I have so many questions for you. Like: what’s up this weekend? If you’d only recommend one dweeby field trip, what dweeby field trip would it be? Do you know anything about these “mystery” bones that were found in Ypsilanti in the 1930s? (via the great Ypsi history blogger Dusty Diary/Laura Bien) Have you...
Read more →We're looking for great local ghost stories. Get in touch!
Read more →A loose visitors' agenda, a book release party we're really excited about, the community challenge grant, and how Royal Oak got its name.
Read more →On Monday we came home from a long weekend in North Carolina, where cities and towns have pretty names that sound even prettier spoken in a come-hither Southern accent. Charlotte. Chapel Hill. Raleigh. We drove from Charlotte through red hills and mossy vales to a dairy and inn near Siler City, where a friend...
Read more →What we did in Philadelphia.
Read more →The Night Train is on vacation until next Wednesday. We may post a lazy update or two from the beach. We may send a postcard from some old cemetery in Philadelphia. We may not. We’ll miss you!
Read more →Dear readers: I am crushed under a couple of major deadlines this week! But here’s this. You’re welcome. Your friend, The Night Train P.S. We’ll be back with something fun on Friday. Really fun. Maybe not as fun as an elephant at the beach though.
Read more →It’s been a weekend. We went to a big backyard party with bottle rockets and flying champagne corks. We had visitors in town from the Carolinas and we showed them some sights. I think they enjoyed it here, but they brought up some things that challenged me, and I like that about visitors. I...
Read more →Here are a few things that really make me happy today. Finally getting some face time with Polish Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko, An impromptu Kosciuszko serenade at sundown, Dogs wading in the lagoon near the old Palmer Park lighthouse, Public pools open for business, Biking through Senator Palmer’s untouchable woods.
Read more →A mystery cannon, friendly wildlife, low-flying miniature aircraft and wide open space in the big city.
Read more →It’s the anniversary of Detroit’s Great Fire of 1805 — early Detroit’s defining moment. The fire destroyed the city nearly completely. After the city burned down, Father Richard (whose church, Ste. Anne’s, had just burned down for the second time in its amazing history) coined Detroit’s notorious motto: speramus meliora; resurget cineribus. We hope...
Read more →After days! of suspense! Here are the answers to our special Memorial Day Michigan military figures trivia game. We might do this again sometime. We might not. It was a little silly, but we had fun. #1 The one & only … General Mad Anthony Wayne. #2 Colonel Jean-Francois Hamtramck. When Mad Anthony was...
Read more →The Napoleon of Detroit auctioneers, a schooner on wheels, laughing gas at Michigan Gardens and the lost pomp of gubernatorial election season.
Read more →Here they are in Henry Ford’s “Experimental Room.” More tremendous videos, photographs, and some nice introductory words from ME! at singlebarreldetroit.com. And here’s more on the Ford Piquette Plant from your friend The Night Train. Last night I had a dream that, while a forest in Detroit burned down, I met and befriended an...
Read more →This weekend I had a dream that I found an old safe in some empty house. When I cracked it (somehow), I found a bunch of Henry Ford’s old papers and letters (including his high school diploma?) as well as several original documents relating to Anthony Wayne. So … so … dweeby. I clearly...
Read more →I’m working on new history tour that should be up by, at the very latest, your bedtime (provided I can power through a nasty stomach flu that has rendered me delirious and bedridden). Meanwhile, may I point you in the direction of this article I wrote about the story of accordions in Detroit? It’s...
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