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7/09/2021 $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
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This happens every year and should be a world wide day of peace called “Illumination Day”
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A couple of weeks ago, after the torrential rain that caused flooding all over the Detroit Metro, I caught the muse of the Huron river. After a night spent pouring over the history of the river, I decided it would be an excellent long term subject for a photo book (technically the project started with this newsletter on the Gelman Lab Leak). I have found that administering a simple set of rules to define a project pushes me to work towards something unexpected. The simple rule for this project is that the photographs must be made on or very near the Huron river or its tributaries.
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When I finish, I want the book to be as good as an Alec Soth book, I am giving myself 3-4 years to make it.
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Do you believe in manifesting? Sometimes, it works. Sometimes beautiful synchronicities can occur when you dream up a situation. The other day I came across a rope swing, pictured above, which overlooks Barton Pond and Barton Drive (“Michigan’s richest community” does anyone have an “in” at the country club? I want to be their event photographer).
Yesterday I connected with my friends Riley and Maggie for drinks and drags. Driving to meet them, I thought about how wonderful it might be to smoke a little cannabis and make a cool river portrait. We met at the Beer Grotto and after running into the indelible Eva Roos (who you may remember from this download) we headed to the river rope.
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We found what I was looking for…
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Here are a smattering of River Facts: The Huron River flows 125 miles beginning at Big Lake near Pontiac and ending in Lake Erie. The watershed includes 367 miles of tributaries draining over 900 square miles of land. Before European colonization in this section of Michigan, the Potowatomi used the Huron for east-west travel and gained sustenance from its bountiful waters and rich soil. They canoed up to the headwaters of the Huron, portaged to the headwaters of the Grand River, and followed that stream west to Lake Michigan. Around 1680 René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle arrived to exploit the fur trade.
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Archaeologists and anthropologists have painted a possible scenario taking place over 9,000 years along the banks of the Huron River, beginning with the Paleo-Indian (hunters) later jointed by migratory Indian tribes. The combination of these two groups would be called Aqua-Planos. Six thousand years ago the Archaic Boreal Indians moved into the Great Lakes region to pursue hunting and fishing on the Huron River. This culture lasted approximately 2,500 years. After this period, the Woodland Indian period began to take shape. Wilbert B. Hinsdales’ Archaeological Atlas of Michigan places Indian Villages in Oakland County at Walled Lake, Highland, Bald Eagle Lake, Rochester and along the Paint Creek, South Lyons, Lakeville, Kent Lake, Pontiac, Southfield and Grass Lake. Ancient burial grounds have been discovered in Pontiac, Birmingham, Walled Lake, and Novi Corners. French explorers arriving in the 1600s met the descendants of the Woodland Indian tribes. These modern day Indians are known collectively as the “ANISHNABEG”. They are composed of the Ojibway, elder brother, the Ottawa, next older brothers, and the Potawatomi, the younger brother. These three tribes were the “people of the place of the fire" This loosely organized group spoke similar dialects of the same Algonquian language and shared many cultural beliefs. The Anisgnabeg would teach the Europeans their technology, light weight, well crafted birch bark canoes, as well as farming and foraging techniques such as wild rice, maple syrup, and the “Three Sisters” (corn, beans, squash). In exchange for this knowledge and the bounties of the land the Europeans introduced small pox and committed genocide including the forced removal of the natives to reservations as far away as Kansas. The 2010 Census of Washtenaw County lists American Indians, which includes the Eskimo and Aleut Indian as only 0.4% of the population, 1,470 people.
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Through the 1800s many dams were constructed to harness the power of the river for use in Mills and eventually electric power. Waterpower was first tapped for electricity on the Huron at the Geddes Power Plant of the Washtenaw Light and Power Company about the year 1884. In 1905 the Detroit Edison Company began purchasing the water rights, flowage rights and land use for the construction of their proposed dams along the Huron River. Land, rights and power plants were purchased at Geddes, Argo, Osborne, Delhi, Barton, Fosters, Superior, Ypsilanti, Dexter and Belleville by the year 1908. In 1912 Barton Dam construction was started. By 1925 the area had “grown too populous to be supported on water generated electricity.” In 1963, the city agreed to pay $400,000 over a five year period to Detroit Edison for many properties which would become the parks many enjoy today. The purchase tripled the land owned by the city for park and recreation purposes.
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Time, like the river, flows on. I will try to photograph some aspect of the river every week and probably will share tidbits in this download. I just got my bike tuned up and plan to ride at least 50 miles a week into the autumn to get to know the river intimately. Hold me to it!
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River Rats and Riley 20210707 9:33PM |
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Special thanks to Riley and Maggie for flash-light-support and a wonderful evening. <3 <3 <3 See you next week! -niki
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If you want to support this newsletter
or my work here is your option:Hire me make high quality photographs for you: nikimidwest@gmail.com
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