Michigan Blue Magazine

Generations ago, train travel was a primary means of transportation around Michigan. Yet, many children today have never experienced the adventure of riding the rails with the clacking of the wheels on the tracks, the faint smell of the locomotive’s exhaust and the feel of wind in their hair while aboard the open gondola car.

If you want to fish for river-run salmon this fall or enjoy a canoe trip at the height of color, the U.S. Forest Service has a message for you: Pick up after yourself and keep the rivers clean.

Kristina Lishawa was just a young girl when her grandfather recognized her appreciation for wild beauty. He bought her a camera, something simple, and introduced her to new worlds.

Meet the authors, photographers, and contributors who helped bring this issue of Michigan BLUE Magazine to life.

Autumn is the season of tidings. We know in our bones that winter is coming. Summer has passed and the days have grown cooler. Migrant birds are leaving for southern climes, and darkness comes earlier and earlier each week.

Commercial cultivation of cranberries is on the rise, and wild food enthusiasts are heading out into bog land in search of its wild counterpart. Thousands of years ago, glaciers scraped across the land, carving deep crevices that filled with water and glacial debris. Those crevices became the bogs we know today, which is where you will find the wild cranberry. 

After a Memorial Day tornado tore through our neighborhood a few years ago, the skies had scarcely cleared when a chorus of chainsaws and generators echoed through the land. Just like that, my indefatigable brethren were out in force. 

On any busy summer day, visitors fill the tiny Jampot shop in Eagle Harbor waiting patiently to purchase wild berry jams, hearty fruitcakes, savory baked goods and confections handmade by the monks of the Holy Transfiguration Skete, Society of Saint John.

Old Mission’s historic establishment delivers relaxed farm-to-table dining.

In 2015, “sink logs” — timber that fell to river bottoms or lakes when floating en route to mills — were dredged from Muskegon Lake. Perfectly preserved specimens of this prized lumber found their way to Gabriel Currie, the brains and hands behind Echopark Guitars.