Category Archives: Lakes and streams

Wayne County: turn old Ford mills into modern hydro plants

By JOEL THURTELL Instead of selling Henry Ford’s historic former hydroelectric plants to developers, Wayne County could convert the old dams into state-of-the-art, revenue-generating hydro facilities. Wayne County citizens have recently protested the proposed sale of three former Ford-owned mills on the Middle … Continue reading

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Flint’s man-made water crisis: where are the watchdogs?

By Joel Thurtell What a disaster the Flint water crisis has become. There was no need for tens of thousands of people to lose their publicly-provided source of clean drinking and bathing water. But government stupidity, folly, dishonesty made it … Continue reading

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Little brown jug o’ lakes

By Joel Thurtell The football rivalry between the Wolverines and the Golden Gophers over the little brown jug isn’t the only bone of contention between Michigan and Minnesota. [The game will be played at noon Eastern time Saturday, November 3, … Continue reading

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UP THE ROUGE! and REI Paddlefest

By Joel Thurtell I’ll be talking about the adventure of canoeing an urban river Saturday, May 14 at 11 a.m. in the REI store in Northville Township. The stream I’ll be discussing, of course, is the Rouge River in metro … Continue reading

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The case for ‘Patten Bay’

This story appeared in the October 26, 2010 Manitoulin Expositor By Joel Thurtell A government surveyor in Ontario’s pioneer times could name places pretty much as he pleased, so Thaddeus Patten, who surveyed much of northern Ontario including McGregor Bay, named … Continue reading

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No free lunch

By Joel Thurtell They say there’s no free lunch. I’m a journalist, so I know that’s not true. But one thing is sure — there is no such thing as a free boat. This is a fact so evident, a … Continue reading

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‘Mud’ rules Michigan lakes

Here from my files is the uncut version of my Detroit Free Press lake names article that ran in shorter form on March 22, 2002: By Joel Thurtell Beverly Zeldes looked out at the 6.2-acre lake behind her West Bloomfield, … Continue reading

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Naming names — lake names, that is

By Joel Thurtell   How do places get their names? Some place names seem self-explanatory. If it’s the name of some person, like Lafayette or Washington, it’s easy. Some are a mystery until you learn the secret. There’s a stop … Continue reading

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Turning rain into smoke

By Joel Thurtell Mostly, I let people post comments on JOTR without adding my two cents. Now and then, though, a comment will contain some quality that seems to cry out for my reaction. It may be very interesting, very … Continue reading

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Fishing for class

By Joel Thurtell This is nothing more than a peeve. But it’s a peeve that has bugged me — literally — for years. I write about it now because, well, it’s Sunday morning, the coffee is strong and hot, The … Continue reading

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