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Alpena County, Michigan
Alpena County ( ') is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 28,907. The county seat is Alpena. It is considered to be part of Northern Michigan. Alpena County comprises the Alpena, MI Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The county was created by the Michigan Legislature in 1840 as Anamickee County, then renamed in 1843 to Alpena County, a pseudo-Native American word — a neologism coined by Henry Schoolcraft, meaning "a good partridge country." This was part of a much larger effort to rename a great many of the Michigan counties at the time. It was officially organized in 1857. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (66%) is water. Alpena County is in the northeast of the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Lake Huron and Thunder Bay are to the east, Alcona County to the south, Oscoda County to the southwest, Montmorency County to the west, and Presq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpena County Courthouse
Alpena County Courthouses is a historic courthouse in Alpena, Michigan. It houses the circuit court and county clerk, while district court and probate court are housed across the street in the County Annex Building. History The first courthouse in Alpena County was located at 150 East Chisholm Street, now the site of the I.O.O.F. Centennial Building. The building was destroyed by a fire on December 12, 1870, and a replacement was built in 1881 at 720 W Chisholm Street. It met a similar fate on November 22, 1932. "The Alpena News" dated November 23, 1932 The current courthouse opened October 21, 1934. The building was designed by architect William H. Kuni of Detroit and built by the Henry C. Webber Construction Co. of locally produced poured Portland cement made from locally quarried limestone. According to Kuni, it was the first monolithic poured building constructed during the winter in a cold climate. Kuni also designed the Tuscola County Courthouse. It was financed p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcona County, Michigan
Alcona County ( ) is a county of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 10,167. Its county seat is Harrisville. Alphabetically it is the first county in Michigan; as its flag states, it is the "First of 83". History The county was created by the state legislature on April 1, 1840. It was at first named Negwegon County, after the name of a well-known Chippewa chief, also known as "Little Wing". He was honored as having been an American ally against the British in the War of 1812. It was renamed to Alcona County on March 8, 1843, after a neologism created by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft from parts of words from Native American languages, plus Arabic, Greek and Latin. These were amalgamated to mean "fine or excellent plain". He was an influential US Indian agent and geographer. Alcona County was initially attached to Mackinac County for purposes of revenue, taxation, and judicial matters. The attachment shifted to Cheboygan County in 1853, to Alpena ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thunder Bay Island
Thunder Bay Island is a island in Lake Huron. The island is one of eight constituent islands of the Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The island is part of Alpena Township in Alpena County. It marks the entrance to Thunder Bay, the harbor of Alpena, Michigan and the location of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The island is the home of a historic Thunder Bay Island Light, which in its current form dates to 1857, and adjacent quarters for the lightkeeper. The island also contains the sites of quarters for lifesaving service personnel and private-sector fishermen. History Light station The third operating U.S. lighthouse in Lake Huron was built here in 1831. Lifesaving station Thunder Bay Island was also the site of a station, opened in 1876, operated by the United States Life-Saving Service. It operated under that name until 1939, when the Life-Saving Service was consolidated into the Coast Guard. Fishing station In addition to the lightkeepers and lif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Island (Lake Huron)
Middle Island is an island in Lake Huron, located in Alpena Township, Alpena County, Michigan. The island is positioned little over a mile and a half from the community of Lakewood on the mainland. The Middle Island Light, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and built in 1905, lies on the eastern edge of the island. It used to be home to a Life-Saving Station. The light house was automated in 1961, and regular staffing ceased. The island is within the boundaries of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It preserves the lighthouse along with the shipwreck ''Portsmouth (1867)''. The Middle Island Sinkhole is located around 500 foot north of the island at . The sinkhole is about 75 feet deep and is available for divers to explore. The sinkhole has been studied by the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) is a laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lighthouses
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems. History Ancient lighthouses Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge
The Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for nine Michigan islands in the North American Great Lakes. Owned by the United States federal government, they were set aside for ecosystem protection purposes by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943. Charity, Little Charity, Scarecrow, Crooked, and Sugar islands form the Lake Huron division of the refuge. Gull, Hat, Pismire, and Shoe islands, which are part of the Beaver Island archipelago, form the Lake Michigan division. No single one of them is large enough to rate a full-time site staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and they are widely separated from each other in two separate Great Lakes. In an unusual administrative decision, the Fish and Wildlife Service, , has divided up management responsibilities over the Michigan Islands NWR between two larger, full-time-staffed wildlife refuges. The four Lake Huron islands are managed as if they were part of the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge, base ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can also be used for any other celestial body that is roughly spherical. In spatial (3D) geometry, as applied in astronomy, the equator of a rotating spheroid (such as a planet) is the parallel (circle of latitude) at which latitude is defined to be 0°. It is an imaginary line on the spheroid, equidistant from its poles, dividing it into northern and southern hemispheres. In other words, it is the intersection of the spheroid with the plane perpendicular to its axis of rotation and midway between its geographical poles. On and near the equator (on Earth), noontime sunlight appears almost directly overhead (no more than about 23° from the zenith) every day, year-round. Consequently, the equator has a rather stable daytime temperature throug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole. The North Pole is by definition the northernmost point on the Earth, lying antipodally to the South Pole. It defines geodetic latitude 90° North, as well as the direction of true north. At the North Pole all directions point south; all lines of longitude converge there, so its longitude can be defined as any degree value. No time zone has been assigned to the North Pole, so any time can be used as the local time. Along tight latitude circles, counterclockwise is east and clockwise is west. The North Pole is at the center of the Northern Hemisphere. The nearest land is usually said to be Kaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast of Greenland about away, though some perhaps semi-permanent gravel banks lie slightly clos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
45th Parallel North
The 45th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 45 degrees north of Earth's equator. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. The 45th parallel north is often called the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole, but the true halfway point is north of it (approximately between 45°08'36" and 45°08'37") because Earth is an oblate spheroid; that is, it bulges at the equator and is flattened at the poles. At this latitude, the sun is visible for 15 hours 37 minutes during the summer solstice, and 8 hours 46 minutes during the winter solstice. The midday Sun stands 21.6° above the southern horizon at the December solstice, 68.4° at the June solstice, and exactly 45.0° at either equinox. Around the world Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 45° north passes through: : Europe In Europe the 45th parallel hits the Bay of Biscay coast of France in the west. It crosses the river Rhôn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve is a United States National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Huron's Thunder Bay, within the northeastern region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It protects an estimated 116 historically significant shipwrecks ranging from nineteenth-century wooden side-wheelers to twentieth-century steel-hulled steamers. There are a great many wrecks in the sanctuary, and their preservation and protection is a concern for national policymakers. The landward boundary of the sanctuary extends from the western boundary of Presque Isle County to the southern boundary of Alcona County. The sanctuary extends east from the lakeshore to the international border. Alpena is the largest city in the area. History The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration established Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve in 2000. It became the thirteenth overall and first on the Great Lakes. Original boundaries followed that of Alpen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mackinaw State Forest
The Mackinaw State Forest is a forested area owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and operated by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. It is located in the northern area of the Lower Peninsula within the eight counties of Alpena, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, Montmorency, Otsego, and Presque Isle. The forest is served by Interstate 75, U.S. Highway 23 (US 23), and US 131. Description Most of the Mackinaw State Forest was logged for red pine and white pine during the golden age of Michigan old-growth lumbering, which ended about 1910. Much of the cut-over land was seen as worthless and was allowed to revert to the state of Michigan in lieu of unpaid property taxes. Second-growth trees found within the Mackinaw State Forest include the alder, aspen, paper birch, yellow birch, hophornbeam, sugar maple, balsam poplar, willow, balsam fir, hemlock, larch, jack pine, black spruce, white spruce, and northern whitecedar. The forest is managed today for s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thunder Bay River
The Thunder Bay River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 21, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Michigan. It drains much of Alpena County and Montmorency County, and a small portion of Oscoda County, into Thunder Bay on the eastern side of northern Michigan. The mouth of the river is in the heart of downtown Alpena and is guarded by the Alpena Light Station. Geography Unlike many of Michigan's rivers, the Thunder Bay River drops considerably from its headwaters in southwestern Montmorency County to Lake Huron. A hill near the headwaters northeast of Lewiston is above sea level and above lake level. A former whitewater stretch northwest of Alpena, the "Long Rapids", carried the river down from the northern Michigan plateau to Thunder Bay. The rapids have since been drowned under Lake Winyah (also known as Seven Mile Pond), a hydroelectric reservoir created by the Norway Dam (also known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
