Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, the guys who put together the series of Weird books (Weird U.S. as well as state-by-state versions) have a category called “personalized properties.” This is where they recount the antics of ordinary folks—driven by any number of passions—to create extraordinary things. I want to share a few of them in this post. Now mind you, when I write about things like this, it’s only my curiosity getting the best of me temporarily. I don’t envision anyone planning a trip to see these things—unless you’re in close proximity and have a little time to kill and maybe a picture or two left on your camera.
A stucco Stonehenge
In Nunica, Michigan, you can see a Styrofoam and stucco version of Britain’s Stonehenge, the famous Druid ruins of the Salisbury Plain. It’s the work of Fred and Pam Levin who have also built a Cretan meditation path and an American Indian-inspired medicine wheel garden. However, all of this is on private property so no trespassing. The stucco Stonehenge is visible from Leonard Street south of Nunica.
The pickle barrel house
This very different home was inspired by a newspaper comic featuring the Teenie Weenies, which was created for the Chicago Tribune in 1914 by William Donahey. After illustrating a comic strip pickle barrel house for his two-inch high Teenie Weenies, Donahey commissioned a real one from the Pioneer Cooperage Company and had it delivered to Sable Lake near the UP’s Grand Marais. (Actually, it’s two barrels, one behind the other. The main barrel is a two-story affair with a bedroom on the upper level and a living room down below. The barrel in back is the kitchen.) Donahey and his wife Mary Dickerson Donahey, also a writer, used it as a summer cottage and writing retreat for years. Eventually, however, gawking tourists took all the fun out of it, and they deeded it to a local businessman who moved it to Grand Marais. Here it has been an ice cream stand, a tourist info center and a souvenir shop. Since 2005 it has been in the hands of the Grand Marais Historical Society.
Milligan’s cairnscape
Not far from Grand Marais is the giant cairnscape (basically, a group of rock piles) created by contractor and landscape artist Kevin Milligan on his Seymour Street property on the outskirts of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It all started when a road crew unearthed a boulder and rolled it up on his property. When they asked if he wanted it, he said, “Yes.” And he’s been building, arranging and rearranging his rock piles ever since that day in 1983.
Kavela, Michigan, is home to the bottle house built by Joh Makinen, an immigrant from Finland. He used some 60,000 soda bottles to create his Wuoksi Avenue bottle house, but he died before he had a chance to actually move in. Today the Kavela Historical Society operates the house as a tourist site and museum. Further downstate, in Matherton, Michigan, is a tower of bottles created by Michael Evans from 1973 to 1983. The bottle tower became Evans’ obsession after he was disabled in an auto accident. In it’s heyday, the tower attracted the attention of local newspapers and TV crews. But interest waned, and the tower is in need of a little TLC today.
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