Two recently updated guidebooks — “Know Your Ships” and the “Historic Michigan Travel Guide” — contain rich content about our state. I keep copies of both in my truck door’s side pocket, so I’m ready to provide interesting information that dazzles my friends while I’m off on tangents around the Great Lakes region. I love how the books complement each other.
“Know Your Ships,” the 204-page field guide to boats on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, overflows with fascinating facts and figures for freighter-watchers like me. I’ve used it as a checklist to cross off scores of ships that I’ve spotted over the years. The book, which premiered in 1959, has been updated every year since 1983.
The forerunner to the “Historic Michigan Travel Guide” first appeared in 1978; in 2024, the Historical Society of Michigan (HSM) released its eighth edition. Larry J. Wagenaar, HSM’s executive director and CEO since 2001, and Amy Bradfield, HSM’s senior director of education and communications, edited the new guidebook.
Wagenaar was excited to share some background with me on the latest 164-page edition.
BLUE: How did you collect all this information?
Larry J. Wagenaar: The site included must be a historical destination that’s open to the public (and has) something to see, and it must be an organizational member of HSM. The current edition includes about 500 sites that help promote cultural and heritage tourism. We contacted every local history destination in early 2023 and requested updated information. There are always new entities that form, and ones that cease operations, so we’re always looking to update our data. I’ve also started a process of taking Fridays, when time allows, to visit regions of the state, county by county, and visiting historical organizations to check in with them and also to update the information
in our records.
BLUE: What do you like best about the guide?
LJW: I like that its 5- by 8-inch size is easy to access. Our approach to list museums and other historical sites by region, and then alphabetically by community name, makes it very easy to use. I also like that it includes so many destinations. All areas of the state are represented well. The guide doesn’t ignore or slight the Upper Peninsula or northern lower Michigan. (There’s a QR code for each listing that connects to the attraction’s website.)
LUE: What’s your goal in publishing this guide?
LJW: Our main goal was for it to be a useful tool in planning visits to local historical destinations as well as to keep in your car as you happen to be in specific locations. We’ve heard from some users that they’ve used it when they’re planning a trip within Michigan, while others have just kept the guide in their vehicle and used it when they happen to be in a specific area.
BLUE: What encouraged you to update the guide? Were you involved in previous updates?
LJW: I’ve been involved since the fourth edition in 2008, which appeared 28 years after the third edition. Our goal, since the fourth edition, was to do a new edition every three years. The Covid pandemic put a wrench in those plans. We were already a year late in 2020 in getting a new edition out (the seventh became available in 2016), but when Covid happened and no one was touring, we decided to wait. We started in earnest in 2023 to revise the content.
BLUE: Who created the original edition?
LJW: The first hand-stapled edition came out in 1978 as “Historical Museums in Michigan: A Visitors Guide (1978-79).” The second edition (1979-80) bore the current name and listed 163 museums in the state. There was one more, the 1981-82 third edition, before the publication went moribund. The original 1978 edition was the brainchild of Frank Wilhelme, who was HSM’s executive director at the time. Frank, by the way, just completed his second and final term on our board of trustees. Between that first edition and the next one, Tom Jones took over as executive director and only published two editions. In 2007-08, I approached Meijer (stores) about the possibility of sponsoring a revised and improved edition of the guide to support cultural and heritage tourism, and they agreed to support the project — which resulted in the fourth edition.
Get a Copy!
“The Historic Michigan Travel Guide,” sponsored by Meijer, is available at all Michigan Meijer stores, most bookstores, and online at hsmichigan.org.
“Know Your Ships” is produced by Marine Publishing Co. knowyourships.com.
