Taste of - MLive.com

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metro Editor: TOM PERRIN 768-4943 [email protected]
Taste of
history
Brad Flory
[email protected] — 768-4925
Opinion columnist
IRISH HILLS
Treasures
up for bid
at auction
in March
Forty years after opening
a western-styled roadside
attraction in the Irish Hills,
Fred Bahlau noticed a
change.
Kids stopped caring
about cowboys.
“I saw it coming three
or four years ago,” said
Bahlau, 85. “The new generation, they don’t know
what the hell a cowboy is.”
That change — plus the
bad economy and the decline of the Irish Hills as
a roadside fun destination
— spells the end of the line
for Stagecoach Stop USA.
Stagecoach Stop, the
attraction Bahlau and his
family opened 43 years ago
off U.S. 12, is going out of
business but one amazing
finale is still ahead.
The reproduction Old
West town will supply four
days of auctions attracting interest all over the
country. It will be like no
auction seen before in the
greater Jackson area.
Visitors to Stagecoach
Stop know the place is
stuffed with a stunning
quantity and variety of antiques, collectibles and old
curiosities.
Nearly everything will
be sold to the highest bidder by Bahlau and his son,
Rick, the co-owner.
The first auction will be
Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the
Stagecoach Stop.
Thousands of items will
be sold, including farm
equipment, furniture, tools,
vehicles, toys, arrowheads,
lamps, store items, swords
and, well, too much for me
to list.
The priciest treasures,
like leaded-glass lamps
from Stagecoach Stop and
the nearby Golden Nugget restaurant, will sell
in an ultra-high-end auction March 28 and 29 near
Saline. Stagecoach Stop’s
most famous display — a
private railroad car used by
President Dwight D. Eisenhower — is up for sale but
not at auction.
Bahlau discovered and
purchased some of the
vast collection himself, but
most was delivered over
decades by “pickers.”
“A picker is a guy who
doesn’t work and doesn’t
want to work,” Bahlau explained.
Pickers traveled the
countryside to acquire
old stuff from homes,
farms and stores. They
sold it by the truckload to
Stagecoach Stop, usually
for a few hundred dollars,
Bahlau said.
“Every week or month,
somebody would be hauling something in,” he said.
As he walks through
stacks prepared for auction, Bahlau remembers
the great deal he swung
on old medicine bottles.
He recalls his own labor
putting tools in display
mounts. He points out
obsolete devices, like the
potato sorter, unknown to
people today.
Realizing it is time to sell
the accumulation of four
decades does not make it
easy.
“For me, it’s all memories,” Bahlau said. “God,
there’s a lot here.”
— Brad Flory’s column
appears Sundays, Tuesdays
and Thursdays. Read his
blog at blog.mlive.com/
bradosphere
Sunday, october 19, 2008
JACKSON CITIZEN PATRIOT
Rain fell throughout
the evening, but
did not dampen the
atmosphere inside
the one-room cabin.
Dinner takes guests
back to the 1830s
Photographs and article
by Patrick Wellever
[email protected] — 768-4933
The rain fell steadily on Wednesday, and by evening a dense fog had
settled over the grounds of the Ella
Sharp Museum of Art and History.
But the windows of the museum’s
historic single-room log house —
once home to early Jackson resident
Eli Stilson — were filled with the
warm orange glow of candlelight.
Inside, eight guests enjoyed a
feast fit for an earlier time. The
four-course meal featured traditional dishes from the 1830s, some
of which were prepared in cast-iron
Dutch ovens, over an open fire a
few yards from the house.
The event, a first for the museum,
was hosted by director Chris Gordy
and his wife, Susan. Susan Gordy
has nearly 20 years of experience
preparing period foods, and on
Wednesday she was in the kitchen
by 10 a.m.
“It’s a long day, but it’s fun,” she
said.
The rain made it tough to keep
the outdoor cooking fire going, but
by the time guests started arriving
at 6:30 p.m., the main course was
simmering away — right on schedule. Museum employee Terri Reynolds helped with the food preparation.
“We don’t normally use the buildings this way,” Reynolds said, “and
it’s fun to breathe a little bit of life
into them.”
Susan Gordy said the event is
unique, because while guests to
other historic sites may be able to
witness demonstrations of food
preparation, they rarely get to taste
the results.
“That’s one way you can really
make history personal,” she said.
Wednesday’s dinner was a bit of
an experiment, Chris Gordy said,
but the museum could potentially
host several similar events each
year, serving seasonal foods.
Eight guests crowded into the historic log house on the grounds of the Ella Sharp Museum of Art
and History on Wednesday to experience the tastes of an earlier time.
Left: Susan Gordy serves a squash soup to her
guests in the log house that once belonged to
early Jackson resident Eli Stilson. Above: The
evening’s fare was prepared over an open fire
several yards from the cabin.
now you know
Red silhouette at museum is part of outdoor exhibit
Dear Pat: I’m curious
about the red silhouette in
the front yard of the Ella
Sharp Museum. Who does
it depict? Why is it red? And
what are the black tubes that
pierce it at three different
locations? A Summit Township reader
Dear Reader: The metal
sculpture is Brighton artist
John Sauve’s depiction of a
modern-day St. Sebastian,
who some say was the first
martyr, said Ken Thompson, organizer of the exhibit
for the museum. The red
denotes blood and was probably chosen because of the
visual impact, he said. The
tubes are arrows.
The sculpture, which
sports a fedora, could be said
to portray that businessmen
are the slaves of the corporate world.
Pat Rombyer
Columnist
“It’s somewhat autobiographical,” Thompson said.
The sculpture is one of 10
that make up the “Art of the
Walk: Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit” that will remain on the
museum grounds until the
end of April.
for fire and rescue calls? A
Jackson reader
Dear Reader: According
to Lt. Steve Rand of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office,
most out-county police calls
are dispatched on the sheriff’s frequency, VHF 154.950.
Fire calls are dispatched on
VHF 154.130. The Jackson Police Department uses UHF
460.1500, Rand said. Most
dispatches for the Michigan
State Police are done on the
sheriff’s frequency as well.
Dear Pat: What process
does the Citizen Patriot use
to determine which candidate it will endorse? Who
does the deciding? A Summit
Township reader
Dear Reader: EndorseDear Pat: What radio
ments are determined by
frequency is used by Jackson the Citizen Patriot’s threeCounty’s Central Dispatch
person editorial board:
Publisher Sandy Petykiewicz, Editor Eileen Lehnert
and Editorial Writer Brian
Wheeler. They research each
person or proposal and usually invite candidates in for
a personal interview. Candidates often are invited in at
the same time so they can
address the same issues with
the board.
This year, the newspaper
will offer endorsements in
about two dozen races, including the presidential, state
and township offices and
state and local proposals.
she is working for KRTK-TV,
and Emily Voss took her talents to California. Uchida’s
last day at WILX was Sept. 5.
Voss left in early August.
Editor’s note: To the unnamed reader who asked
why the Citizen Patriot didn’t
publish the state Attorney
General’s ruling exonerating
former Jackson County Road
Robert Zenz of misconduct:
The story ran Oct. 2.
— Now You Know appears
every Sunday. Send questions
to Pat Rombyer c/o Jackson
Dear Pat: Whatever hap- Citizen Patriot, 214 S. Jackson,
pened to Adela Uchida and
Jackson, MI 49201. Fax 787Emily Voss on WILX-TV? A 9711 or e-mail nowyouknow@
Jackson reader
citpat.com. Questions should
Dear Reader: They
be of interest to a wide range
moved on to larger television of people; they may concern
news markets. Adela Uchida local government, schools or
moved to Houston, where
simply matters of curiosity.