This is actually my favorite part of the whole process.
I don't know if I've mentioned it recently, but History Jim has a PACKED schedule this year, including (but not limited to) two big new History Center walking tours, assisting with a cemetery walk, a show at the Lake Superior Theater, a couple of private tours and talks, five newspaper articles, and yet another series of “Pieces of the Past”, the videos I make for the History Center.
It tired me out just typing all that. I can't imagine what my brain will be like at the end of the year.
8-)
Anyway, because most of the things on the list are in the summer and/or fall, I've been spending these yucky winter (and winter-like spring) weekends and evenings up to my eyeballs in research. Like I said, it's actually my favorite part of the process, for a couple of reasons. One, I get to learn stuff, and two, I get to learn stuff I didn't even know I'd get to learn.
That's especially appropriate of my first big History Center tour this summer, “Wild Wild West”, which will explore Marquette's Washington Street WEST of Fourth Street. I knew there were several things I wanted to talk about, and as I dug into those things I came across all kinds of other interesting facts, which means that (among other things) the tour will now talk about drunken shenanigans, one of the most interesting families of the early 20th century, and the day when someone decided it would be a good idea to try to blow up the railroad tracks heading into downtown Marquette.
And here...I was worried that without stories about hookers this tour would be boring. Goes to show what I know.
This particular tour is coming up June 18th, and like all my projects I'll be re-purposing a bunch of the tales for newspaper articles, videos, and the like. But then, with everything I have coming up between now & December, I'm not blaming myself for that one bit.
Really, I'm not.
And, to give you just a taste of what the “Wild Wild West” tour will unveil, let me present this picture of the 300 block of Washington Street in the 1920s, complete with a gas station where Little Caesars pizza now sits.
And that's not even close to the coolest picture I've dug up. Join us in June and see what I mean.
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