Traverse City Record-Eagle

Record-Eagle 150th Anniversary

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January 12, 2009

Loraine Anderson: Mysteries have long life

"A great ball
of fire, big
as a pail"

Big as a pail?

Don't you love it? Would anyone describe a meteor that way today?

Mystery flared in the night skies over Traverse City 126 years ago, burning questions and awe into minds -- then and now.

This particular great ball of fire, big as a pail, "passed low down over town ... leaving a trail of fire 25 to 50 feet long."

It made a "rumbling noise, followed by an explosion that jarred buildings and was noticed by many who were unaware of the cause," the story said. "The streets were lighted a lurid red for several seconds and altogether it was a weird and startling sight."

The comet was gone, but that brilliant sky emerged in another local news item in the same December 1883 issue.

"The red sunrises and sunsets which have prevailed for the last week or two have occasioned much remark, the whole atmosphere seeming to be filled with the lurid glow like the light of a great conflagration," the story said.

I could smell it as I read that paragraph probably a year ago. I could taste it, another mystery of history. But I had bigger fish to fry -- lumber barons and passenger pigeons, Indian trails and treaties, old maps and photos -- and not a lot of time.

I added it to my "Oddities" folder of curious, eccentric and bizarre stories discovered while researching old newspapers for the Record-Eagle's 150th anniversary series this year that started in November.

Fortunately, true mysteries of history never die. Sometimes, if you're lucky, they just take a year to circle the sun and dawn anew on Christmas Day.

Have you ever Googled "lurid red sky?"

Have you ever seen Norwegian Edvard Munch's famous "Scream" painting of a human figure standing on a road holding his ears in front of a billowing blood-red sky?

Did you ever hear of the cataclysmic Krakatoa volcano eruptions in Indonesia during the summer of 1883 that threw clouds of volcanic dust into the stratosphere and was linked for months and years afterward to flaming twilights reported in Europe, New York and other places around the world?

I'm not saying that's where the Herald's flaring red sky came from in December 1883, and I'm not saying it isn't. I just try to imagine the night skies here in 1883. How dark, quiet and big they must have been, and how bright -- and maybe ghastly -- that sky was.

It fills me with wonder yet today, a burning ember of remember in a sea of scratched-up, black-and-white microfilm.

Columnist Loraine Anderson can be reached at landerson@record-eagle.com or 231-933-1468.

Text Only
  • WILLIAM MILLIKEN
    After looking back, we look to the future

    In this last installment of the Record-Eagle's year-long 150th Anniversary History Project series, native son Bill Milliken ponders the future, including the question: What will the Traverse City area be like in 2159?

    Continued ...
    Nov 8, 2009 7:14 am 9 Photos
  • Derek Bailey: Cooperation is key
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    I am excited and optimistic in thinking about my predictions for the area and Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians for the next 150 years. Clearly, we live in one of the most beautiful areas of Mother Earth. The GTB Tribal Nation has grown exponentially as an area and tribe over the last 29 years. We must now sustain and channel that growth.

    Continued ...
    Nov 8, 2009 7:12 am 1 Photo
  • George McManus: Manage resources
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    The Grand Traverse Region is blessed with abundant renewable natural resources, which properly managed, will remain for the next 150 years and beyond. The community of the future depends on what direction the citizenry and leadership decide to take and external influences over which they have no control.

    Continued ...
    Nov 8, 2009 7:11 am 1 Photo
  • Marsha Smith: Listen to each other
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    The Grand Vision has shown me that the people of this region love it here and have a commitment to building a better future. We care about what happens here and we care about the future. My main concern is that we sometimes forget about all things we hold in common and focus more on what keeps us apart.

    Continued ...
    Nov 8, 2009 7:11 am 1 Photo
  • Joe VanderMeulen: Plan for six generations
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    We need to look forward across six or more generations of people to see 150 years into the future. What wonderful changes there may be, if we choose wisely, just get lucky, or some of both. Of course, we face many threats to our security and survival. The risks of deadly pandemics, global climate change and unimaginable wars are real.

    Continued ...
    Nov 8, 2009 7:10 am 1 Photo
  • November 2, 2009
  • Women helped build Traverse City
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    Women helped build Traverse City's library system, schools and hospital. They lobbied for clean water and clean streets. They were concerned about the needy, child labor, reforestation, international peace and the right of women to vote. They did this largely through two local women's clubs -- the Ladies Library Association and the Traverse City Woman's Club.

    Continued ...
    Nov 2, 2009 6:17 am 4 Photos
  • TC's early women leaders

    Thirteen women who influenced early Traverse City are profiled.

    Continued ...
    Nov 2, 2009 6:15 am
  • October 31, 2009
  • TC history exhibit visits TADL

    The Record-Eagle's traveling exhibit of Traverse City and newspaper history will be on display throughout November at the Traverse Area District Library on Woodmere.

    Continued ...
    Oct 31, 2009 9:30 pm
  • October 19, 2009
  • Loraine Anderson: TC's 1925 earthquake
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    Earthquakes are rare in Michigan, but Traverse City residents definitely felt the earth move beneath their feet and watched electric ceiling lights sway overhead on Feb. 28, 1925. "EARTHQUAKE HERE FIRST EVER FELT: Dishes Rattle, Chairs Rock, Smokers 'Swear Off' and People in High Places Come Down," Record-Eagle headlines shouted after tremors rattled the city at 8:27 p.m. that Saturday night.

    Continued ...
    Oct 19, 2009 7:00 am 1 Photo
  • October 5, 2009
  • Water Wars: Advocating for 'public trust'
    Jim Olson

    It was a busy summer on the water front for Great Lakes advocates in what environmentalists and others are calling "The Water Wars."

    Continued ...
    Oct 5, 2009 6:18 am 3 Photos
  • October 3, 2009
  • R-E editorial decries water diversion

    Record-Eagle concern about Great Lakes water diversion dates to the early 1900s, including a Jan. 14, 1925, editorial about the U.S. governments challenge of Chicagos right to divert Lake Michigan water without consulting its neighbors.

    Continued ...
    Oct 3, 2009 9:55 pm
  • Summary of summer Great Lakes water issues

    Great Lakes water issues this summer included the following.

    Continued ...
    Oct 3, 2009 9:55 pm
  • September 28, 2009
  • 150 Years: Bay served as sewer, water supply
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    The Boardman River in Traverse City wasn't a pretty sight at the turn of the last century. It was a city sewer, and it flowed into West Bay, the source of the city's water supply.

    Continued ...
    Sep 28, 2009 7:18 am 7 Photos
  • August 10, 2009
  • 150 Years: Cartographer maps settlements
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    Helen Hornbeck Tanner, a Beulah summer resident and historian of Great Lakes American Indians and cartography, created a new historical map of the Grand Traverse region that traces early American Indian and white settlement.

    Continued ...
    Aug 10, 2009 6:39 am 2 Photos
  • July 27, 2009
  • Loraine Anderson: Tracking Titus
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    Harold Titus has been one of my favorite Traverse City historical characters since I read "Timber," his 1922 novel, last year. He intrigues me for many reasons. Part of his mystery is that he is virtually unknown today. He is "new" local history.

    Continued ...
    Jul 27, 2009 8:06 am 1 Photo