On this Throwback Thursday with our maple trees almost bare, I find myself back at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg, Michigan. It’s October of 2015, and we missed Ichabod Crane Days, which is their version of a state park harvest festival or Halloween weekend.
I broke out the Halloween decorations anyway and we enjoyed a nice fall weekend. Though I was quite disappointed to learn that we misssed the headless horseman – someone from the neighboring equestrian team dressed up and rode through the park. How cool would that have been!
As I was revisiting this trip, I realized what I had captured in the below pic. I will often take pics like this to capture it and then review it later.
I enlarged it and found the before picture of the land before the Little Maple River was dammed in 1975 and Lake Ovid created. The light blue outline on the right shows the area of the lake today, on an aerial view of the land in 1964.
Creepy. Seeing this took me back to the 1999 movie, In Dreams with Robert Downey Jr. and Annette Bening, where the town was flooded to create the reservoir. The opening scene shows divers swimming through abandoned homes and businesses. Knowing a flooded town is below me would totally freak me out. Even if nothing is down there, my imagination just doesn’t rest!
Must have been quite the hey day back then, as there are four very large parking lots for the day use area, several of which are quite overgrown. I pictured the lot filled with classic cars and station wagons, the beach dotted with umbrellas, the smell of tanning oil in the hot sun and Jimi Hendrix singing about a foxy lady.
Now, there is a lone cabin for rent and I imagine the privacy here at night is pretty nice. And the stars.
My photos also took me back to one of the strangest things I’ve ever found. This was in one of the far parking lots, overgrown and a dumping ground for dirt and rocks.
I give you the crazy stick? I thought maybe it was something from a movie or song, so I Googled it. (Mistake.) Lastly is this gem, and I don’t even remember taking this pic. Welcome the friends. ?? I can’t imagine why this concrete would be poured in an abandoned parking lot, so my guess is that it was dumped here. Probably after this cryptic message was added.
As, always, thank you for coming back down memory lane with me!
How random and spooky! 🙂 Love this collection of strange finds.
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A submerged town!? Stories galore in that puddle. Thanks for the read.
🙂 It appears Lake Ovid was just a field, but yes, there are other towns that have been flooded.. Creepy!
So cool! I love things like this and my bucket list is growing every day with new things.
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Ooh, that really is spooky! There’s a gorge near here that used to be an open pit mine, and the story goes that the mining huts and equipment are still down there under the water–creeps me out to even think about it!
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Super creepy! Do divers go down and explore?
I love stories! Thanks so much for sharing! The Midwest does have some cool stuff….even if our winters are a drag🤪
Yep and we got snow today!
Such a fun post! Thank you 😊 Since we’re both midwesterners, I feel like I can easily picture what you write about 😊
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂