry ..................................91 5/21/11.............. Bootlegging in Detroit..........................................................93 5/22/11.............. The Bridges of Bay County City ..........................................95 5/23/11.............. The Not-So-Famous Lovells Bridge Walk ...........................98 5/24/11.............. Magical Michigan ..............................................................100 5/25/11.............. Michigan’s Automotive Industry ........................................102 5/26/11.............. Detroit’s Freeways & the Labor Movement in Michigan ....106 5/27/11.............. Natural Disasters in Michigan ...........................................109 5/28/11.............. Ethnicity of Michigan .........................................................111 5/29/11.............. Dearborn’s Middle East Population...................................116 5/30/11.............. Detroit as the Arsenal