Ingham County Historical Commission

For last Sunday's one-room schoolhouse tours, I was at the Meridian Historic Village Randall School. It was a fun and informative afternoon. A big thank-you to all who made it possible!

The first pieces of Ingham County's America 250 courthouse exhibit have been installed. Over the next 2 years, the Historical Commission, in partnership with the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and the Lansing Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), will be honoring Revolutionary War Patriots with a connection to Ingham County.
- Profiles of patriots with direct descendants residing in the county are featured on the first floor of the Ingham County Courthouse, as shown below.
- Stories of the two Revolutionary War Patriots buried in Ingham County will soon be added to the exhibit.
Help us honor even more patriots by sharing your Revolutionary War ancestor's story in the comments below.

While inventorying items in Ingham County's Courthouse collection came across these plans for the straits of Mackinac "Mackinac Bridge and Causeway." They were donated in 1988 by the then Ingham County Drain Commissioner along with the following.
The consulting engineer, Charles E. Fowler, from New York City, designed the first plans to join the upper and lower peninsula's of Michigan from 1921-1933. The plans have a final date of November 1933. These plans were presented to the Mackinac Straits Bridge Authority in 1935 and were rejected.
Fowler's second set of plans were a more direct route, but was also rejected in 1936. This plan is also shown in his 1933 plans.
These plans called for a causeway and bridges from Cheboygan, across to Bois Blanc Island to Round Island, over the west tip of Mackinac Island, and then across the channel to St. Ignace.