Brandon Twp.- Discover pure, bizarre Michigan in a library program this month.
Ron Rademacher, author of Michigan Backroads, will present ‘Michigan Mysteries and Oddities,? from 7-8 p.m., Dec. 8, at the library, 304 South St.
The storytelling program is about unusual, unexplained, or very rare objects found in small Michigan towns.
‘Everything is real, things you can pick up with your hands? this is not about hauntings or ghosts,? said Rademacher. ‘There are incredibly cool things out there that no one knows about… A mystery tool in Ontonagon, Newberry tablets and statues revealed in a storm, tomb of the cow. Very few people have heard of these.?
Rademacher, 64, was born in Michigan, but left in 1970 to travel all over the U.S. as he worked in the fashion industry. He returned to Michigan in 1998 to be near family and stayed. He was building log and twig furniture and working the arts and crafts circuit in small towns when his wife began pointing out things they never knew about in the places they were visiting, giving Rademacher an idea for the michiganbackroads.com website. In 2008, he wrote the first of four books in the ‘Michigan Backroads? road trip series? all without ever mentioning Traverse City, he is proud to note, and for years, no Mackinac Island.
‘There are hundreds of places people have overlooked or that have fallen off the map,? said Rademacher, who has been doing Michigan travel presentations for the past 15 years and is oftne asked to return in encores. ‘Libraries say I am one of the best programs they have… I put slides up on the screen? no text, just a picture? and I tell the story behind the slide. No death by powerpoint, just stories and legends in entertaining and educational programs.?
Rademachers notes there are three different buildings in Michigan built entirely of bottles, and said while many people think there is only one waterfall in the Lower Peninsula, there are, in fact, three. He also has a tale about a roadside cemetery that has a tombstone made of a meteor and knows the location of a humungous fungus.
‘In Harrisville, there is a huge stone ruin that no one can explain,? he continues. ‘It’s very difficult to find, but I found it, photographed and researched it. Originally, a lot of the locals didn’t even know… There are also two stonehenges in Michigan.?
Rademacher has no desire to write books or do programs in other states like the ones he has done here.
‘I’ve been to all but four of the states and quite frankly, there is only a few other states you could do this,? he said. ‘Michigan is so diverse with so many parts, I will never finish Michigan. There is so much diversity here with the kinds of towns, the people who immigrated and the things that happened, plus the southern and northern parts of the Lower Peninsula and the east and west parts of the Upper Peninsula are completely different.?
For more information on ‘Michigan Mysteries and Oddities,? call the library at 248-627-1460.