Black Creek Press Visit here for more information on this new book and other projects involving local history.
This stunning collection of images depicts the "golden age" of car ferry service on the Great Lakes.
These very rare and unique views are sure to provide the historian and maritime enthusiast with hours of enjoyment. Many of the detailed photographs will also provide scale ship model hobbyists with additional information on each vessel in the Ludington ferry fleet.
Working as a wheelsman aboard the Pere Marquette 22, Erhardt Peters photographically documented the history of the Pere Marquette car ferries in the 1920's and 1930's. His talent behind the lens has left us all a legacy of unforgettable images of a time long past in the maritime history of the Great Lakes.
Over 300 views of the Pere Marquette Railway Lake Michigan car ferry fleet are included in Volume I plus additional close-up detail views taken on board the ship, and of other Great Lakes vessels, Lightships, Lighthouses and fellow crew members
Mason County Sesquicentennial CD/Book Project! Due out December 2004! A 2 Disc History of Mason County CD set is being planned for release in time for the 150th anniversary of Mason Counties Birthday January 3rd 2005! The pre-release price for the 2 Disc set is $19.99 + 3.00 S&H and is available on pre-sale shipped by December 15th 2004.
Orders received after January 5th 2005 will be billed at the price of $29.99. Submit your family history FREE! Submit your family photographs! The unique format of the Compact Disc allows us to include more information, larger family histories, more photographs, oral history interviews, and other material that is simply not easily included in a traditional book and at a cost significantly less then a book.
This is an excellent opportunity to archive and preserve your families history in Mason County at no initial cost to your family! Free copies of the 2 CD set will be donated to the Library and the Archives at White Pine Village to aid researchers.
Previous publications and many other county history publications around the country charge an extra amount for additional information or just to submit your family history for publication, many important facts, and many histories are lost that way as not every person or family can afford to pay for the priviledge of being included and of buying the Book afterwards. RE-Submit your updated family history for the new CD! Each Person in your family can submit their own family group history along with the historical information. Additional discs to supplement the 2 disc set can be easily made available as more new "old" information is submitted and compiled! This is in fact destined to be ongoing, a living project that will continue to grow and provide an invaluable reference for genealogists and historians alike!
SUBMISSION DEADLINES: November 1st 2004 is the deadline for inclusion in the first release in December 2004. Submissions will continue to be accepted for future releases and specialty CD sets.
FAMILY HISTORY: Our goal is 1,000 family history submissions. Would you like to Submit your family history? Please send a narrative history in a Word Document. Please Include Name Address and Phone #. Up to 1000 words is the general format. Several photos may be used with each submission. You may mail a floppy disc or CD or email the file. IF you must send a handwritten submission it must be printed so that we may scan it and convert it to a word document. There will be several categories so that other individual ancedotes may be submitted. There are several categories to the family histories such as Pioneers 1835 to 1870 / Early Settlers 1871 to 1900 etc depending on when your family first settled Mason County. A History may be submitted for each Family Line, multiple submissions by different family members of the same pioneer will need to be edited into a single document. Individual Family Histories of the "nuclear family" in any line may be submitted for each family group ie: Parents & Children, an individual or a couple. Ask yourself, in 100 years what do I want future generations to know about me.
FAMILY GENEALOGIES: You may also submit a family genealogy file such as gedcom FTW etc. You may also submit a narrative genealogy. Please remove specific information about living relatives prior to submission. The family genealogy files will most likely be a separate CD at a later date.
PHOTOGRAPHS: Would you like to send scans of family or of local Mason County Scenes? Please use a 300 dpi JPG format. I can scan your photographs at no cost [JUST CALL] or in the event it is a photograph that I would like to keep a copy of I will pay for the cost of having it reproduced at the local Kodak Shop. Please write out the caption you would like used for the photo and the names and positions of any people that you are able to identify. [left to right and front to back] More then one photo can be used in each pioneer and early settler history and I am looking for photos of businesses, schools, Carferries, Farming, local churches etc. IF you send an original photograph for us to scan please use a Post Office delivery confirmation so that it can be tracked and we will return them in the same way.
There are 2 other Book projects in the works regarding Mason County, the first is about the History of the City of Ludington and is being written by Paul S. Peterson. If you have any history to share, photographs or other information that you believe will be helpful to Paul's efforts please contact him directly. Paul Peterson
The second is a video project about the History of Freesoil using original photos by Helen Gancarz.
I will update this page with more information and hopefully links to the authors in case you have information that could be helpful to these very worthwhile efforts.
There is also a Grant that has been approved to fund to some work that will benefit local genealogists. One of the goals is to create a listing of each resource available through the Family Research Center at White Pine Village. Another of the goals is to find and make available 500 auction flyers of Farm Auctions in Mason County. Look for more information as it becomes available.
The Mason County Historical and Genealogical Society provides research assistance to genealogists with ancestors in Mason County. They maintain a Research Room at White Pine Village, Many events are also scheduled throughout the year. They have published many resources, such as census and cemetery indexes. Some of these publications are listed on the Research Sources and Lookup Volunteers webpage. The Society can be contacted at:Mason County Historical and Genealogical Society, Questions or comments about Historic White Pine Village?
Contact White Pine Village
Historic White Pine Village
1687 S. Lakeshore Dr
Ludington, MI 49431
(231)843-4808 - telephone
(321)843-7089 - fax
info@historicwhitepinevillage.org Historic White Pine Village general information execdir@historicwhitepinevillage.org Historic White Pine Village Director
For more information on any of the above names, e-mail Dave Petersen 
Dr. William M. Anderson, Dr. Anderson is currently working on a book which will cover the history of Victory Township. He is looking for any information or photographs related to the people of Victory Township from it's formation through the war years [1945] If you have stories, information, photographs that you would like to add to this project please contact him directly