Motu Viget Spirits – the first Black owned wine and spirits company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan – has seen success in its first two years of operation. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Jamiel Robinson, Jonathan Jelks, Andrea Wallace and recording artist Willie ‘Willie the Kid’ Jackson in 2019, the company has grown from a local favorite to a nationally recognized brand practically overnight.
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Michigan was founded on January 26, 1837 as the 26th state of the United States of America. Currently home to nearly 10 million people, spread out throughout two peninsulas, Michigan is the Great Lakes State – the Mitten of Plenty – the Wolverine State. Michigan’s early business history is centered in industries that benefited from its proximity to the Great Lakes: fishing, lumbering, mining, fur trapping and agriculture.
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Each holiday season, we are inundated with hour after hour of movies about Christmas airing on television and now streaming services. A handful have ties to Michigan, like Prancer (1989) and The Polar Express (2004). But did you know the beloved 1954 classic White Christmas is believed to have actually been written right here in the Great Lakes State?
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The Michigan Sports Alliance will host the 2021 Michigan Lighthouse Tour starting March 1 – May 3, 2021. The tour is a virtual team-based challenge for groups of 6-24 people to collectively run or walk 2,021 miles over the course of two months while visiting 28 of the featured Michigan lighthouses.
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Celery is an integral part of the Thanksgiving feast…as one of the main ingredients in homemade stuffing (or dressing, if you prefer). Did you know that Kalamazoo, Michigan is known as “Celery City” because it was the first place in the United States where this vegetable was commercially grown?
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Fred Bueltmann, an entrepreneur, former brewery executive and expert in company culture, has joined with leaders in equine-assisted experiential learning to launch Red Horse Center for Collaborative Leadership. Red Horse is established to serve the mission of strengthening collaborations for the greater good by working with humans and horses, through mindful experiential learning and considerate leadership models to discover and empower positive change in the world.
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It isn’t often that a place can be regarded as opulent and intimate at the same time, but that is exactly the feeling one gets when visiting the 30,000-square-foot Ford House (fordhouse.org) along the shores of Lake St. Clair in Grosse Pointe Shores.The former home of Edsel Ford (the only child born to Henry and Clara Ford), his wife, Eleanor (Clay) and their four children, was completed in 1928. Inspired by England’s Cotswold storybook cottages, it features sandstone exterior walls adorned with ivy, along with a limestone shingled roof.
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While tropical storms and hurricanes continue to attack the region in and around the Gulf of Mexico, the “Gales of November” are stirring up the Great Lakes region just as they have for centuries. This unique weather phenomenon is created when cold, dry air from northern Canada converges with moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, over the still warm summer waters of the Great Lakes.
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Dean Templeton was a lot of things. Above all, he was a character with a colorful yet often dark past.
Born in Flint, Michigan in 1921 to Ralph and Myrtle Templeton (the second of five children), Dean’s childhood was riddled with neglect, abuse, mental anguish and broken hearts. As an adult, he became consumed with the idea of running for President of the United States and began a cross-country, hitchhiking campaign which landed him in Washington state in 1975. It was there, Dean’s bid and his life abruptly ended at the hands of an assassin. Today, more than 45 years later, Dean’s murder remains unsolved.
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Every fall, a growing interest in the paranormal means that people around Michigan (and beyond) begin talking about the state’s many spirited sites…most notably, it’s historic lighthouses. Of the more than 125 lighthouses in the state, 30 or so are also rumored to be haunted…and 13 of those are included in the pages of the best-selling book “Michigan’s Haunted Lighthouses” by Dianna Stampfler.
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By Dianna Stampfler Dozens of Michigan restaurants acknowledge being “haunted,” but only a handful celebrate their spirited side by hosting
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In June 1965, the Trout was officially named Michigan’s “State Fish” — joining other noted symbols like the Apple Blossom (named “State Flower” in 1897, the American Robin (Named the “State Bird” in 1931, the Eastern White Pine Tree (Named the “State Tree in 1955), and the Petoskey Stone (Named the “State Stone in 1965).
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I think I first heard the word census during the summer of 1980, when I was in elementary school, and we spent our summer vacation researching our family tree on a cross-state road trip. I’m not sure I recall what it was or what it meant back then, but in recent years – as I’ve found a growing interest in my family history as well as the lives of others while researching for my writing, I have been finding more and more reason to access census data online.
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