Start Your Engines – 1953

Start Your Engines – 1953

By Denis LeDuc“I was in Mount Clemens … last week and went to the old track to walk around it … Before I left I closed my eyes and … thought I could hear those old motors screaming down the backstretch again.” Rex Manglos “So many memories from the Fast Track as it...
The Card Players – 1950

The Card Players – 1950

By Denis LeDucHorse harnesses, logging chains and rolls of cable hang from the ceiling. Cans of paint, varnish, turpentine, and oil line the shelves. Pitchforks, hoes and rakes stand in the corner and displays of cigars, chewing tobacco and candy cover the...
Arsenal of Democracy

Arsenal of Democracy

By Denis LeDucImperial Japan had invaded China in 1937 and threatened to overrun all of Asia and the Pacific. The genocidal regime of Adolph Hitler and the German Nazis had invaded Poland in 1939. Having perfected a new type of tank warfare called “blitzkrieg,” the...
Cutting The Great Timber – 1870

Cutting The Great Timber – 1870

By Denis LeDucThe timber, some trees as much as eight feet in diameter, stretched endlessly across the Michigan frontier in the 19th century. Great stands of hardwoods in southern Michigan and pines further north drew pioneer lumbermen from Maine and New York.It is...
Water Power at the Mill – 1878

Water Power at the Mill – 1878

By Denis LeDuc In the early 1800s much of Macomb County was thickly forested wilderness; but by the 1840s, what had been the frontier, was yielding to the axe, plough, and the relentless push of the pioneers westward. Log cabins were giving way to more comfortable...