AARON HELMAN

The Turtle, The Mitten, and An Epic History of Michigan​

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“Helman writes histories that read like novels, a wealth of information told through the lens of irresistible adventure and filled with wit, heart, and grit. The Turtle is his most ambitious work yet, and it does not disappoint.”

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I don’t remember how much spaghetti I ate the first time I heard the Ojibwe story of the creation of Michigan, but it was plenty, and it was enough. The year was 2013, and I was struggling to stay awake, my body worn out from the heat of the day and the hundred miles we'd ridden on a bicycle just to arrive at the Greensky Hill Indian Church outside of Charlevoix.

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The story went - as I remember it through tired eyes and sleepy ears - that Michigan had once been formed on the back of a turtle.

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More than a decade later, I don't know how I did it, but I persuaded my wife that we should ride bikes entirely around the borders of that Turtle, tracing the outline of Michigan's Mitten, and recounting the history of every place, town, and monument along the way. In The Turtle, The Mitten, and An Epic History of Michigan, you'll take the journey with us to discover:

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• The lost town of Singapore, buried beneath the sand dunes, the cost of an unfortunate series of profit-minded business decisions.

• The rural intersection at Phillips Corners, site of the only battle of the Toledo War, that forgotten civil conflict when Michigan and Ohio took arms up against one another.

• Maritime tragedies and historic shipwrecks beyond one horizon after another.

• The beaches once frequented by the Union Pier Nudist Colony, a collection of Chicago artists who came to the lake to find inspiration before rewriting the history of American literature.

• The Mormon Pirate King of Beaver Island, a man who gave himself that moniker, and you should know that no part of his nickname is an exaggeration or a fiction.

• The battlefields where Michigan became parts of international conflicts - The Seven Years War, The French & Indian War, and The War of 1812.

• The beating heart of Detroit, the most American city there ever was.

• The stately homes of the lumber kings and the automotive barons, some of the richest men who ever lived, and of course...

• The ugliest lighthouse I've ever seen.

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The Turtle, The Mitten, and An Epic History of Michigan is part travel, part adventure, part history, and 100% Pure Michigan.

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From the grittiest parts of Detroit, to the thick and quiet forests of The Thumb, to the dozens of tourist towns that dot the Lake Michigan shore; the Wolverine State is an adventure that's always changing and one that comes with a history that's never boring.