A Barn Off M-52

 As I said in my last post, I decided to head over to M-52 to head home.  I wasn't really in the mood to go over to Grand Haven but I wasn't quite in the mood to head home.  There was a barn on M-52 that I wanted to get a picture of, so I headed that way.

This wasn't the barn but I thought it looked pretty cool.  I like it when there is some growth around the barn.  One of these days, I should look up the history.

Catching the Wolverine in a Jiffy

 I was going to see if I could catch some snowy owls today.  I ended up taking a convoluted route to get there.  As I was passing on Huron River Drive, it occurred to me that the Wolverine would be passing soon and I would have a chance to catch her.

I was able to get  to Chelsea to catch it.  It has been a while since I've seen a train here, so it was pretty cool.

It was an eastbound train and that was nice because the lighting at this time of day for the eastbound train is pretty good.

It was a pretty nice day but a little on the cold side because of the wind.  Since it snowed fairly recently, there was some snow being kicked up by the train.

I think I see the engineer pointing at me and that's kind of cool.

One more shot of the train's front.

And then it passed.

A Random Barn Near Chelsea

I had to help my mom get her drawings from Joe and Rosie's in Dexter first.  After that, we were thinking about heading over to O'Hare to do some planewatching but then I looked at Marine Traffic and I saw that the Sykes was going to be heading into Grand Haven later in the day.

 Since I had plenty of time to head over there, I ended up taking a less direct way of getting there.  This meant taking some of the more rural routes over.

 I liked the way that the sun was hitting this barn, so I decided to stop and take some pictures.

 I decided a more pulled out shot for this one.

As I drove a little further, I stumbled across this barn.  I liked the horse on the roof, it kind of reminded me of a horse from a Nintendo video game or something.

Traveling M-52

One of the things I was doing on this blog for a while was traveling the various state highways and taking pictures of them as I went along.  I haven't done that in a while and I want to start it again.  I figured M-52 would be an easy highway to trace since it's not that long.

 M-52 was first designated a state highway on July 1, 1919.  Originally it started at the Ohio Border at the end of Ohio Route 109 and went through Adrian.  At M-50, it turned east towards Tecumseh and then turned north to Clinton where it ended.  In 1960, M-92 was extended to Clinton and M-52 was extended north to Manchester.  In 1969, it was extended all the way to its current end.

 And since we were entering Michigan, we were greeting with the Pure Michigan sign.

 Adrian was founded on June 18, 1826 by Addison Comstock who was a promoter of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad.  Originally it was named Logan.  In 1828, it was renamed Adrian after the Emperor Hadrian by Comstock's wife.  Throughout the late 1800's and early 1900's, Adrian was known as the fence capital of the world after the invention of the wire fence by Wallace Page.  In this time, Adrian was one of the first fence manufacturers in the world and would ship fences around the world.
Between 1900 and 1912, Adrian was shaping to be a motor capital of the world as it had a couple of car companies.  The first was the Church Manufacturing Company and they produced the Murray and the Lenawee Car.  Both were popular but due to bad financial decisions, Church went out of business.  Another was the Lion but that factory caught fire and ended the company.

 Adrian is the County Seat of Lenawee County and has about 21,000 people.  This is the County Courthouse.  I'd swear this looks like every other county courthouse in Michigan.

 In 1824, the land around Manchester was surveyed by John Mack and it was noted as being a good seat for a grist mill.  John Gilbert, who was originally from upstate New York, moved to Ypsilanti.  In 1832, he decided to look at the land he held in the area.  He decided to build a grist mill along the River Raisin.  In 1835, the village of Manchester was established.

 I'm not sure if this is the site of the original mill but it works.  Currently, 2,091 people live in Manchester.

  At it's heart, Chelsea is an agricultural community.  Just outside of town are a number of farms and in town are some things that come about as a result of those farms.  It was first settled in 1820 by Cyrus Beckwith along with the brothers Elisha and James Congdon.  It was named after Elisha's home town of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

 Chelsea is also home to the Jiffy Mix Company.

 Stockbridge doesn't look all that much different from many of the other towns along the way.  Its first settlers arrived in 1835.  The town was planned by Elijah Smith and he was going to name it Pekin.  Before he could register the town, he was bought out by Silas Beebe.  Mr. Beebe thought the railroad would be passing through and Mr. Smith knew that wasn't going to happen immediately.  The railroad wouldn't arrive until 1883.

 I will admit that it was this building that caught my eye.  This is the Stockbridge Town Hall.  It was designed by Elijah Myers and constructed in 1892.  It is a Romanesque structure and not only does it house the local government, it also was host to many cultural events.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.  It was restored in 1982 with the assistance of Federal Grant money.

The only problem with these trips is that the towns start to blend.

 One of many barns on M-52.

 A post office was established in Perry in 1850.  It is named after Oliver Hazard Perry, the famous Naval Commander who won the Battle of Lake Erie.  It was officially incorporated in 1893.

 The first settlers in Owosso were Alfred L. and Benjamin O. Williams.  They were followed by Elias Comstock who built the first permanent home there.  It was incorporated as a city in 1850.  Currently there are around 15,000 people that live there.  One of Owosso's most famous residents was Thomas E. Dewey.  He was the Dewey part of the "Dewey defeats Truman" headline.  Owosso was also home to Mel Schacher, who was a member of Grand Funk Railroad.   It was also home of Alvin Bentley, whose wife gave a large donation to the University of Michigan which enabled the Bentley Historical Library. 

 Owosso is also home to the Curwood Castle.  This belonged to James Oliver Curwood who was an American Action-Adventure writer and conservationist.  His books were amongst the top ten best sellers in the 1920s.  At least 18 movies were based on his works.  At the time of his death, he was one of the top paid authors in the world.

 His statue.

 A bridge near the castle.

 This is the house that was built by Elias Comstock.

 M-52 ends somewhere north of St. Charles, Michigan.  I couldn't go any further along M-52 proper because it was under construction.  St. Charles is roughly in the middle of Saginaw County.  This does not look like a typical Midwestern town though.  It almost looks like they couldn't decide the look they were going for.

However, it seems like this clock is fairly standard these days.

One of the things I like about taking these rides is that they give me a chance to learn little tidbits about my state.  I'm not sure what highway I'll do next though.

The Jiffy Mix Wolverine

I didn't really feel like doing much this weekend, so I ended up heading over to Chelsea.  Little did I realize that it was also the weekend of the Chelsea Art Festival.  But that didn't deter me too much.

 I ended up missing the westbound Wolverine by about five minute but the eastbound Wolverine would be appeared soon.

 Or as some people say, "In a Jiffy".

 These were sitting in front of the train station and while I was waiting I figured I would take some pictures of them.

 I think these are mums.  Well the flower...not belonging to my mother.

 I kind of liked the variety.

 The Wolverine was running a little late.

 So it wasn't here in a Jiffy.

 But it made for a nice picture.

I wanted to get a picture of the signal lights.

Running Into the Wolverine in Chelsea

On Saturday I didn't really feel like doing much but I didn't want to get my normal Wolverine pictures from Ypsilanti, so I headed over to Chelsea.

 I really like the views of the train that I get in Chelsea.  Unfortunately, the don't last enough.  I really like the fact that I can get the signal lights in the shot.  One of these I would like to learn how to interpret these better.

 But I guess quality is better than quantity in this case.

 I should have gone on the side where I could get the depot in shot.

 It didn't take too long for the train to pass.

 A shot of the rear of the train.

 It wasn't too long for the eastbound Wolverine to appear.  I'm not sure if I like this shot.

 Or this shot.

 This train was moving a little faster than the last one.  So it didn't take long.

And a passing shot.