Discovering Michigan County by County

'Discovering Michigan County by County'

Book Presentation at Oak Park Library

Oak Park- Barb VanderMolen was 11-years old when the Mackinac Bridge was built and remembers thinking she would never see it.

Born and raised in Wayne County, the daughter of a Teamster truck driver who worked every Saturday, and a mother who didn't drive, the family had little disposable income and they never traveled. She was a junior in college before she ever saw Lake Michigan and 25-years-old when she finally saw the Bridge.

It wasn't until she married and moved to Eaton County that she had the opportunity to begin to travel and explore Michigan. Now the first-year Baby Boomer has traveled to every county in Michigan and written a book, "Discovering Michigan County by County: Your A-Z Guide to Each of the 83 Counties in the Great Lakes State." She will share a story from each county in Michigan at the Oak Park Library, 14200 Oak Park Blvd., on Tuesday, June 14, at 6:00 pm.

"It's a fun, entertaining, educational, and interactive program. People who attend tell me they really, really enjoy it," VanderMolen said. "If you love Michigan, you will love this program and the book, too, whether you take it with you when you travel or sit at home in your favorite chair and 'travel' that way. The book is good for both."

If you want to preview the book prior to her presentation at the Oak Park Library, visit the website at www.DiscoverMichiganCountyByCounty.com.

The book was nine years in the making, and VanderMolen's travel guide was first published in 2012 and republished in 2014.

She estimates she put 5,000 to 6,000 hours into writing the book that has 83 chapters, one for each county in the state. Since "every county has a story to tell," the chapters are further broken down into alphabetical Fun Topics to help tell that story. Fun Topics such as A for Agriculture, F for Flora & Fauna, J for Jokes, L for Lighthouse or Landmark, N for Natural Resources, and W for Wanderlust are found in every county.

"That is how we tell the story of each county, that A-Z format, and I used over 90 resources per chapter to pull it all together," said VanderMolen. "There is no other book or website where you can find this broad range of pertinent information right at your fingertips."

Her inspiration for the book came after she was a guide for bus tours in Lansing during the 1990s. That job gave her practice in research and presentation. When the bus tour business crashed following the decline in traveling after Sept. 11, she found her new vocation - writing a book. So now she can give people tours of the whole state by just having them read her book.

"The thing about Michigan is it has so much variety in nature," VanderMolen said. "Michigan has many microclimates. You have sand dunes, you've got your forests, a variety of trees, lakes... One of the highlights of the state is our the diverse agriculture, because Michigan farmers produce over 200 commercially grown commodities, second in the nation. Then, of course, you have wonderful small towns and large cities."

She laughs when she says her favorite county is any one with water.

Her book talks have been very well received as she travels around the state sharing about Michigan.

Please join us on Tuesday, June 14.

Submitted by Discovering Michigan County by County; used by permission and adapted from an article by Susan Bromley, published in The Citizen, Ortonville, MI.