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Electronic Resources

Memorials of a half-century

Call Number

  • H 977.4 H875 (CEN)

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Publication Information

New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1887.

Physical Description

xvi, 581 p. : ill., plates, maps, plans, diagrs. ; 20 cm.

Summary

This collection of essays by a noted writer, explorer, and Detroit civic leader offers detailed descriptions of Michigan's geography, geology, and local history in a consciously crafted literary style. Hubbard discusses the natural history of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron; topographical and geological features of Michigan; a geological expedition to the salt springs of the Grand and Saginaw river valleys with the new state's geologist, Dr. Houghton (1837); local factors and the 1837-38 financial panic; and land speculation and settlement. In addition, Hubbard writes about Michigan Indians and Indian antiquities; flora and fauna, animal behavior; climatology; and the world of Michigan's French-speaking inhabitants, especially Detroit habitants, rural farmers, and voyageurs (who paddled the waterways as guides, trappers, and tradesmen), comparing the life-styles of French speakers and Yankees. The book is heavily illustrated with sketches of Indian artifacts, landscapes, folk architecture, trees, and diagrams representing the Mound-Builders' ancient garden beds.

Contents

  • Scenery of the Lakes
  • Lake Superior in 1840
  • A Michigan geological expedition in 1837
  • A time of universal prosperity, and what came of it
  • French inhabitants of Detroit
  • The naming of Lake Ste. Claire
  • Indians in Michigan
  • Policy of the government towards the Indians
  • The Mound-Builders in Michigan
  • Fish and fishing
  • Birds of my neighborhood
  • Four-footed inhabitants
  • Wild animals of Michigan
  • The beaver
  • Trees, their relations to us, economic and scientific
  • Trees, in their social relations
  • Climate of Detroit and the Lake Region, Part I.
  • Part II. Additional observations
  • Part III. Periodical changes in the lake levels, rainfall, temperature and sun-spots, and their relations to each other
  • The winter season
  • Spring-tide
  • Our summers
  • Autumn time
  • The ripening of the year.

Subjects