Collect the First NFT in the Collection of Wilbo the Tourist

This photograph represents a non-fungible token now for sale for 0.0238 Ethereum, a few pennies more than one hundred dollars. I minted the NFT for free using a new bitcoin that allows free minting. The NFT is the first in a series called The Travel Photographs of Wilbo the Tourist. I've toured all over, and it's fun to share the photographs, thanks to Open Seas. Will the NFT sell for 0.0238 Ethereum? I don't know. I do know that minting it didn't cost me 250 dollars in GAS fees. Minting cost me nothing, a new development. I owe 2.5 percent to Open Seas when and if it does sell. It's up for sale for six months. I am a professional programmer and business analyst, and it took me three days of hacking to reach this point. I had to set up a bitcoin account. Then, I had to move real money into it. Then I had to set up a bitcoin wallet. Then I had to connect the bitcoin wallet to my bitcoin account. Then I had to connect my bitcoin wallet to my OpenSeas account. But I love to hack, so who cares. My blockchain wallet awaits to collect the proceeds. Let's be clear about what I am selling. I'm selling merely a digital right to the photograph, not the right to the photograph. I can still sell prints of the photograph. Plus, I've contracted to receive 2.5 percent of every sale of this NFT forever and ever. That's a long time. Like all works of art, every NFT has an market stretching out to eternity. Call it the long tail. The blockchain keeps track of the provenance. I increase my chances of a sale by posting the Open Sea link everywhere. So, how do we guide the Starved Rock Art Community into a safe space where an experiment in NFT minting can be done? Imagine a gallery show. All the real works of art hang on the wall. All the show cards tell how to buy the NFT online. Which will fetch a higher price. Call it the "NFT Show"? This show will come with a short course in how to mint an NFT and set up all the wallets and accounts. I think a curator will be responsible for the technological stuff. This curator would be entrusted with the wallet for the show. I've already asked a few noted artists if they're interested, especially artists who already output first to digital. Digital Pony Guards Entrance of Museum of Science and Technology - Syracuse NY #bitcoin #business #community #art

A Cold Morning In Starved Rock Country --- Bringing Justice to the Lenore, Illinois Bandits ---- Vintage True Crime

Dear Friends in True Crime,

Let us recover a story from the past.

I found the story when I visited downtown Wenona, Illinois. 

A monument made me pause for a long time. Sheriff Glenn T. "Mike" Axline fell in the line of duty on January 16, 1935, a day in Starved Rock Country where the dawn arrived cold.

Who were the bank bandits? 

Four bank bandits attempted a safe cracking at the Leonore State Bank, Leonore, Illinois. Leonore counted five hundred citizens in 1935. Now, the village on the prairie counts one hundred and thirty.

These are the names of the bandits. The bandit who killed Sheriff Axline cannot be identified. All the surviving bandits paid for this crime together.

Melvin Leist, alias David Leach, 29, of Rockford. He served as a fireman for four years.

Arthur Thielan, 30, of Rockford

Fred Verner, 29, of Unknown. Verner and Thielen were brothers-in-law. Verner might have been the leader. The spelling of Gerner is sometimes used.

John H Hauff, ##, Ex-con, parole violator, of Chicago

It is possible that the four men functioned as a gang. All of the bandits who survived the day confessed. The confessions implicated an appliance sales person named fifth member Of gang, Leo Mellon.

The gang broke into the Clayton County courthouse in Elkader, Iowa. They unsuccessfully tried to crack the treasurers safe. However, the crackers ran out of gas for their torch. And Melvin Leist fainted from fumes.

A bank teller from the Shannon State Bank identified the bandits when the three were held in Ottawa, Illinois.

Elkader, Iowa, the county seat of Clayton County

https://www.fsbshannon-polo.com/index.php/about-us/meet-our-team-shannon-team/

Please allow me to share what I have gathered to this date. I would welcome an invitation to share this story with our circle.

Somewhere in the night of January 16, 1935, four bandits drove a Willys Knight to the village of Leonore, Illinois.




15232 McNabb Blacktop RdMcNabb, IL 61335

Loretta Fralin-Rapp Writes Confessions and Meditations That Lead Upward to Biblical Truths

The confessions written by Loretta Fralin-Rapp come from the heart and lead to Bible verses. I love that the author illustrated her confessions with photography that reminds me of the Garden of Eden and the Book of Genesis. I can see the spirit of God passing over the waters when I see the photos in her book. Find the wisdom of Fralin-Rapp close to her writing. She has planned a Bible study course for every day of the forty days in her devotional. She'll walk the forty days with you. Reach out to her through her social media channels.

  

In Quiet Streator, Illinois, A Writer Can Really Hear the Brain Thinking and Thinking

Visit Streator Illinois This Summer

The one hundred days of summer have arrived in Streator. Located in LaSalle County, the city is on track to open for business after Covid-19 closures ordered by Governor Pritzker. You'll love the town called the Quiet Surprise on the Prairie.

Draw Close to Nature

Streator offers three parks that let nature take its course. Spring Lake Park awaits with forty acres of woods and fields, crossed by whitewater streams. Enjoy forest bathing as you walk along Eagle Creek to a waterfall that cascades down a sandstone bench. Marilla Park offers sixty five acres of oak savanna along the course of Otter Creek. Enjoy a round of disc golf on the new course. Hopalong Cassidy Park meanders along the surprisingly wild Vermilion River where you will discover wild birds and beavers at work.

Draw Close to One Another

Streator features several prairie mansions available for the weekend through Airbnb. These cozy homes offer wrap around porches, formal gardens, gingerbread ornamentation and Victorian turrets. Read or converse together on the porch, enjoying the evening air, and order delivery from local restaurants that offer fine dining to American bistro. Comfortable hotel lodgings can be booked for those wanting traditional accommodations.

Draw Close to History

A series of twelve murals painted by the Chicago Walldogs reveal the history of Streator. One mural celebrates the life of Hopalong Cassidy, created by resident Clarence Mulford. Another mural honors Clyde Tombaugh, a local who discovered Pluto. You'll find the murals within an easy walk of City Park downtown.

Draw Up Your Plans

Planning a weekend in Streator couldn't be easier. Simply call Streator Tourism at 815-672-2055 today to book your accommodations and receive a welcome packet of coupons good for discounts and deals at area restaurants.

The Silas Williams House Is Just One Example of a Prairie Parlor House

To Visit A Church During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I Donated Blood to the Red Cross

Monday June 15, 2020 at 3:00 PM

Streator Incubator, Streator, Illinois

Terror has visited me today. I signed up to give blood at the Lutheran Church near City Park today. I see prompts in my email weekly. I finally found a blood drive when I could donate at the end of the day. I have a strong motivation to give. I promised myself to give as often as I could after my mother’s death in Spring of 2016.

The volunteers will wipe all surfaces again and again with sanitizer. All donors and nurses will be wearing face masks. The mini-physical at intake checks blood pressure and temperature. The staff must check their temperature at the beginning of the day, right? It’s a great day to flout COVID-19 and give blood despite the pandemic.

How the Red Cross will check my blood? The lab checks for venereal disease, including AIDS. Why wouldn’t the Red Cross check for COVID-19 and COVID-19 antibodies? I would love to have the two tests run on my blood.

I’ve given blood since my seventeenth year when I organized a blood drive in Byron, Michigan. I organized it for the student council. We welcomed donors in the basement of the Masonic Lodge. The Masons helped out, offering cookies, coffee and lemonade. I felt I had helped out my town and county. If I have given once a year since then, I donated forty pints of blood. I have given more than once a year. I have always worked for employers who sponsored four drives a year.

I haven’t given since October of last year. That fall, I wanted to give at the Round Lake Fire Department. I rolled up on my bike and walked in without an appointment. All the drives need appointments due to the pandemic. Then I cycled six miles through the hills around Ballston Lake, feeling happy and strong. I cooled my heels on a dock jutting into the lake, dug by a glacier. I caught the bus into Saratoga Spring, happy to be alive.

I’m happy to be alive today too. I wish we were closer to the end of the pandemic. I can only hope my blood contains part of the solution.

Monday June 15, 2020 at 7:30 PM

Streator Incubator, Streator, Illinois

Giving blood had felt dangerous and exciting. What a strange thought. Why would one grow excited for a needle poke in my left arm? Why would I want to bleed one pint, even for the good of a person I don’t know? I’ll never know who will benefit.

I haven’t seen the insides of a church since March, the Unitarian Universalist Church in San Antonio. The large church brought in the Texas sunshine. The congregation gathered in a courtyard during the education time before church. We sat on limestone block benches, carved from the buttes between Austin and San Antonio. And three months later, I showed up to give blood inside a small, modest Lutheran church.

I hand-sanitized at the door. I put my blue surgical mask in place before I even left my car. Two women saw me enter the church and made me welcome. “Are you here for the blood drive?” The two wore painter’s masks with metal nose clips. That’s what the church gave donors who arrived without a mask. I introduced myself. “I am Wilbo. I have a Four Forty Five appointment.” The host put a thermometer in my mouth. No fever meant I could give.

Appointments might have been necessary, and yet the church welcomed walk-ins. I sat in the lobby, six feet from six people seated upon folded metal chairs. The donors dressed in work tee shirts. They represented a local construction company and the nearby Caterpillar plant. We all waited in silence, breathing through our masks, scrolling through our phones.

I waited for an hour. “Next appointment,” called the staffer. I missed that call. My appointment had passed an hour ago. A man who arrived after me turned and spoke to me. “You can go.”

I entered the fellowship hall. I saw empty donation beds. The attendants finished up the donations of the last two donors. A staffer checked my blood pressure, a good reading for me. She pricked my finger to test my iron. She made me answer a set of questions on a touch screen computer. We sat farther apart than usual and wore masks. Nothing new I can report but those two items.

Dan led me to a bed where he could draw blood from my left arm. The Red Cross had stopped using rubber squeeze balls. He gave me a piece of foam wrapped in a surgical glove to squeeze. I don’t think a man has ever drawn my blood before, but he did a good job. “Look away,” he recommended. I did and he inserted the needle. I felt little pain. I usually jump.

I have always filled up the bag fast. Today was no exception. “You took four minutes and fifty-one seconds.” “Is that a record?” “Sorry, one donor gave a pint in three minutes and seventeen seconds. Faster than that time and we can’t use the blood. Only an artery can give blood that fast. It’s bright red blood. We need to draw blood from a vein.” “The more you know,” I said as I hopped off the bed.

I stocked up on snacks, pretzels and chips and cookies. I picked up a few bottles of water. “We have chicken salad sandwiches in the fridge. Would you like one or two?” “I’m a vegan.” “You’re a vegan?” “I’m a vegan although you couldn’t tell from the snacks I picked up.” “It’s okay, we’re glad you donated.” I hand-santized at the door. I drove downtown.

I sat in the historical park downtown, Heritage Park. A mural celebrates the night when "The Thief of Bagdad" opened in Streator. The building in the mural has a cornerstone of 1920. It didn't look like the nearby Majestic Theater. Ray Paseka of nearby Mendota Illinois painted it. 

Douglas Fairbanks starred in the film based on the Arabian Nights. The producer released the “Thief of Bagdad” for March 18, 1924. The film didn’t make it to Streator until warmer weather. The men and women dressed in their evening attire didn’t seem cold at all. The smart looking set sipped at cocktails and laughed at jokes and looked relaxed. Did Paseka looked at old photographs for the faces of his men and women? One woman holds a pack of Lucky Strikes in her left hand.

I like the historical park. The landscape designer set a huge boulder in the center, encircled by old fashioned roses. The town pulled the boulder out of the clay pit when Streator Brick closed its doors. The glass factory donated molds for milk bottles from the last century. Embedded in the cement, the molds make a conversational piece. The coal mines closed decades ago. A family donated a pickax, a miner’s hat and a miner’s lamp. The town embedded those in cement also.

The Red Cross van drove west on Main Street, heading towards Peoria. I knew my donation rested in a refrigerator with all the pints from my neighbors. The pints resemble human hearts when full. 

I sat and watched the sun fade on the brick store fronts of downtown. A lozenge in white porcelain embedded in the brick wall displayed a book. I wondered if a bookstore sold books from the building. I imagined walking into the bookstore before the Thief of Bagdad screening. I asked the clerk for a copy of One Thousand and One Arabian nights. 

I have lived here for ninety nights, every night a story.

Let us remember Thursday, June 16th, 2016 on the Lake Michigan Shore, a Beautiful Day in Muskegon and Grand Haven

Thursday, June 16th, 2016

Noon --- Downtown Muskegon, Michigan

Ellen Berends is at work. Picnic tables await in Hackley Park, stacked up like green, fallen dominoes. It's every picnic table owned by the City of Muskegon. Ellen and her team will fill the park with tables and then jam the street with tables. She's turning Clay Street into an outdoor cafe.

 The restaurants of Muskegon will bring their mobile kitchens to Clay Street. We'll all have a big sit down snack together. Call it the Taste of Muskegon. Ellen is one of those civic people who put it all together around here. She reminds us of a den mother plus a Fortune 500 VP who wanted a simpler life on the lakeshore. The bands are promising because who wants to eat in the park without music? Chris Cordle has a spot on the program. Chris Cordle looks like a guy who could pull off a good Todd Rundgren tribute act.

12:14 PM --- Hackley Park, Muskegon, Michigan

 Ellen Berends knows how to book the acts. Chris Cordle looks like a guy who could pull off a good Todd Rundgren tribute act. He can build his own guitar too. Ruxy Music brings the party to the people, meaning there will be dancing on the green.  Ruxy Music is an irresistible funk philosopher is on speed dial at the Muskegon Museum of Art. The museum calls Ruxy Music when an art opening calls for fresh. 

The Shagwells are studio musicians who pay tribute to the British Invasion. The Shagwells will go well with the Scotch Eggs from Hennessey's Irish Pub. The Shagwells play at Hennessey's Irish Pub all the time! 

That's not the only news that caught my eye as I drove to  Farmers Market. It's simple sights that catch my eye. The main fire station has the big garage doors up. The most interesting firefighters in West Michigan can go about chores in the fresh air. One of the fireman sings plays guitar.

12:30 PM ---- Driving Terrace Boulevard, Muskegon, Michigan

One of the firefighters sings, plays guitar. And he does it for love, not money. If your fundraiser needs some light entertainment, call the fire station. Don't call the three digit Nine One One. Call the fire station office number. Ask for the singing fireman, who always says yes to a good cause. 

One firefighter can locate a Great Lakes ship within five hundred miles of Muskegon. He doesn't need to consult the radar on Boat Nerd Dot Com. That's because he's the Lake Michigan correspondent for Boat Nerd. Firefighters waiting in a constant state of readiness use the time for self-cultivation. 

12:34 PM --- Hot Rod Harley, Muskegon, Michigan

The smoke stack of the coal power plant on Lake Muskegon looks attached to the grand entrance of Hot Rod Harley. The smokestack is soon obsolete. The grand entrance displays great orange Harley shields. The smoke stack rises up right between them. Did the architect plan this? 

The power plant is burning down its last load of coal delivered by a laker, a delivery made last summer. There's no good reason for a laker to enter Muskegon's channel anymore. It'll be pleasure ships, like the Lake Express and the good cruise ship Pearl Mist from now onward. Does Consumers Power believe that the lake residents will allow that tower to fall? The lake residents haven't allowed the tower at the paper mill to fall yet and it has been years. Leave the tower.

12:47 PM --- The Boomlands, Muskegon, Michigan

Leave the tower. The landmark guides kayakers on the Muskegon River. Peregrine Falcons raise their young on the side. It's nice that Consumers Power had built a Peregrine Falcon house on the side of the tall Shoreline Inn. The power company hopes the Falcons will move and be happy. 

Yet, do we want tourists watching as plummeting Falcons kill pigeons on the way down from the tenth floor? Then the falcon has to pluck its kill clean on the lawn before the outdoor cafe of the Lake House Restaurant. Better to leave those falcons to their wild dinners out at the lagoons around the power plant tower. 

Let's talk about Bob now. Bob serves as the official booster for the county.  He runs the bus department and the tourist bureau. The talented Bob brings us cruise ships, bass tournaments and today, a new statue. Like all those Chicagoland peeps, he's an overachiever.

1:03 PM --- Holiday Inn, Muskegon, Michigan

Like all those Chicagoland peeps, Bob's an overachiever. He even found a man who wanted to give the city a sculpture that cost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A man named John Hermanson became obsessed with an old ship that worked the port of Muskegon back in the age of sail. He fell in love with this beautiful lost ship, the Lyman Davis. His grandfather had served as the captain of the Lyman Davis. Bob made sure it happened.

I had to look up the name of the ship. I kept thinking Lyman Briggs, an early professor at Michigan State honored by a lecture hall. Parents named many boys Lyman around 1855. 

Hermanson asked friends and acquaintances to write checks. He hired a sculptor, Steve Anderson. Now we have a new sculpture on a roundabout near the Lake House. Now will we see Peregrin Falcons plucking kills off the new sculpture? Ask an ornithologist. 

Booster Bob has a good summer going. New trick the eye boulders hang in the trees of Hackley Park for Taste of Muskegon, ready to fall. But the sculptor made the boulders from Styrofoam. A new Walldog style mural on the Holiday Inn honors the making of springs in town.

1:12 PM --- Muskegon Farmers Market, Muskegon, Michigan

I'm driving over to see the new sculpture as soon as I finish my Apple pie I bought from a woman at the Farmers Market. It's fine to know that good people remember the Lyman Davis with a good wind filling its sail. The age of wind will never fail on the always breezy waters of Lake Muskegon. We even host ships that sail into our port looking like one of Columbus's barques. 

The Port of Muskegon even enjoys a yearly visit from the museum ship, the Friends Good Will. The Friends Good Will hails from South Haven, a heavenly port often called South Heaven. The local man who helps sails her plays Mandolin for tips Saturdays at the Farmers Market. The Silversides Museum hopes to build a tall ship to round out its fleet. It will moor by the Silversides submarine and the McClain, a Coast Guard cruiser. What if we could see the sails of the Davis fill with wind again?

5:43 PM --- City Beach --- Grand Haven, Michigan

Grand Haven has restricted parking at their Lake Michigan beach for now. I'm wondering if this is a result of construction on the street that goes along the coast. The detour takes one into the wooded sand hills, away from the beach. Driving diners car reach the Bil-Mar restaurant, but that's as far as the road allows car traffic. 

The state of this street is harsh to tourists. I wanted a swim. The state park beach is one of the few beach accesses in town. Hoping the city bath house has open doors so I can change into a swim suit. 

I can see where the Grand River arrives at Lake Michigan.  At the mouth, the waters of the land begin to mix between with the inland sea. The river waters stream along the channel, and continue to steam at least a half mile out. Is it too cold to swim?

I like the mobile bartending service from the MUGS liquor store near the freeway. The unit has rolled up into the city beach lot. A Thursday night private party has taken over the city beach. 

Bill-Mars won't mind if I slipped into their restroom and changed into swimming trunks?

6:16 PM --- Bill Mars Beach, Grand Haven, Michigan

I returned to my car with sandy bare feet, feeling rather surprised to be walking on pavement with my bare feet. I took a walk down to the waves from the Bill-Mar restaurant lot. The waves had enough strength and height to knock a man paddling his SUP off his paddle-board. "What's S'up"? Not him. 

He had to push the board all the way to the beach to stand up on it again. The storm had carved a foot of sand out of the fore-beach, and I fell backward as the little cliff gave way under my weight. I wandered into the water and the coldness made my feet ache. Now that my feet have warmed, my feet now tingle.

I miss that cold water. I should have stayed in longer. Swimming would have been unbearable until my skin went numb, but what about it? I once swam in Lake Michigan all the time when it felt this cold.

Friends Good Will, a Tall Ship from South Haven, Michigan

June in West Michigan is a Time for Road Construction, River Dredging, Blue Herons and Aggressive Spiders

June 15th, 2016

12:11 AM --- In the Parking Lot of Anna's House, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Anna's House has so prospered in a Grand Rapids location near Calvin College. So, the House of Anna has set up shop in Holland. Mile 5161.

1:31 AM --- Downtown Ada, Michigan

Has road construction shut down downtown Ada? Mile 5189.

2:30 AM --- Samuel Lutheran Church, Muskegon, Michigan

I drove by Samuel Lutheran Church. Their sign announced that a food truck would be passing out food Wednesday at Six PM. Usually the sign says "Our Hands, God's Work". Mile 5240.

1:00 PM --- Harbor Island, Grand Haven, Michigan

I saw a flotilla of sand dredges moored at Harbor Island. Harbor Island is the final island in the Grand River before Lake Michigan. Wonder what massive dredging project awaits near Grand Haven. These dredges sailed up from Holland. King Company owns the dredges. Mile 5254.

1:41 PM --- Patio of the Theater Bar, Grand Haven, Michigan

I am puzzling out how a musician from Grand Haven made his gig in Montague. The musician doesn't have a car or an obvious means of transport. It's these little mysteries that keep my mind busy.

3:25 PM --- D&W Fresh Market, Grand Haven, Michigan.

The storefront for Red Apron, a home delivery service for food, stands near D&W Fresh Market. D&W Fresh Market is Grand Haven's best grocery store. Could it be so simple a business plan. Red Apron ties into D&W's inventory. When a customer places order and a shopper walks over to D&W and fills the order off the shelves? Then the shopper drives it to the customer's home?

I like the D&W because my friends who are great cooks mention the store. And D&W goes big when it sponsors the Grand Haven Salmon Festival. But that's not why I am here for a late lunch. Colonel Sanders no longer offers a roast chicken on its menu. No one ordered it and the roasted chicken went to waste. So the franchises rebelled and thought of ways to stop serving it.

D&W has a delicious roast chicken by the piece, and it is free range! And it's far less expensive than Colonel Sanders's already low price. The City of Muskegon doesn't allow people to keep more than one free range chicken. D&W Fresh Market will have to be my source for this tasty and healthy treat!

4:41 PM ---- US 31 North to Muskegon, Michigan

I am loath to kill wildlife. Yet, a spider had tried to colonize my driver side dash. It was black, as big as a penny and accented with a bristly body and orange stripes. It was neither a brown recluse nor a black widow, two spiders that can do great harm to a human. I had left my window open a crack and this spider was already spinning webs where my door meets my dash.

I hate spiders. I once saw a spider in my office sixteen years ago. The Year 2000 Problem threatened to make our computer programs buggy and I was in an office fixing them. I saw a spider. Forgot about it. Then it bit me. I left the office feeling dizzy. I took a nap at home. I awoke from a nap.

4:50 PM --- Craig's Cruisers, Norton Shores, Michigan

I awoke from a nap. I felt groggy and had a headache. The headache lingered for days. Ever since that spider bite in my office in 1999, I've smited spiders aright away! I was giving this less than lethal arachnid no chance to bite me and inject mouth bacteria on into my body!

We left the highway at Pontaluna Road, a Great Blue Heron was standing on one leg at Craig's Cruisers. The Heron was studying the water park's lagoon for fish. I monitored my ankles for the tingle of eight legs. I wanted a warning that the invited guest had found bare skin. I wanted to smite it before the arachnid could land a bite.

I imagined foaming at the mouth. In Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead", a snake bit a soldier on the ankle. The soldier foamed at the mouth, writhed in agony and died. I wasn't going to let that happen to me.

I worried that I would have to spray the joints in my dash with Raid if I failed to find the arachnid at the gas station. Spraying Raid is hardly a sustainable act. I opened the door and smacked him dead with a seat of my heel, a very pollution free solution.

I warn you to expect rain. I pulled off the highway to deal with the blighter, which I surprised by opening my door and smiting it with my shoe.

Juvenile Southern Black Widow Spider

By Kazvorpal at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75073000

Did The Art Collectors of Peoria Know That "Wren" by Lori McElrath Eslick Awaited Cherry Picking in an Auction?

I love the artwork of Lori McElrath Eslick. When I lived in Muskegon, I could count on seeing her new work as soon as she framed it. The Cheese Lady of Muskegon loves McElrath Eslick’s work too. McElrath Eslick’s vineyard paintings hung above the olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the fustini room. That series celebrated grapes vines, turning purple, ready to pick. It’s been three years since I’ve paid a visit, but my memory remains fresh. Has our friend now exhibited a different series, also celebrating agriculture?

I liked seeing her work hung in the children’s section of the North Muskegon library. The painter framed all in faux gold leaf frames. I never had experienced any paintings that were so wonderful when I was young enough for the children’s section.

McElrath Eslick lives close to the North Muskegon library. I could expect new work with every visit. Plus, Rita King served as the library director. She always made a moment to talk when I visited. I plan to see any new paintings by her this summer. The local children are very lucky.

Why do I keep calling her McElrath Eslick? I’ve met Lori in person at the Greater Muskegon Woman's Club. She greeted her fans, standing by her painting of Barack Obama on an easel. She had picked the perfect painting. She was part of an art afternoon organized by the Progressive Democratic Women’s Caucus.

Her husband invited me to go kayaking on the Muskegon River with him. It’s an invite that I should take up very soon. Her husband models for all Lori’s work painting trout fishermen. I would love to wind up in one of her kayaking paintings.

On June 5th of this year, Lori posted a lovely painting of a wren. The wren sings perched on a branch of a tree boasting four ripe apples. I studied the hues of the sky. If you’ve visited an orchard in the West Michigan fruit belt, you’ll know she’s rendered the colors of dawn or evening. I’m guessing these are the colors of evening, not dusk.

She had donated the watercolor for auction. Thirty artists donated art to raise money for the Peoria Park District Playhouse. The playhouse belongs to the children’s museum.

The organizer did a magnificent job of using an auction software from Greater Giving. Many of the paintings sold for good prices. Partial proceeds goes for children programming in art, science and the humanities. Sadly, I didn’t check the auction before it closed Friday, June the Twelfth.

The bidding on Lori’s work closed without selling. I have blamed myself. I took too long before checking in on the auction. I should have written this article earlier. Collectors in Peoria didn't know that a delicious cherry-pick awaited. Lori’s work almost always goes to a collector or a publisher for a firm, well-deserved price.

Lori is not an Illinois River Valley painter. I’ve lived near the shores of a tributary this spring, the Vermilion River. I have grown to appreciate this land of wild rivers. The rivers cut through sandstone and limestone, leaving hardscrabble banks. Lori is a Muskegon River painter. So why was she participating in an auction in a different watershed? I was happy to see her presence. It made my day. But I had to know more.

This has been a season of birds exploring outside their usual territories. It's a pandemic effect. I’ve heard of pelicans on White Lake near Montague, Michigan. Bird lovers have reported many sightings of the Indigo Bunting. And in the same week! The Indigo Bunting is often spotted by more veteran watchers. When a bird shows up outside its range, it’s worthwhile to explore the cause.

Lori had popped up outside her range. I wrote to her. She wrote back. A publisher near Peoria had once purchased one of her paintings for Cricket magazine. It's like the New Yorker for elementary school readers.

Cricket has offices in Peru and Chicago. I asked one of my locals, Brian P. McIntyre for more information. We drove by Carus Corporation, a chemical manufacturer near Buffalo Rock State Park. Carus makes chemicals that treat industrial wastewater. Carus also houses the Peru office of Cricket. Also, a small office publishes obscure but vital philosophical treatises.

The idea of Lori painting in the Illinois River Valley caught my imagination. With Lori and her husband, I would love to take a riverboat from Muskegon to Peoria and beyond. We could follow the journey of the Mockingbird, a barque built by hand by George and Lewis Cross. The two brothers raised fruit in Lake, Michigan. She could paint as her husband and I handled the navigation, stayed off of the sandbars.

The two started out from the mouth of the Grand River in October 1888 and set out to reach Florida. Lewis kept a detailed journal, documenting all that the brothers experienced. They landed a good contract for dried fruit in Chicago. Then, a tugboat towed the Mockingbird from Lake Michigan to Bridgeport.

Then the ship entered the Illinois and Michigan Canal. To save money, one brother pulled the boat along, the rope over his shoulder. The other brother steered the ship. Usually, a mule performs the towing. After hard days, the ship made the calmer reaches of the Illinois River. The brothers raised the sails and made for the Mississippi.

Lewis painted on the trip. He captured the glory of the Passenger Pigeon passing over a great river. He depicted a broad river, like the Illinois or the Mississippi. One example awaits visitors to the Lakeshore Museum Center of Muskegon, Michigan. He also practiced taxidermy on the trip, preserving birds brought down by George’s dead-eye aim. When the two needed money, they walked into a nearby town with a passel of waterfowl to sell. The two wrote home from cities on the way and even sent telegrams.

October is only a season away. I could order the microfiche of Lewis's journal again from the Smithsonian to transcribe it.

Wren

Lori McElrath-Eslick

Do You Need Proof That Whitehall and Montague Michigan Are Much More Interesting than Most of the United States?

June 13, 2016

Schneider Hill Farm, Duck Lake Road, Whitehall Michigan

The stand at Schneider Hill Farm had stocks of rhubarb and onions and one bag of summer salad mix. I pounced on it. I had scored fresh greens and yet I missed the Mud Lake Farm greens.

Saturday at the farmers market, my guy from Mud Lake Farms worried me because he didn't take a booth. And no one really had fresh, washed mixed greens like him at the various booths around the market. He delivers all week long to farm to table restaurants and maybe this week he had little surplus to sell?

I have toyed with raising my own, hoping enough summer remained to fill my salad bowl and keep it full. I imagine building a green house to extend the season, yet in January will there be sun enough to raise the finer, delicate greens?

Cabbage is all right, probably grows in winter light, but coleslaw is hardly my quest. It's enough to make a guy move south.

White Duck Market, Duck Lake Road, Whitehall Michigan

This is the second time I've gone to the White Duck Market and failed to find a Klondike Bar. The fridge stocks a choco-taco branded as a Klondike ice cream treat but hardly the same.

Passed on the offerings of chili dogs, mini-pizzas and pulled pork sandwiches added to the ice cream bar at the White Duck. Fellow enjoying a pair of pulled pork sandwiches on the front deck said he enjoyed them

All the summer time food priced as packages, two chili dogs or two sandwiches, served with fries. He added onion rings instead of fries. Guess the dad who owns this place has to buck up revenue. Short of putting up a real printed sign, he has done a nice job of adding hot food to his ice cream parlor.

The peonies in the garden near the White Duck Markets sign are glowing in Ides of June floral glory.

Doug Born's Smokehouse & Sausage Kitchen, Montague Michigan

Sadly, smoke houses behind Doug Born's store in Montague haven't had a load of meat and fish for a long time. The business struggled without its founder and now a good source of modestly priced meat is no longer.

I talked with Doug when he was still keeping office hours in the small room where he did paperwork. He got around the store with a walker. He wanted a quarter-million for the business and property. It's a familiar number. Show me a small business with owners who want to retire and I'll show you the asking price, a quarter-million.

A quarter-million needed to buy a lifetime of work. It's a number I heard again and again in the Upper Peninsula. It's tough being a sole proprietor, learning in the end that you were the prime asset of the business. How can better business education as early as high school prevent hard working people from this trap? Mile 4969.

McCormick Gas Station, Montague Michigan

Saw an odd contraption pulled behind a truck. The truck stopped at the new McCormick Gas Station at the Fruitvale Exit to US-31. It had the look of a thresher but threshers hardly require a dragon's head made of clay.

Two men were filling up gas cans with gas and I just had to ask. Turns out, the men had built a fiery Ferris Wheel. This signified that an annual event has returned to Lucky Lake in Oceana Country, Lakes of Fire, hosted by the Great Lakes contingent of Burning Man participants.

The men were visibly excited because the doors open Wednesday to the now sold-out event that celebrates mythical creatures as this year's theme. They talked generously because at minimum Burners share their stoke, if not more. Burning Man people have agreed on a tribal concept called gifting. I can't buy a ticket so I cannot attend. It shouldn't make me envious but it does. I'm missing many summer events, and have yet to kayak.

Photocredit Andrew Miller

Photographic Exhibits for Palette Cafe Discussion of the Bath School Bombing

Hazel Weatherby, one of two teachers who perished in the Bath School Bombing. Please notice the poor quality of the image. This shows how we keep recycling the facts and images easily available without diving deeply in the Bath School Massacre. Although the papers mention her a million times, Weatherby suffers from erasure.

This might be the original, which has endlessly been copied. The photo belongs to the Bath School Museum. Once a year, members of the Bath Massacre Community gather at the museum around the May 18. Picture is embossed with the photographers name, who had a studio on Main Street in Mount Pleasant a short walk from Central Michigan Normal College. It might have been an application photograph. Let's bring Hazel Weatherby into better focus.

This is Hazel with her sister and brother. The woman on the left is probably the mother, the wife of Frank Weatherby, Clara K. Swanson Weatherby.

Here we see Hazel Weatherby at age 15, again spending time with her siblings.

This is probably the Weatherby School, a single room school house on the Weatherby family farm. It was built by the Weatherby family. Hazel Weatherby finished her high school education at the Lakeview High School, probably boarding with a local family.

Why a picture of the Broadway Theater in downtown Mt Pleasant? The teachers college that became Central Michigan University stands on the south of Mt. Pleasant. Hazel Weatherby lived with Bernice Sterling in the Sterling home. Sterling's father, an insurance executive for a farming insurance company, had an office near the theater. Weatherby extended her studies by a year. Did Sterling & Weatherby see films in this theater? How to prove. Who would doubt?

The Bath School pictured before the massacre. Sterling and Weatherby were hired together. One source places them as roommates in a boarding house. Sterling and Weatherby both made arrangements with Schoolboard treasurer Andrew Kehoe to picnic on his property. Kehoe told Sterling, in effect, better picnic earlier that later.

Not all of the children in Weatherby's class room died in the blast that took the teacher's life. Raymond W. Eschtruth, nine years old on the day, gave the museum this testimony. Weatherby was reading aloud to her children when the blast destroyed the room.

Only a portion of the explosives loaded and wired by Andrew Kehoe went off that morning. He had planned a more complete demolition. Kehoe knew electrical wiring, so the school board empowered him to handle physical plant issues, giving him full and private access to the building,

This is not Andrew Kehoe's Model T truck, which he drove into town, luring three men near him before he activated pyrotol with a rifle shot. Emory Hyuck, superintendent of schools, died in the blast. This Model T shows the power of the blast, which also took out the stained glass windows at the adjacent Methodist church.

Frank Weatherby identified his daughter's remains and signed her death certificate. According to the Lakeview Paper, he drove her to Howard City for funeral preparations. This drive becomes part of the play, "Driving Daughters".

She sleeps forever in the rows of Amble. I brought the flowers to her stone on May 19, 2017. This year, Sue Bradford, director of Driving Daughters, visited with cuttings from a friend's lilac bushes. I came up in Byron, Michigan, and often drove into Bath on Bath Road. The Bath Bees often faced off with the Byron Eagles on the football field. I once cried out at a game as I sat in the band bleachers, "Send Bath to the Showers!" However, I didn't become engaged in the Bath story until a second grade teacher I liked sent me a picture of this stone, her head upon it as if it were a pillow.

This passes often as the only picture available of Andrew Kehoe, taken in 1920. He enjoys a quiet evening with his wife, Nellie. Kehoe studied at the college that became Michigan State University, focusing on electricity. He didn't graduate but he became known for his tinkering. Surely the school has a photograph in its archives? In 1911, Andrew Kehoe was living with his father and his step-mother at age 39. Kehoe is probably 48 in this picture.

This is the 1911 death certificate of Frances Kehoe. The writer attributed her death to "Burning from a gasoline stove".

Douglas Haney, who has a manuscript entitled the Angels of May, accuses Andrew Kehoe of causing the stove to burn his step-mother to death. Follow the article for more detail.

Note the eighty acres with a creek owned by L Price, same last name as Nellie Price. Why did Kehoe load the school basement with pyrotol and wire it to explode in the morning of May 18, 1927? Kehoe was stressed by illness in the family. His wife Nellie had contracted tuberculosis. Her doctors had placed her in a hospital in Lansing. Kehoe was blaming high school taxes for the impending foreclosure on his land. Kehoe had lost a recent election. Kehoe disliked the spending of Superintendent Emory Hyuck. Let's at least look at the loss of farm theory.

1. Kehoe's mortgage was held by his wife's family. Surely a workout could be arranged?
2. Nellie Price's family came from automotive wealth.

The land that once belonged to Andrew and Nellie Kehoe has now become a field for corn and wheat. Kehoe's body was found and buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery, north of Bath in the town of St. John.

The Methodist Church protected the seniors, who were rehearsing together in the small church. The stained glass windows shattered with the force of the blast. The widow of Emory Hyuck donated replacement windows and placed this marker upon a post outside the sanctuary.

Why this picture of the dance pavilion on Park Lake, a beautifully clean lake with an easy drive of downtown Bath. Notice that the top and bottom swimsuit has yet to go the way of the past. The twenties were known as a time of social and sexual experimentation. Consider the following ideas.

Hazel Weatherby and Bernice Sterling met and became exceedingly close. Weatherby lived with Sterling at Sterling's family home in Mount Pleasant, north of the fledgling teachers college.

Weatherby decided to extend her studies, staying a second year to earn an enhanced teaching degree.

Sterling got Weatherby her job. The two moved into a boarding house together.

If Weatherby or Sterling were dating, I've read nothing about it. Teachers were allowed to marry at the Bath School, but this was a new development. One room school teachers often resigned after marrying. How could a married teacher give students proper and full attention? Yes, but it's pretty well known that school board members and senior staff shopped for wives through the interview process. Applications often required pictures.

I have found no indication that Sterling, who retired from the Ann Arbor schools, ever married. She retired under her maiden name. I wish I would have saved that notice.

Could it be that Kehoe hired the teachers and then was rebuffed? He was known for walking the school corridors to deliver checks in person. With his wife admitted long term into a Lansing hospital with tuberculosis, Andrew Kehoe was virtually single.

Were Weatherby and Sterling that close? How close could two female teachers be in 1927? Nothing I have seen suggests that the correspondence of the two has seen the light of day.

Bath might look like a boring village, but I found it sexy. A beautiful fresh water lake on the edge of town had a delightful beach. I took a swim as part of my research. Lansing, then as now the capitol of Michigan, would make a great getaway in a Model T.