Last Train Ride
By Tom McWhorter, Cherryland Electric Cooperative member
My grandmother lived in Lake Odessa and sometime in the mid-’50s, she took a train to Grand Rapids. She...
Glow In The Dark
Erik Rintamaki has been walking the beaches of Lake Superior all of his life.
Rintamaki, now living in Brimley, grew up in the Upper Peninsula...
Always Do the Right Thing
By David Van Horn, a Great Lakes Energy Cooperative member
My father, James Van Horn, was a very quiet man. I have no memory of...
A Cub, A Dream, A Legacy: The Story of Dean Oswald’s Bear Ranch
By Allie Brawley | Photos by Abby MoranThis article was originally published in Cloverland Connections, September/October 2025.
When Dean Oswald was 6 years old, he and his...
Celebrating the Magical Northern Michigan Morel Season
Every spring, a charming lakeside Michigan town gathers to celebrate the marvelous morel mushrooms. For more than 60 years, those merry for morels have...
The Call of the Wild
When you are exploring the Upper Peninsula, whether in vacation mode or simply tooling around your hometown, there is a sense that the “wild”...
Road Trippin’ With Christal Frost: Marquette & Ebben Ice Caves
As a lower Michigan native, it’s hard not to feel the magic crossing the mighty Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula. To me, the...
A Glimpse Through The Thousand-Yard Stare
Darren Bettinger, Midwest Energy & Communications
Growing up on the lake, I always looked forward to visits from my grandfather. He lived out of the...
There’s Magic In A Frog Pond
By Steve Begnoche, Great Lakes Energy member
Two ponds near our Upper Peninsula cottage along the shore of Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay are mere puddles compared...
Hidden Northern Michigan Treasure For All Ages
North on M-149, 12 miles from Manistique, lies gorgeous Kitch-iti-kipi (Big Spring), Michigan’s largest spring. It’s an oval spring measuring 200 feet in diameter...
















