Breakfast with Joyce in Dewitt, visits to Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, and finally stop in Gaylord

-- Breakfast with Joyce --

I got to know Joyce when I first moved to Raleigh, NC, in 1984. Joyce lived in Fuquay-Varina, and a friend of hers lived in the same apartment complex where I lived in Raleigh. Joyce and I had lost track of each other over the years, but got reconnected on Facebook several years ago.

Joyce still lives in the Raleigh area most of the year, but she spends her summers near Lansing, Michigan, where she has family and where she grew up. I left Joyce a Facebook message and a phone message yesterday, telling her I was passing through the Lansing area, and asking if she wanted to meet up. She returned my call last night, and we  arranged to meet for breakfast this morning at Bob Evans restaurant in DeWitt.

It was fun seeing Joyce again, and catching up! She looks great! She keeps young, helping watch her niece's children, and taking care of the yard around the farm where she grew up. I'm glad we were able to get together and visit after all these years! 

After breakfast with Joyce, I headed for northern Michigan. I want to visit Mackinac Island, the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and venture back into Canada. I had visited Macknac Island and Michigan's upper peninsula about 10 years ago and wanted to go back. 

I wasn't sure how far I would get today, but my route took me through Flint, Saginaw, and Bay City.

-- Flint, Michigan --

I got off the freeway to drive around Flint, which was the original headquarters for General Motors. According to Wikipedia, General Motors was started in Flint in 1908, and by the 1970s, employed 80,000 workers in Flint. Flint was the home factory for all Chevrolet vehicles.

GM headquarters are now in Detroit, as I saw earlier this week, and GM has downsized by around 90% in Flint. I remember reading in the news a while ago that Flint had a big problems with lead pipes and drinking water, so Flint has had a rough time.

I can't speak for all of Flint, but the areas I saw were very depressed. I drove through neighborhoods with houses boarded up and in disrepair. People make do with what they have, but I felt sorry for the people living there, and I got back on the freeway.

It really brought home the effects a major employer can have on a city when the industry takes a bad turn, like the American automobile industry has, and the employer has to cut back or pull out of the city. I saw similar effects in the Binghamton/Endicott/Johnson City area of western New York, where Endocott-Johnson Shoes and IBM were major employers that pulled out. It can take a while for areas to find new footing, and some never really recover.

-- Saginaw and Bay City --

Saginaw is another city that has gone through transitions. I visited the Castle Museum in downtown Saginaw and learned about some of the city's history.

The most interesting history displays were in the basement. Saginaw started out with the fir trade and beaver pelts. Then it was big with lumber, and then manufacturing automobile parts. Each, in turn, hit a decline, and the city has had to adapt.

Beavers and trees were limited resources. In the early 1800s, 90% of Michigan was covered with dense forests, and the areas show in green, below, were covered with White Pine. The logging industry was huge, but they didn't plant replacement trees. 

An expansive river system feeds into Saginaw. The rivers and the proximity of the great lakes made Saginaw a perfect spot for sawmills and transporting wood.

The virgin forests were eventually depleted. By 1897, it is estimated that the Saginaw sawmills had produced almost 23 billion board feet of lumber!! A sign in the museum said that would be enough lumber to construct almost 5 walkways, 4 feet wide and one inch thick, to the moon.

The logging camps were remote. Trees were cut down in winter, when the ground was hard and frozen, making it easier to drag the logs out of the forest. The logs were floated down the rivers to the sawmills in the Spring, and the lumber shipped out over the great lakes or the railroads.

The series of photos, below, show some of the lumber-related jobs. All were hard work and labor intensive -- tree fellers, sawyers, loaders, teamsters, and workers on a river drive.

A series of rail lines passed through Saginaw. The Grand Trunk was was one of the railways that passed through the "Milwaukee Junction" area of Detroit near the Ford Piquette Plant I visited last week. 

After the lumber industry died down, Saginaw became a manufacturer and supplier of automobile parts. The railroads and waterways made it a good hub for transporting the raw materials and parts.

When I was in the museum today, one of the local visitors told me about a big dumping ground of sand near his house. The sand was used for casting automobile engines.

Similar to what happened in Flint, the American automobile industry decline has affected Saginaw, and they are struggling to find a replacement. The lady at the museum desk said there are some medical-related jobs coming into town, and she hopes that will be the replacement.

The railroads also served for transporting grain. An local artist painted some the old rusty grain silos along the railroad tracks by the Saginaw river. The murals have made the silos quite attractive. They caught my attention, and I took photos from each side.

 

-- Bay City, Michigan --

I didn't know Madonna grew up in Bay City until I saw this mural painted on a city wall. Bay City is a small town along the Saginaw river, located between Saginaw and Lake Huron. I didn't spend much time here, although I got out and walked along the river, and also stopped by the shore of Lake Huron. I wanted to make it further north before stopping for the night.

I got as far north as Gaylord, Michigan, tonight, where I'm spending the night in the walmart parking lot. Gaylord is about an hour south of Mackinaw City, where I want to start my adventures tomorrow, so it is a good stopping place for the night.