Wilbo Visits an Island Library, the Library Housed in a Home Built 160 Years Ago by a Civil War Veteran in Elk Rapids, @PureMichigan

Michigan has a few island libraries, the Mackinac Island library is one of the few. This bridge over the Elk River leads to the Isle of Pines, home of the Elk Rapids Library, open until Eight. The building has celebrated its 150th year, older than the Charles Hackley public library. However, Muskegon's library has always served as a library. This building once housed the Noble family, led by an industrialist who built a company smelting iron. Earlier this morning, I noted the base of the blast furnace on the shores of the Elk River near Bass Lake. The bloomer had to be fired with charcoal and making charcoal decimated the area forests that supplied wood. On his sand dune island, Edwin Noble, the master accountant, covered the sand with soil and planted scores of trees, more than fifty varieties. Twenty-seven years old, he had returned from the Civil War and planted more than one hundred trees, all species native to Michigan.

 — at Elk Rapids District Library.