From latest to oldest, updated as I add content and make revisions.
May 2021:
I'm still 'here', now in Newberry & hoping soon to finally have access to my MC/MNA & MI library again after many years far away in boxes, so hope to start adding more content later this year.
Michigan DNR, archives, history department, etc. still haven't added really anything about the magazine to their websites...
(Compare to Minnesota, whose similar magazine is still going strong & recently celebrated their 80th anniversary! They have all back issues available as PDF .. which I may eventually get toward at some future date, but sure wish that SOM would do that for me!)
It's also the DNR's 100th anniversary this year and they have a (very) little on MC/MNR, just a brief mention really, though they have the dates wrong (and other details - showing how easily such history can become lost)...
Here's one website of theirs on that (until the incomprehensible & unstable URL breaks).
November 2016:
I've made a few additions including cover pages for 1995 to the
magazine's final issue in April 1999, PDFs of pages from a couple 1955 & 1962 issues (see index pages), some formatting improvements & consistencies, typo fixes (always plenty), few general page
spruce-ups, etc.
Have gotten another bit of a kick in the butt to work on it this month since:
1) I'm planning to return (forever?, I hope) from years in Alaska back to Michigan and the UP in a couple months,
2) I've finally started receiving the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine again after a few years (MCV is a magazine in the same style as MC/MNR, but has managed to survive and is doing very well, see here for my notes, and here for the MCV itself) - the latest issue is amazing as all of them -, and donated some money again to this , and
3) I this week received another website inquiry from a reader who had an interest in an article in MC, worth quoting here:
"I've been looking for a copy of Michigan Conservation
Magazine July/August 1955 issue for years now. There is a story
in there about my Great Uncle Adson Casey, who was a commercial
fisherman (like all my family) out of Fairport, Michigan.
... I have been gathering memories and info about the U.P. for
my children, as it is a very special place to me and rich with
history. My son is a high school social studies teacher and
went up there with me a few years ago and loved everything to
be found up there. I have regaled him with true tales of the
antics of the Casey clan and the DNR. There was much animosity
between the commercial fishermen of Fairport and the DNR, who
wouldn't even drive down to Fairport without a police escort,
so bad was the blood between them. I thought this article about
their great, great uncle would give them a glimpse into the
reasons for the feud.
In the end, as we look back now, of course my grandparents and
uncles were all right about the State of Michigan destroying
their livelihood. The fishermen of my grandparent's and
father's era have died off now and their children have found
other ways to earn a living, but I long for the days of seeing
my grandfather's tug, The Bonnie C, heading to the dock as it
crossed in front of their house on Lake Michigan and I would
run down to the dock to retrieve perch or white fish or chubs
for dinner, fresh off the boat, and I'd give a lot for another
smoked white fish out of my grandfather's smokehouse in his
backyard. Ah, what amazing memories." .
Yes!, I had the article already scanned and so was able to send
it to her, including I think her first picture of her great
uncle Adson Casey, the 'star' of the article.
Earlier this year I had a similar request from a reader:
"Hi, Robert: I'm curious if you have a copy or could
direct me to where I can get a copy of the following
reference:
Cottam, Clarence. "In Memory of Ding." Michigan Conservation,
May-June 1962, pp. 33-35.
Clarence Cottam is my great-grandfather, so I am trying to
learn more about him."
And, when I replied that I had scanned it and would be sending him a copy:
"Thanks, Robert! I'm currently reading a biography of
Ding Darling (written by David L. Lendt) and am enjoying
learning about him. My great-grandfather worked for him in the
government for many years, before moving to Texas in the 1950s
to direct the Welder Wildlife Foundation. I'm hoping that
article will shed some light on how Ding influenced
him."
Since this website is on a bit of an obscure topic, and there isn't any sort of 'interaction'; being more of a presentation with admittedly infrequent or at least slow updates, I don't get much communication - though it feels great when I can answer a question, fill in blanks, or best of all help someone learn more about their family past or an old friend (or occasionally make corrections when errors on website found!). Just based on the two communications above it's all worth it!
Older updates:
February-April 2014:: Back after a long delay with a many updates and added content for most covers 1940s-1990s. Worked up in photoshop many more of the scans I made in 2010, once I get the cover pages all added I'll start with more issue content. Also added this 'progress' info to the site news page, reorganized file formats, etc.
A lot of new additions, and I'm working through to make sure everything works as it should, but there might be a few glitches and typos in meantime.
Part of the slowness is that it takes so long to zap all the image files from scans to final page version; using the $6 scanner doesn't help. Also I code all the pages manually, so that involves adding all the file links, changing data, etc. on template pages - I do this all on a text editor rather than some website program. Still, I like the simplicity, the straightforward HTML code, and the fact that it's not based on yet another look-alike blog template. On the other hand if I just dumped it all into an automated template it'd've been up years ago! I did just get around to making some spreadsheet templates though, where I just enter the relevant file names, etc. then paste to the html edit - that saves some time...
In the interim since last update in 2012 I note that the Michigan Gov'mt has put a few of the very earliest issues of the newsletter, from the 1930s, up on a website (see links).
June 2012: Made some edits, added content on 'related' publications, and added new issue pages this month.
In April 2012 I got back to adding some content... As mentioned below, most everything was scanned, at least initial selections from each issue, two years ago now... I was looking for a logical and easy to use interface to display the page scans, with little luck, so for now just using my standby image viewer version I use for photos elsewhere.
In the last week of April I got all the images post-scan processed for all the issues to 1950, for 1968, for 1980, and a few others, now just need to get the pages for them together.
The other thing that's taking forever (remember, in my spare time when not working on other things, asleep, drunk, camping, lost, etc.) is processing the original flatbed scans to look decent, and, of course, the hand-typing of the HTML and CSS code for the pages. No automation here, this is all hand-typed code!
Another problem is that the full-size scans have to be fairly big to be readable, so some page scrolling is necessary (unless you have a vertical screen, which I highly recommend, especially if you have two monitors). Horizontal screens mess things up a little (great for watching video; bad for reading or writing documents), and I haven't gotten around to code to automatically compensate for layout on horizontal screens.
Late 2011 I was finally getting around to preparing and adding some of the content to the website, but was been poking along... See the index by year for what's added so far!
In late winter 2010 I finished scanning all the covers, tables of contents, editorials, and many articles from my collection in the spring of 2010 while I was still in Michigan, and got a few other interesting documents at NMU library. So there's something I can add here from every issue starting with 1949 until the magazine's end in 1999, and a few earlier ones too.
Website by Robert Liebermann | © and last edit:
2021.05.25
location: http://michiganconservation.net/news.htm