into Michigan

I began my trek towards the Shaw Festival this morning, departing South Bend around 10 AM.  I decided to give my Chevrolet a tour of its homeland: industrial Michigan.  So onto the Indiana Toll Road to the oddly desolate crossroads of I-69 and I-80/90, and the first of many left turns, this one towards Lansing. I arrived in desolate downtown Lansing, home of Malcolm X, around noon. Had lunch at the George Washington Tavern, just across from this marker.

The lunch, salmon on a bed of eggs Florentine, was pretty good.  Then, I drove down the street to the large and largely deserted Michigan Historical Society and Library, pictured below.

Sunday was free day--free parking and free admission. And the museum was large and interesting.  OK, it needed a little polish since it seemed frozen in its 1989 opening state. Budgets have likely been tight.  But it was a full service, not too edgy, but not too revisionist museum.  Started with the glaciers and ended with Gerald Ford. And there was lots there to make one realize how iconic Michigan is within US History. I hadn't thought about it much, but Michigan entered the Union only in 1837--about 20 years after Illinois and Indiana.  It turns out there just weren't that many people there, relative to Indiana/Illinois, which had a lot of Ohio River settlers earlier. Anyway Michigan got settled later, and it was a different crowd.  No home-grown slaves, no rebels, just a bunch of Yankee abolitionists.  And they got fired up during the Civil War and before it, being a hot bed of the Underground Railroad.  They also built a lot of stuff, like the contraption pictured below.

They also mined a LOT of stuff, copper and iron or mainly, and built the infrastructure to get it to market.  Michigan was home to the "Detroit Jewel" stoves, much like what was in Grandma Powers' house.  An early version is pictured below.

They also had a lot of forestry, and a carriage-making industry, which evolved into the automobile industry. There was a whole lot on the labor union movement.  The museum claimed the UAW was founded South Bend, but I couldn't verify that on Wikipedia.  There was an extended set of displays of the Chevrolet Sit Down Strike in 1937, which was pretty lively. Featured was one of the leader's bloody clothing, among other things.

After the strike was over, Michigan got down to the business of thinking about strategies to defend its populace from nuclear menace.  A heat protection tactic is displayed below.

The Motown music exhibit was pretty good.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the Supremes covering the Beatles; see below.

Also featured was Lil' Stevie Wonder's (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, MI) Chickering Grand Piano from his childhood home.  Ted Nugent got a lot of time, as did the Temptations, and others.  I then took a short jaunt to the state capitol building, pictured below.

Just across the street is a state government building dedicated to a Ramblin' Michigander with a son in today's news.

No sign of life here either, so I hit the pavement for Chevrolet Heaven, Flint, Michigan. Flint's old-timey hotels are likely past their prime, so I secured lodging in the "award-winning" and reliable Hampton Inn on the edge of town. Fine quarters and no complaints. I took nourishment next door at the Redwood Brew Pub, pictured below, along with my filet dinner plate. The staff gave me some fine recommendations for touring Flint and the "thumb" country of Michigan for tomorrow.