Little Traverse Bay: Past and Present (review)

Book Reviews 119 profoundly important individual, Curcio’s book is a welcome addition to the Ford catalogue. Dimitry Anastakis Trent University Michael R. Federspiel and Rebecca Zeiss. Little Traverse Bay: Past and Present. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014. Pp. 280. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. Cloth, $39.99. In creating Little Traverse Bay: Past and Present, Michael Federspiel made good use of the Clarke Historical Library’s treasure trove of Northern Michigan photos and memorabilia, and the volume is packed with visual details of the bay area’s development from the 1850s to the present. Additionally the contemporary photos by Rebecca Zeiss enable interesting architectural comparisons and help to truly capture the feel of Little Traverse Bay. Though the illustrations may indeed be the ‘stars’ of this work, Federspiel also packs in a lot of historical information on Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and a handful of summer communities. The story of Little Traverse Bay reads more like a tale of enticement than settlement. Early white settlers of the Petoskey area, such as Hiram Rose, may have begun with limestone quarries and lumber mills, but they quickly realized the benefits of working with railroad companies to bring needed peoples up north. The Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad, like many others throughout the nation, relied on a two prong approach to development: sell lands adjacent to tracks for farming and encourage tourist use of the railroads. In Michigan it was the tourist trade that made the difference. The “Fishing Line,” as it was called, brought thousands of tourists north to pristine waters and forests. After the Civil War, Great Lakes steamships brought tens of thousands more, with travel companies promoting inland river tours and excursions such as a Hiawatha play with Native American actors. Federspiel chronicles the area’s growth into an established day trip destination as well as an area for highly-regarded residential resorts. Petoskey is examined in the greatest detail; when the GR & I Railroad arrived in 1873, there were about 150 Native American residents and a handful of white settlers. As tourism grew, with more summer communities, smaller suburban lines were added to link them together. This made it the second largest local rail network in Michigan, and by 1906 trains were arriving in downtown Petoskey every five minutes 120 The Michigan Historical Review during the daylight hours. Federspiel also highlights some of the spectacular turn-of-the-century hotels with their casinos, billiard rooms, bowling alleys, and even orchestras. The photographs, as well as a number of quotes from personal letters and newspaper reviews, keep the account highly readable and personal, and the mixtures of old and new shots, in sepia tones and full color, truly capture the feel of early Petoskey. Harbor Springs, which unlike Petoskey has a natural harbor, truly benefited from the steamship trade as rail did not reach the area until the early 1880s. It had been an Ottawa settlement since 1800 but filled with white settlers after 1875 when treaty limitations on selling lands to non-Natives were lifted. Harbor Springs made an attractive stop on the 24 hour trip from Chicago to Mackinac Island. Some tourists ended up spending entire summers in the area, and Federspiel includes photographs of these communities with their architecturally magnificent cottages. By recounting the buildings and lifestyles of the times, Federspiel traces the importance of tourism to the area, and the book successfully captures both “the things that were and the things that are” (p. 257). A bibliography will help the curious to find out even more about these communities, and the maps, timetables, letters, and photos make it a pleasure to look at more than once. Though not a scholarly work, Little Traverse Bay offers a vivid historical introduction to the area and would make a great companion for anyone summering or visiting up North. Susan Paton Central Michigan University Trisha Franzen. Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2014. Pp. 296. Index. Notes. Photographs. Paper, $30.00. The daughter of an impoverished Michigan pioneering family, Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919) went on to become a titan of reform and one of the most famous orators of her times, giving upwards of...