US 12 Garage Sale

If you love searching for hidden treasures and finding great bargains, this sale and trip are for you! You will find everything from antiques, collectables, furniture, dishware, fresh garden produce, homemade jams and jellies, live entertainment, and much more. Perhaps even more interesting than the “treasures” are the people you will meet along the drive.

Celebrating its 6th year, the sale is scheduled for August 7-9 and is part of an organized effort by the US 12 Heritage Trail Council. Governor Jennifer Granholm dedicated US 12, or Route 12, as a state heritage trail in June 2004. The purpose of the trail and the 212-mile sale is to bring travelers off the Interstate and into the historic and nostalgic towns, cities, and villages along US 12.

The sale encourages businesses and residents to participate by having garage sales, sidewalk sales, and special promotions for a continuous stretch from one end of the highway to the other. The sales can be found along the highway at homes, farms, businesses, parking lots, and fields. Some areas will have large numbers of vendors while others may be scattered and in some instances a traveler will have to go several miles or more without seeing a yard sale because of the rural nature of the highway. In some towns printed maps will be available with the location of the sales mapped out.

Hidden Lake Gardens Spring Plant Sale

Saturday, May 9th 10:00 am-2:00 pm

Whether you are a new gardener or a plant connoisseur, you will enjoy this fantastic event. Master Gardeners will be available to help you choose from a wide variety of perennials, ferns, wildflowers, hosta, ornamentals grasses and a unique selection of trees and shrubs.


Don't miss this sale!

Hidden Lake Gardens

6214 Monroe Road (M-50)

Tipton, Michigan 49287


517 / 431 - 2060

Garden Creates Fantasy Out of Cement! -Somerset Center

As dusk approaches and the winds ruffle the autumn leaves, their shades of gold and red casting a kaleidoscope of colors in the bubbling brook that winds its way through McCourtie Park, you might catch a glimpse of a woman dressed in a long blue gown moving quietly across a bridge. Or is she wearing black? Ghost hunters disagree on the color of her dress, but the suggestion of a gentle ghostly presence is just one of the unique features of this roadside park in the tiny hamlet of Somerset Center, just east of Lenawee County’s Irish Hills.W.H.L. McCourtie, owner of the now-defunct Trinity Portland Cement Co., in Cement City, along Highway 127, had a fondness for concrete and whimsy. His estate, known as Aiden Lair, was the perfect place to create a fantastical garden. It looks like a fairy tale run amok.

Cement chimneys created to look like tree trunks rise out of an underground rathskeller built into the side of a hill where McCourtie (known as Herb to his friends) played poker with such Detroit bigwigs as auto baron Henry Ford.Local lore says tunnels ran underground here, perfect for bootleggers to smuggle liquor for those all-night poker games. A total of 17 cement folk art-style bridges cross the meandering stream on the 42-acre property.

These unique sculptures, called El Trabejo Rustico, Spanish for rustic work, were created by Mexican artisans Dionicio Rodriquez and Ralph Corona of Texas. McCourtie had made it rich as a Texas oil man before returning home to Somerset. Also known by the French term, faux bois, or fake wood, it's a complex process of shaping, molding, staining and adding texture to the concrete so it looks real.For years almost a forgotten technique, this early- to mid-20th century folk art is now enjoying a resurgence in interest.

Built in the early 1930s, each bridge is unique and beckons walkers to cross over and into wooded glades which, in the fall, are ablaze with color. One bridge, surely a home for hobbits, has the look of a thatched cottage, albeit a cement one.A simpler bridge is designed to resemble an old-fashioned swinging bridge, the cement scored to replicate ropes and wood; planked seats, also out of cement, invite visitors to stop halfway across and rest.Weeping willows crowd the sides of the stream, dripping long, feathery branches onto the waters.

Secret glens offer seating and elaborate birdhouses, including several tall purple martin houses that can shelter more than 200 birds.Interestingly, this place of enchantment, located just off Highway 127, on historic US 12, now designated as a Heritage Trail, often is empty, though it is just off the highway. Maybe gnomes have stolen the signs marking it as a park, so look for street signs. It is on the northwest corner of US 12 and South Jackson Road. After turning north off of US 12, take the unmarked road on your left.There is no admission fee, and, if you're lucky, you may catch a glimpse of the wandering ghost, referred to, affectionately, as The Lady in Blue.

Jane Ammeson is a freelance writer based in southwestern Michigan

Hunt for Antique Treasures in Allen, Michigan

When the days shorten and the leaves start to turn shades of saffron red and honey gold, it's time to wander down U.S. 12, a Michigan heritage highway that traces the Old Sauk Trail, an American Indian byway, as it leads to Allen, considered to be the Michigan's antiques capital.
It's said that if you stopped at each of the booths housed in these immense buildings and the small stores that brim with antiques for just one minute each, it would take more than three days to visit them all.
Not having three days, I still decided to do my best to visit as many as possible. Starting first in downtown Allen, a town whose population barely tops 100, I checked out the books at Michiana Books and Antiques, a U-Buy bookstore, and then went on to several antiques stores that line the two-block downtown.
The hours here differ from the big antiques malls on the outskirts of Allen. Those keep regular hours; in town, places such as the quaint Peddler's Alley and Gingerbread Keepsake Antiques, may be open or not, seemingly on a whim. But if they're open, they're worth prowling.
After finding a few treasures, I headed out of town to the Allen Antique Barn, a big red building whose outside is a cluster of weatherproof artifacts.
Snoop around
Inside, it's a vast space divided into small stalls, each separately owned and each specializing in certain eras and specific finds. There are lamps, furniture, old books including a great collection of early Nancy Drew mysteries, jewelry, old radios and an immense amount of plates, glasses, vases and lamps. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the detritus of the past, but in some ways, it also is like visiting a vast museum, sorting through the accumulation of other people's lifetimes.
Preston's Antique Gaslight Village, a collection of more than 20 historic buildings, including this General Store, offers the ambience of a small late-1800 community near Allen, Mich.
What most impresses about the antique barn as well as several of the other places I visited, including the Hog Creek Craft & Antique Mall and Allen Antique Mall, is that despite their immense size, they are all meticulously organized, clean and well kept.
An interesting aspect of the Hog Creek Craft & Antique Mall is that part of the 23,000 square feet is focused solely on crafts. I am always amazed at the many different talents people have for making birdhouses, doll clothing, jewelry, rugs, baskets and so much more.
Taking a break from shopping, I headed to the Outpost Grill, a quaint country-style restaurant where patterned curtains hang from the windows, antiques decorate the entryway.
Whenever I visit a place. I not only like to check out the stores but also the foodstuff. A good find is Betty's Amish Country Bakery, which is about seven miles down the road in Quincy, another speck of a town. It's owned by an Amish woman who eschews electricity and instead uses kerosene-heated stoves to make her wonderful baked goods, including breads, caramel corn, pies, cakes and big chewy cookies
Once fortified with baked goods, I returned to antiquing. There were still a lot of places to check out, but I decided to visit Preston's Antique Gaslight Village, which I love because the buildings here are all historical and have been moved from other locations within 50 miles of Allen. They have been restored and now house antiques.
There are schools, an Art Deco gazebo, a farm house that is nearly 150 years old and several churches, including one that belonged to an abolitionist who helped shelter escaping slaves on their way along the Underground Railroad
Also in the area
If you've shopped till you're almost dropping, there are other things to do in the area as well. Nearby Coldwater has two chains of lakes connected by a channel. What better way to enjoy the autumn colors than by renting a pontoon boat at the Coldwater Lake Marina? Info: (517) 238-2777. Kayaks and pontoons also are available at Narrows Resort. Info: (317) 417-3157, or visit nrglr.com/
All this antiquing may leave a hankering for the past. What better way to indulge than to visit the Capri Drive-In, which opened 44 years ago in Coldwater? It shows first-run movies on two movie screens starting at sunset. Info: 119 W. Chicago Road (US-12). (517) 278-5628 or capridrive-in.com.
Children might like AJ's Bison in Bronson, where owner Jan Danklefsen turned an interest in buffalo into an avocation. She now has 86 of them. They can be seen from the road, but be careful, they're not friendly. She also sells buffalo meat, rugs and American Indian items at her gift shop. Info: 456 W. Hatmaker Road. (517) 369-9037.
If you go
How to Get There: Take U.S. 31 South to Int. 94 Exit 34A East to M-227 to U.S. 12 East. Continue east through Coldwater and Quincy to Allen.
For More Information: Contact the Branch County tourism office at (517) 278-0241 or visit http://www.discover-michigan.com./
-- Jane Ammeson is a freelance writer based in southwestern Michigan.

The US 12 Heritage Trail

The US 12 Heritage Trail takes us down the road, around the bend and through the portal of time. At the end of our journey, we will arrive at a place called perspective. And that really is the value of history. It gives depth and meaning to our lives, and enriches our sense of purpose. It gives us direction.

If we could view a reverse time lapse film of the celebrated road and go back in time past generations of styles and architecture, past Model A’s and T’s, past parades of soldiers from war to war, past stagecoach and Indians and early pioneer, past buffalo and traveling herds of deer all the way back to unsettled forest and prairie where the natural landscape is undisturbed. If we could go back there, would we too imagine the possibilities of this great land? Would we settle and build a nest? Would we plan a highway from east to west?

Cameron S. Brown, Michigan Senator July 2006