Lenawee County history: Research break offers reflection, recharge

It’s been a light year so far for research, and sometimes a little break is good.

Don’t get me wrong, I love delving into local history. I’ve been researching local events and photos for four decades. This year, the cogs are still turning, but at a slower pace.

Many have designated me the go-to person for the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak as it affected Lenawee County. I started research in 1999, published my findings in a book in 2004, and unlike my other local history book projects, this one has continued to follow me over the past 25 years. The dwindling group of local survivors, mostly between the ages of 64 and 103, largely deemed me the resident representative, for which I am grateful. It means a lot to be trusted as the media contact for sharing their stories and giving them the privacy most of them seek.

Those who follow my work online may have been anticipating a look back and interactions when the anniversary approached this past April 11. Instead, I gave the community on my social media pages an opportunity to reflect in their own way as survivors, witnesses or family of those who had been affected.

With hesitation, I recently told a fellow researcher I was “tornado’ed out.” I had a few book signings and presentations lined up and I had just finished a request for a piece of the storms for an upcoming regional magazine. Last year was a busy time with the re-issuance of my 2002 book, which I expanded and revised over the past few years at night and on the weekends. When the book was finished and made available in March 2023, things picked up at a fever pace: news stories, radio interviews, in-person presentations and book signings, all in between a full-time job, two part-time jobs and family time.

I am adding the interviews and photos that came to the surface after last year’s release on the tornado, and the 60th anniversary edition I am planning only for museum and library archiving may be the last major review of the Palm Sunday disaster on my part. I anticipate perhaps 10 more pages and three or four more interviews will be added. I am still trying to figure it all out.

I am grateful to the 10,200-plus people who are part of my Lenawee County history and genealogy Facebook page. They have been sharing their own photos and memories, finding long-lost friends and learning new things. They are not needing to wait for me to dig through my archives to put something up for discussion. They have picked up the baton and run with it, and I am happy to give the platform to do so.

Subscribe Now: For all the latest local developments, breaking news, and high school and college sports content.

That has been my goal all along — to make Lenawee County history come alive and be accessible to all. I continue to work behind the scenes, at a slower pace, scanning photos that come across my desk, and slowly working on two more books on my home area of Addison-Manitou Beach. I could not resist putting together another book on each community since a sizable collection was recently made available to me. Until recently, I did not have enough material to warrant a book of any desirable size, but that has now changed. I have no release timeline set for either, yet, although “sooner rather than later” is always my motto.

It feels good to step back and work on projects at a less frantic pace than what I have placed on myself. I don’t have a name for either the Addison or Manitou Beach book.

Maybe one will come to me as I take that long-overdue nap.

— Dan Cherry is a Lenawee County historian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County history: Research break offers reflection, recharge