A Wall on the Looking Glass

For a while, now, Portland, Michigan's been reclaiming its formerly-industrial waterfront. Some of the reclamation's become parkland, and some's been rebuilt as riverside apartments and townhouses. And, of course, they've mostly prettied up the back side of the commercial district, as I've been showing.

Portland was settled in the early 1830s at the confluence of the Looking Glass and Grand Rivers, on the old Grand River Trail (Road) that could be said to predate Michigan's white settlement. There's a sign, roughly where I took this photo, explaining that the early settlers were separated from the Native Americans by the Looking Glass--the Indian settlement was, I gather, on the left in this image.

Later, though, the former Indian land became a factory district, and remained so for around a century. Then the factories failed and the buildings weren't well maintained, which is how things stood when I first visited the town.

Anyway, it's pretty easy to imagine a bustling industrial district along the river, here. Just out of sight around the bend are the remains of an old dam and millrace, and this old wall--the buildings here are essentially storefronts--certainly brings to mind a mill town.

Shot from a footbridge, more or less where the rivers join. The business in the foreground calls itself "Duke's Cajun Grill."

This, by the way, is why I wanted the new lens. Yesterday's experiment was just that.