Iosco County Historical Society

10/17/2026

10/16/2026

🥩 Longest operating business in East Tawas Michigan????

Some local history belongs behind glass. This story still comes wrapped for dinner.

Klenow’s Market traces its beginnings to 1900, making it one of East Tawas’s oldest surviving businesses. Today, you’ll find it at 201 Newman Street, still offering smoked meats, fish and homemade jerky. Its website lists 33 varieties of jerky—quite a choice for anyone who came in for “just a little!” Klenow’s Market

Behind that familiar name is a family story. Former owners included Henry L. and Bernice M. Klenow. Their daughter, Mary Jeanne Klenow, grew up working at the market, which had belonged to her grandparents before her parents.

Those lessons lasted beyond the checkout counter. Mary Jeanne became a teacher, working in Oscoda, Alpena, Tawas and Midland. In 2023, she established the Henry L. and Bernice M. Klenow Fund to honor her parents and help fund a career-development coordinator for Tawas Area Schools.

A daughter who learned about work in the family grocery helped give another generation a head start on working life. Iosco County Community Foundation, Aug. 15, 2023

Another familiar name was Mary Jane LaBerge Klenow, whose obituary recalls her many years running the market before retirement. News-Herald obituary, 2025

Our museum’s newspaper collection also preserves a 2013 Klenow’s advertisement promoting quality meat since 1900.

🛒 What do you remember buying at Klenow’s—and who was behind the counter?

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10/14/2026

📚 THE LIBRARY HAD WHEELS—AND IOSCO’S KIDS HELPED PAY FOR THE RIDE! 🚐

From Tawas City and East Tawas to Oscoda, AuSable, Whittemore and Hale, libraries and bookmobile stops connected our communities through books.

The countywide effort began in 1934. May McMurray helped organize the service alongside county school commissioner Edna Worden and Constance Bement of the Michigan State Library. They sought help from councils, clubs and neighbors—even donations of coal to keep the library warm!

In 1942, the county bought its first bookmobile: a used 1939 Ford delivery truck with swing-out shelves holding about 250 books.

Then local children helped give the service an upgrade. They sold fundraising tags, and efforts by the Friends of the Library raised more than $1,000 toward a replacement.

By 1948, a roomier Ford carried about 1,200 books. It had a folding table, a swiveling driver’s seat and enough headroom for adults to stand inside. Fourteen schools received visits and story hours, generally monthly when weather allowed.

Tawas City housed county headquarters; East Tawas had a book-repair crew. Whittemore used a librarian’s home, and Hale converted an old school building into a library.

The service kept rolling. A schedule beginning in January 1977 included Aldersgate Apartments in the Oscoda area and stops on Second Avenue and McKenzie Street in AuSable.

In 1978, a new $30,000 bookmobile replaced a vehicle that had traveled more than 110,000 miles. The Herald photographed director Mark Ames and driver Eva Joyce beside it, and librarian Jennie Fortune inside transferring more than 2,000 book titles.

And this library had a name: ORBUS! A January 1979 announcement credited second-grader James Balten Jr. of Sterling with the winning suggestion, chosen from 264 entries. His prize? A Guinness Book of World Records.

💬 Where did you visit the bookmobile, and which librarian do you remember?

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Sources: Museum’s Sociological Surveys, pp. 75–80; Tawas Herald, Dec. 29, 1976; Nov. 1, 1978; Jan. 3, 1979.

10/13/2026

Hey don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Museums YouTube page! We post our events, videos, and speakers' presentations here! We need a few more followers and we will be able to do our events live! www.youtube.com/

10/11/2026

🛶 A ROOM WITH A VIEW—AND A ROWBOAT! LONG LAKE’S LOST KOKOSING HOTEL

At Long Lake’s Kokosing Hotel, your room once came with something better than a mint on the pillow: use of a rowboat!

Built in 1906 by the Christian Outing Grounds Association of Toledo, Ohio, the hotel helped turn former lumbering country into vacation country. The development occupied land formerly associated with T. F. Thompson.

Families came north for religious instruction, fresh air and recreation. The hotel stretched 116 feet long, with a broad veranda wrapping around three sides.

John A. Mortenson later operated the resort. In 1929, Saginaw businessman Carl A. List bought the 28-room hotel and ran it with his wife. He had first visited the area in 1915 as a traveling shoe salesman—and apparently the fishing made quite an impression!

List remembered Sunday Lutheran services on the veranda, chicken dinners in the afternoon, and a lagoon connecting the hotel grounds to Long Lake. Each room was assigned a rowboat. 🎣

But buying a hotel in 1929 proved painfully unlucky. The Depression made the land-contract payments too much, and Mortenson took the property back in 1933.

The hotel later burned. A Tawas Herald retrospective and the Long Lake history place the fire in 1939. Mortenson subsequently rented cottages at the old resort site.

📍 WHERE WAS IT?
The Long Lake historic-sites map marks it near Kokosing Road and Campbell Avenue, on the point between the lake’s two main sections. The original plat calls the area “Hotel Park.”

Today, the former resort area is residential. The hotel is gone, but we have not confirmed which present-day lot covers its exact footprint.

Do you have family photographs or memories of Mortenson’s cottages or the old Kokosing grounds?

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📷 Museum collection, ICHS P003674, cataloged as 1920.
Sources: Tawas Herald, Sept. 5, 1979, sec. 2, pp. 1, 6; May 15, 1974, sec. 2, p. 4; Long Lake history, historic-sites map; Kokosing subdivision plat; current property records.

10/07/2026

🍻 OSCODA’S OLDEST SURVIVING BUSINESS? THE HILLTOP HAS A STORY TO TELL!

You may know the Hilltop Bar & Grill for its burgers, fish dinners or familiar faces. But this Mill Street gathering place traces its beginnings to 1884, according to a 2022 Oscoda Visitors Bureau account.

That would put its roots in the lumbering era! Does that make it the area's oldest surviving privately owned business? We haven't verified that distinction—or an uninterrupted operating history back to 1884.

The man pictured inside the bar is part of the history we can document: Robert J. Hopcroft.

A World War II Marine veteran, Robert owned and operated the Hilltop Tavern with his mother, Grace, until his retirement in 1972. He married Oscoda's Marion Haglund in 1948. For anyone who remembers the Hopcroft years, this photograph may bring back a familiar face! Alcona County Review, Aug. 18, 2010, p. 2

Its owners also included George Thomas Stockwell and his son Tom. Before becoming a bar owner, George had been a Twin Pines Dairy milkman. His career took him from delivering milk to running Wheeler's Bar in Detroit and co-owning Oscoda's Hilltop. George Stockwell obituary, 2009

In 2022, former Hilltop bartender Miles Schmidt became its owner after a conversation with the previous owner, a friend who was considering selling. Manager Kolina Backstrom noted that the building had undergone additions and changes.

📍 The Hilltop is at 431 West Mill Street in the Oscoda–Au Sable area. Its long history doesn't mean today's building is unchanged from 1884! Oscoda Visitors Bureau, Oct. 6, 2022

📷 Robert J. Hopcroft inside the Hilltop Tavern.

What do you remember about Robert Hopcroft or the Hilltop during his years there?

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10/07/2026

A huge shout-out to the Tawas Chamber of Commerce for an amazing gala last night! 🎉 What a wonderful evening with the people and businesses that make our community such a special place.
Not a Chamber member yet? You’re missing out on a great opportunity to meet fantastic people, build lasting relationships, and connect with outstanding local businesses. Thank you to everyone who helped make the evening a success! 👏

10/03/2026

🐟 COYLE’S: WHEN $1.25 BOUGHT ALL THE FISH YOU COULD EAT!

Remember Coyle’s Fish & Chips on US-23 in Tawas City? Take a closer look at the sign in this museum photograph. That’s no typo: “All the fish you can eat for $1.25.” Chicken, shrimp and takeout were advertised, too!

But there’s more to the Coyle story than an appetite-friendly price.

Back in 1949, Coyle’s Fish Market made a remarkable promise in the Tawas Herald: “We catch our own fish—no fish over eight hours old.” The advertisement offered retail fish at wholesale prices. That was their sales pitch: fresh meant hours, not days! 🎣

The Coyle name also appeared on more than a fish counter. A Herald retrospective records that in 1954, John and Edward Coyle were having a new Lake Street building constructed to house Mid-West Home and Auto Supply and a modern fish market. A museum photograph shows the combination in business: fish and fishing supplies alongside hardware, with gasoline pumps outside.

The restaurant at 637 W. Lake Street became another familiar part of the Coyle story. And for some local families, the memories weren’t just about eating there—they were about working there.

Cheryl Schley, daughter of Edward and Virginia Coyle, spent 20 years waitressing at her family’s Coyle’s Fish & Chips, according to her obituary. Think of the customers and conversations that passed through those doors over two decades!

From a market promising an eight-hour catch to a restaurant sign promising all-you-can-eat fish, there’s plenty of Tawas history behind that familiar name.

💬 What do you remember most about Coyle’s—the food, the people or working there?

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📷 Iosco County Historical Society collection, P004412.
Sources: Tawas Herald, May 20, 1949; April 11, 1979, “Looking Backward”; Tawas Bicentennial Pamphlet, p. 16; museum photo P000470; Cheryl Schley obituary, Buresh Funeral Home, March 20, 2026.

10/01/2026

⚓ A SHIP VANISHED IN 1679. DID TAWAS HOLD THE ANSWER? 🔎

Could one of the Great Lakes’ most famous missing ships have ended up in a small inland lake near East Tawas?

In 1679, LaSalle’s Griffin—also spelled Griffon—left the Green Bay area carrying a cargo of furs and disappeared. Its fate remains unconfirmed. But generations of Tawas-area residents wondered whether the answer lay close to home: Lake Solitude.

Some claimed they had seen the ribs of an old wooden ship in the mud. Others suspected a practical joke. The Tawas Herald later reported that letters written in 1925 described supposed sightings as late as 1914.

This was more than a story told once and forgotten. A 1933 diary entry preserved in our museum collection declared: “The Griffin hunt still continues.”

In fall 1975, East Tawas resident L. G. “Ladd” McKay took up the challenge as a bicentennial project. The Griffin Club brought local curiosity to the investigation, studying old accounts, aerial photographs, and maps dating to the 1840s.

Its officers included Truman Barbier III, Gary Nelkie, and Cindy Cone. Sandy Duffy handled research, and Brent Babcock served as legal adviser.

How could a ship reach an inland lake? One theory suggested a storm and an earlier connection to Lake Huron. But that remained a theory.

The club concluded that any wreck there was not the Griffin, while allowing a remote possibility that another ship had ended up in Lake Solitude. The accounts we found do not document a recovered or identified wreck.

And despite many claims elsewhere, no wreck has been conclusively identified as the Griffin. Wisconsin Shipwrecks

A lost ship, reported sightings, and generations of local curiosity—now that’s an Iosco County mystery! 🧭

Did your family tell this story? Do you remember the Griffin Club? Share your memories below!

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Sources: Tawas Herald, Jan. 7 and Mar. 3, 1976; Tawas Bicentennial Pamphlet (1976); The Tawas Beach Club: A Short History, pp. 87, 96.