Hell and Gregory, Michigan

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now moving to an every-other-day blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”  I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.  To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean in the first paragraph), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

 Landing number 2046; A Landing A Day blog post number 464.

Dan –  Mired in an oh-for-four with this OSer landing in MI; 48/39; 3/10; 3; 151.7.  Here’s my regional landing map:

 

Since the beginning of 2013, this marks my third MI landing:

 

I mean, no landings in AL, KS, PA, OH, NY or SC in 2013 (and, of course, no landings in baby states like NJ, DE, RI, MA, VT or NH).  Ne’er the less, three landings in MI.  Oh, well.

 Before presenting my closer-in landing map, let me harken back a mere two landings ago, where “Winner” and “Gregory” SD were my titular towns.  I could have selected some other small towns in the vicinity, but as I said in that post, “I selected Winner (‘cause of the cool name) and Gregory (‘cause that’s me!)” 

 So what happened over here in Michigan?  I could have selected other small towns in the area, but I chose Hell (‘cause of the cool name) and Gregory (‘cause that’s me!):

 

Here’s my Google Earth (GE) shot, showing that I landed in a mixed residential / woodland / agricultural area:

 

While perusing GE, I noticed a couple of what I assume are kettle lakes (you know, the lakes formed by buried chunks of glacial ice that melt).   There they are SE of my landing:

Anyway, I landed in the watershed of a new river, the West Branch of the Red Cedar River (the 56^th stream or river with the word “west”); on to the Red Cedar R (2^nd hit); on to the Grand R (9^th hit); on to Lake Michigan (32^nd hit); on to the St. Lawrence R (92^nd hit).

 As you might expect, the town of Gregory has a much more subdued web presence than the town of Hell.  So, I’ll start there, with this, from Wiki:

Gregory began as a station on a branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad, which came through the farm of Halstead Gregory in 1884.  Mr. Gregory built a store near the depot and became the first postmaster in March 1884.

Mr. Gregory obviously claimed naming rights . . .

Moving right along to Hell.  This, from Wiki, about the name:

There are two stories relating to the origin of Hell’s name. The first is that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, “So schön hell!” (translated as, “So beautifully bright!”) Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck.

The second story:   Soon after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves (one of the town’s founding fathers) was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called and replied, “I don’t care, you can name it Hell for all I care.” The name became official on October 13, 1841.

I’ll take story number two.  Regardless of the origin, it’s amazing that back in the 1840’s, the name “Hell” would even be considered . . .

 In more recent times, Hell has attempted to cash in on its unusual name – and appears to have succeeded, at least to some extent.  The town’s unofficial website is GoToHellMI.com; here’s their logo:

 

The website also contains a list of things to do in Hell:

 

For a full guided tour of Hell, you can check out the Travel Channel feature (on You Tube).  Click HERE.

Of course, there are road signs:

 

There are several pictures of this very road sign on Google Images.  The one I happened to view was from the website “I Like To Waste My Time Dot Com”.  It was part of a feature entitled “18 Most Epic City Names in the World.” 

 Although hardly G-Rated, the article is worth the perusal.  Click HERE to check it out.

 Intrigued by the website, I meandered around a little.  It’s a fun site with lots of quirky interesting items.  In fact, I strongly recommend that my readers check out a particular post.  It features a series of six or seven photos of circular objects against a black background.  You are asked to guess what you’re looking at.  (I know, I know, I shouldn’t have ended that sentence with a preposition.  Oh, well.)

 I think you’ll enjoy it more if I give you some clues:  the objects are not huge (like planets), nor are they micro (something teeny, just greatly magnified).  No, they are ordinary everyday objects that are larger than a ping pong ball and smaller than a beach ball – and, while obviously circular, they are not spheres.

 OK.  Enough clues.  Click HERE, and good luck.

 As is my wont, I perused the Panoramio photos on GE close to my landing.  I’ll present my favorites.  First this, entitled “November Sunrise” by Radio Sputnik:

 

Near Hell are many lakes.  Here’s a shot entitled “Sunset on Silver Lake” by Juan234:

 

UnagiUnagi is a prolific Panaoramio photographer in the greater Hell region.  I’ll close with his artsy shot entitled “A Curve on Patterson Lake Road:”

 

That’ll do it.

 KS

 Greg

  

© 2013 A Landing A Day