Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: old

The folks who settled Eaton County, Michigan, called the swamp that covered much of Windsor Township " The Old Maid Swamp ." Nowadays, to the extent it's called anything, it's the Secondary Complex Marsh or (if you're an old state employee) Lake Austin. At least in this corner of the bog. I think we should resurrect the old name.... Photo shot from the parking lot of the Secretary of State building, where I worked more or less forever without knowing the swamp's True Name.

Saint Ignace.

Replaced by the New Light in 1871, and long since a museum. We were a little annoyed by the bait-n-switch tactics of the historical society--the roadside sign didn't mention the (quite reasonable, actually) fee, so we shot this from the beach, down the road. On Lake Huron, between Alpena and Rogers City, Michigan.

The cardinals, in particular, are pleased it's there.

This one's abandoned, and less than a mile from the house in the previous photo. A very photogenic place; looks like it was a neat home.

Twin Lakes, Michigan. Another photo from last week's vacation. We found this when we set out to walk around the lake. Another view of this bus here .

Since I had some time this morning I thought I'd stop in Bedford and photograph the mill. I mentioned this place a few days back . I used to bicycle between Kalamazoo and Lansing a couple weekends each month. This mill (and its town) were on one of my regular routes. Always wanted to photograph it, but somehow never found the chance. Sign on the mill says it dates from 1855. Evidently it served as a print shop for a time, but now it's obviously abandoned. It really needs a workover. Picturesque, regardless. Found a nice sketch of this building, with similar commentary .

Since I had some time this morning I thought I'd stop in Bedford and photograph the mill. I mentioned this place a few days back . I used to bicycle between Kalamazoo and Lansing a couple weekends each month. This mill (and its town) were on one of my regular routes. Always wanted to photograph it, but somehow never found the chance. Sign on the mill says it dates from 1855. Evidently it served as a print shop for a time, but now it's obviously abandoned. It really needs a workover. Picturesque, regardless. Found a nice sketch of this building, with similar commentary .

Downtown Lansing.

Another of Martin Sernstinger's delightful mid-1950s photographs of the equipment used by the Kalamazoo Fire Department. This is a wonderful photograph of what was already an old truck, though the print was a bit battered. Not sure where it was taken, but it probably goes with the pumper-in-action photo I posted a few weeks back. Approximately 1955; Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Kalamazoo firefighters, out playing with an old fire engine at the Kalamazoo fairgrounds, in 1955 or thereabouts. Another Martin Sernstinger photo inherited from my father, who was a KFD firefighter when he was young (and I was really young).

Another bike-by shooting from one of my regular routes.

My mom, and her dad, on an Iowa porch around 1930. This old, battered photograph is a family treasure.

Or Fat Tubes & Skinny. Or New Bike & Old.

Some of the fire engine photographs in my father's collection were of trucks which were old when Martin Sernstinger caught them on film in the mid-1950s. This one was clearly taken during a training exercise at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds.

In Barry County (Michigan) on the Thornapple, southeast of Hastings and about a mile downstream from Charlton Park . I was standing on this bridge when I took the barn photo I posted earlier today. This 1903 bridge was originally known as the Sponable Bridge and took the McKeown name in the 1930s. Both names commemorate the same farm--the farm whose barn I photographed. The state's description of the bridge attributes the name change to the rural electric companies standardizing road names in the 1930s, which is probably more interesting than the name itself. The bridge now lives in a little park, with its 1997 replacement crossing the Thornapple just downstream from the old bridge. There's quite a bit more information on the Historic Bridges website ; worth a look.

Tom Friggens, long the State of Michigan's chief U.P. historian, likes to point out that Fayette was never fully abandoned and therefore not an actual ghost town. That fact, more than anything else, explains the town's survival. One of the striking things about Fayette is the century-old wooden buildings. That the large stone blast furnace survived isn't really surprising, nor is the persistence of the ruined company store. Those are sturdy structures. But Fayette's surrounded by Lake Michigan, and Lake Michigan's weather is pretty hostile to wooden construction. The hotel really couldn't be more exposed, and the nearby town hall and this office structure are nearly as defenseless. Moreover, several of the wooden houses, which are in the woods and enjoy better protection, have been reduced to their stone foundations. The answer is tourists. Soon after Jackson Iron abandoned the town, entrepreneurs turned the place into a vacation destination. Snail Shell Harbor is simply beautiful , and the not-yet-ruined blast furnace gave the "ghost town" an ambiance unlike anywhere else on Lake Michigan's shore. The salt box houses survived as vacation homes, the hotel as a hotel, this office as an office, and the town hall as an auditorium. Other, less useful, buildings were not maintained and fell to the weather's pounding. This photo also dates from our 1981 visit. At that time the buildings really were around a century old; now they're older.