SALE ON KIDS & YA BOOKS • COOL! SHOW ME
"Mikel B. Classen has been writing and photographing northern Michigan in newspapers and magazines for forty years, creating feature articles about the life and culture of Michigan's north country. A journalist, historian, photographer and author with a fascination of the world around him, he enjoys researching and writing about lost stories from the past. He is founder of the U.P. Reader and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association. In 2020, Mikel won the Historical Society of Michigan's, George Follo Award for Upper Peninsula History. Classen makes his home in the oldest city in Michigan, historic Sault Ste. Marie. He is also a collector of out-of-print history books, and historical photographs and prints of Upper Michigan. At Northern Michigan University, he studied English, history, journalism and photo�graphy. His books, Au Sable Point Lighthouse, Beacon on Lake Superior's Shipwreck Coast, was published in 2014 and Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquette Libel Trial, was published in 2015 by the History Press. His book of fiction, Lake Superior Tales, won the 2020 U.P. Notable Book Award. Points North: Discover Hidden Campgrounds, Natural Wonders, and Waterways of the Upper Peninsula, published in 2019, which has received the Historical Society of Michigan's, ""Outstanding Michigan History Publication,"" along with a 2021 U.P. Notable Book Award. Since then, he has released True Tale: , the Forgotten History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and Faces, Places, & Days Gone By: a Pictorial History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Mikel is co-author of the Yooper Ale Trails along with Jon C. Stott. All of these books were published by Modern History Press. In late 2023 Mikel released his first novel, The Alexandria Code: an Isabella Carter Adventure, published by Modern History Press. To learn more about Mikel B. Classen and to see more of his work, please visit his website www.mikelbclassen.com"
"""Old Victoria is the first volume in the Yooper History Hunter Series. Each installment will explore the history of a specific, and often overlooked aspect or subject of U.P. history. Based on the first in the series, each volume will be composed of numerous historic photographs interspersed with contemporary, full-color images that complement a precise, fact-filled historical narrative that is fascinating without wasting a word. Mikel B. Classen couldn't have chosen a more interesting subject for the inaugural volume than the ghost town of Victoria. Despite being listed in the National Register of Historic Places it is probably one of the fewest visited or even generally known historic sites in the Ontonagon area. The village rests atop a mountain within the spectacular Ontonagon River Gorge in the rugged Gogebic Mineral Range. The last couple of miles to the village is up a bone-jarring rock-strewn road. To call Victoria remote is a grand understatement. Copper was discovered here in the 1600s but for 200 years it couldn't be profitably mined. Then came Thomas Hooper who built a Taylor Hydraulic Air Compressor by digging three 400-feet-deep shafts into which the Ontonagon River and air were directed. The result (somehow) was compressed air that powered the entire mining operation and even a locomotive powered by compressed air. Mining became profitable, the village grew and prospered. The author covers working conditions (one in seven miners died in the mine) and the social and living conditions in the village. The mine closed in 1917. The village emptied, and the buildings fell victim to time and neglect until the Society for the Restoration of Old Victoria was founded and began restoring the village. This is a pure and highly polished nugget of Michigan history."" -- Tom Powers, Michigan in Books"
Texas Ranger
The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the...
Paperback
$24.95
Not in-store but you can order this
Australianama
The South Asian Odyssey in Australia...
Paperback
$34.95
Not in-store but you can order this
