She Flies…

Clues…

A Michigan Historical Marker stands before the childhood home of America’s “First Lady of the Air.” Upon locating this historic homestead, proceed south toward the farmer’s field. On your left, in a small grove of trees, find the box where two stones lie at the foot of a large beech.

Inspiration Point

Clues…

From the highest point along the Lake Michigan shoreline, follow the trail NORTH to YAREJCN NPMNCPRW. Turn toward the lake and in the CENTER of the CXFO-PHFKKBA LJWWK find the BOX.

Hint… Finding the name of the city is the key.

The Big House

Clues…

So here I am, 6 days before Christmas, exactly 42 years old, plodding through the snow looking for a letterbox. But not just any letterbox — this is one I saved specifically for today, although I’m not sure that was such a good idea… I swear I’m gonna die if I have to climb up and down one more sand dune. I wonder how many people do that, statistically — check out on the same date they were born on, that is…

Okay, this must be the sandy bowl, and there’s the large, tall pine tree. Hmmmm, I never did see the “abandoned concrete block building,” but I appear to be on the right trail. Down another sand dune… my knee is killing me. I’m getting old… Due south 60 paces to the gnarly pine, and there it is! Oh, the thrill… Oh, my freezing fingers!

Victorious in my quest for yet another stamp in my logbook, I headed back down the trail to the parking lot. On my drive out of the park, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to take the road off to the right and check out what’s back there. The road ends at a parking lot, across from a house… a big house… the big house.

Now, when a person says “the big house” some people think of a really large house. Other people use this term as slang for prison, so I suppose you might be wondering specifically in which context I am using this description. Well… actually, both. After doing a bit of research, I came to realize that the big house had a somewhat diverse and colorful history, and decided it would make an interesting place for a letterbox. And so, I carved a stamp, and a few weeks later, returned to plant the box.

Now you have to understand, this big old house is supposedly haunted by the ghost of its former mistress, and it’s not exactly in my backyard or anything, so by the time I got there, it was starting to get dark. The empty parking lot told me the dog-walkers and cross-country skiers had all headed home already, and I was the only person there… And it was cold being so close to the lake… And well, you get the point — I intended to make this quick.

Walking along the trail, I looked into the trees for the perfect hiding place. All the while, it was getting darker and I kept thinking about that big old haunted house behind me. My pace quickened as I spied a potential spot up ahead. Yes… the round plastic container fit perfectly into the hollow! I quickly covered it with a handful of snowy leaves and twigs and jotted down a few notes, confident I would remember the intended directions and landmarks once I got home.

Back at home, I sat down to write up the box clues, except I couldn’t really remember what exactly most of my scribbled notations meant, and whether the numbers were counts or paces or degrees or measurements… Oh well, I’m sure I could find my way back to the box without the directions, so I don’t really need to figure them out.

But you do… so I’ll just let you make sense of them.

Mystery Mink

This box was planted in honor of a beautiful, but aggressive, chocolate-colored mink that chased me down the beach one day after I stumbled on his nesting spot.

Clues…

Just recently I moved into my new home here along the water. We minks tend to move around a lot and I was getting restless at the old place, so I decided it was time for a change and wanted to get settled in before winter. I looked at several places along the lake here in West Michigan, and finally it came down to choosing between a place up north near Stoney Lake and this place. The critters that lived in this cozy little burrow before me were very tidy and I just moved right in.

It really is a nice place, with large boulders for walls and a clean sandy floor. Outside my door are grass-covered sand hills and two small popple saplings that provide shade from the mid-day sun. The lake is only about 25 feet down the path so I can swim and fish whenever I want. I have great views from here — lake sunsets to the west, a desolate stretch of State Park beach to the north and if I stand on my tippy-toes on my roof, I can see the top of the lighthouse across the channel at about 30 degrees east of due south. The street I live on is a gently curved rocky breakwall that acts as the northern arm around a harbor where lake meets lake. There isn’t much traffic here, just an occasional early morning fisherman and sometimes kids from the campground playing hide and seek among the rocks in the summer.

Because I don’t see a lot of people, my attention was piqued the other day when I noticed a woman walking toward my street from the beach parking area. There was a camera around her neck and I figured she was just a tourist coming to take pictures of the lighthouse. But not long after she had climbed up onto the rocks, she stopped — up there towards the beach, just past that “Y” in the path. I studied her intently as she looked around to see if anyone was watching (guess she didn’t see me), and then pulled a plastic container out of her pack. She checked to make sure it was sealed tightly and then buried it in the sand, under a small rock, right there between those two boulders with yellow paint. After that she snapped a few pictures of the water and walked back to her truck.

I waited until she was gone and went over to investigate, hoping to find some fish or something else worth eating. But it was just a plastic box containing a pen and a little book, and the strangest thing — there was a soft pink block of some sort with a picture of a critter who looked a lot like me carved into it! Hmmmm, humans… they play the strangest games!

Captain Townsend’s Cigar

Captain James Townsend, the brother of Joseph, the keeper, dropped his anchor at this Upper Michigan lighthouse whenever he was sailing in the area. According to newspaper accounts, on one of his visits, the captain, who was a heavy cigar smoker, fell violently ill and passed away in the keeper’s dwelling at the top of the stairs. He was later embalmed in the basement and kept on hand for several days as family traveled from near and far to the isolated point.

In recent years Captain Townsend’s heavy cigar smoking has become a giveaway to his continued presence in the lighthouse. Guests and members of the Historical Society have reported smelling pungent cigar smoke on several occasions when no one was in the lighthouse smoking a cigar. A carpenter, who was working in the basement, reported hearing heavy foot-steps while he was hammering. At first he thought it was just an echo of his hammering as he only heard the foot steps while he was hammering. When he would stop hammering, the foot steps would stop. The carpenter stopped working, checked out the lighthouse to be sure he was the only person there and checked the doors to be sure they were locked. Assuring himself that he was the only person in the building at the time, the carpenter resumed his hammering. But this time when he stopped hammering, the footsteps continued… heavy footsteps walking from room to room. The carpenter picked up his tools and left vowing never to return by himself.

The old captain apparently is also fun loving. Sometimes he turns around the hat on the mannequin that’s dressed in an official keeper’s uniform, sometimes he places a cigar or two in the pocket of the keeper’s coat. On several occasions he has turned over the silverware on the table. Captain Townsend used to hold his fork upside down when he ate. Sometimes he shuts the Bible that’s on display. Every once in awhile, glimpses of the captain are caught when the workers are cleaning the mirror on the dressing table. He is said to have heavy eyes and a white beard, and his eyes follow them as they move around the room.

Clues…

On the grounds, locate the old red lamp post with the letters USLHE. Follow the path at 125 degrees. Where the trail turns rocky, take the black-stoned path to your right. 10 paces past the end of the black stones, you will encounter another small area of black stones across your path. 30 paces past this, take the trail that leads to your left toward the water. Where this path turns rocky and splits, stay to the right. Just before you come out of the woods onto a flat black rock surface, a spruce stands on your right. Standing next to the spruce in the trail opening, locate a clump of cedar trees at 290 degrees. Around the back of these trees, there is a rock-lined hollow at the base. You will find the box hidden in these rocks.