One hundred fifty years ago life on what was then the American frontier was different in ways we can barely imagine. This is the true story of a young man who left his home in northern Ohio to seek a new life in west Michigan. A long time ago, before America’s Civil War, 18-year-old Solomon Miller, was bored living in northern Ohio. He wanted to join … Continue reading A Michigan Tale: The Story of Solomon Miller
American Dispatch Daily Friend January 29th, 2023 https://dailyfriend.co.za/2023/01/29/americas-idealistic-beginnings/ Continue reading America Approaches its 250th Anniversary
This past summer at the Duxford air show in England I came upon a P-51 Mustang that was being worked on and thus not flying that day. Stopping at the explanatory display, I was astonished to read that for this iconic airplane only 120 days had passed from design to production. Could this be true? Research uncovered surprises. In 1940 British industry was running flat out … Continue reading Winning Combination: P-51 Mustang and Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine
I. Thomas Jefferson was smitten with the rugged beauty of the Natural Bridge deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. He visited this geographic wonder 120 miles from Monticello at least six times, describing its sturdy limestone arch 250 feet above Cedar Creek, as “the most sublime of nature’s works.” Natural Bridge, May 2022 (Barry D. Wood photo) Jefferson was enthralled both by the … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson, Natural Bridge, & My Great-Grandfather
MESICK, MI: In the 1880s Michigan was America’s biggest producer of lumber. Magnificent stands of hard wood and white pine had been purchased on the cheap by timber barons who made great fortunes clear cutting Michigan forests. By 1930 it was gone. But the hard-living men who sweated sawing and hauling giant trees became the stuff of legend like cowboys in the American west. Lumberjacks (they called … Continue reading Dangerous Life of Michigan Lumberjacks
