Spikehorn and Friends…but Who?

By ANGELA KELLOGG-HENRY

Cleaver Managing Editor

I’m contacted quite often with questions about local history and often it’s a two-way street. Those inquiring about their family or business also have information to share. Last month I was contacted by Scott G. with a very familiar story. A few photos of Spikehorn were mixed in with some family papers and photos that he was in possession. Was I interested? Of course.

Scott’s great uncle lived in Ohio and had a cabin in Houghton Lake. He’s writing a book about his uncles’ historic automotive dealership. He purchased the materials at another family member’s estate auction to further research his book. He dated the photos to the 1930s and possibly as specifically as 1937. After he sent me the photos via email, I agreed to purchase them for $40. They are the photos you see above and include a few more original photos and several postcards.

The photos are great, and I looked forward to receiving them in the mail. A fellow Clare County Historical Society member offered to pay for them, and I was looking forward to putting them in the collection at the Harrison District Library.

Then I started to look a little closer and the man in the middle of photo (top left) looked familiar to me as possibly Henry Ford. A few friends agreed after I showed them the photos. Now if you know me, you’ll know I would fall out of my chair if Henry Ford himself was feeding a bear by mouth at Spikehorn’s bear park in the 1930s.

And it’s not a stretch of the imagination for that to be true. Ford owned what is now Kitty Kurtis Farm west of Harrison on M-61 in the early 1900s. The land was used for testing tractors and for experimental farming. The date and place were right. Surely, if he was driving through, he’d stop at one of Michigan’s most unique tourist attractions?

Scott’s family also had automobile ties, so my mind was running wild with the possibilities. I hadn’t seen the photos in person yet so I showed them to friends, and they agreed it could be Ford.

Trying to match photos and faces is a tricky business. The ears look the same, but the nose is different. From this angle it could be them but not from that angle and on and on. Before embarrassing myself and sending the photos to the Ford Museum for possible positive identification, I decided to wait until they arrived.

Several weeks later the photos arrived. And alas, they were labeled with two names I didn’t recognize. I’ll research the names, but it was disappointing they were labeled and distinctly not Ford. They are still great photos of Harrison’s most famous tourist attraction, and its wonderful new historical material continues to surface by those willing to reach out and share.

Do you have family photos in your collection that you’d like to share? Contact the Clare County Cleaver at 989-539-7496 or reach out to the Clare County Historical Society. The museum park of the historical society is open on Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. at the corner of Dover and Eberhart roads. Visit www.clarecountyhistory.org for more information.