iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Some engineered their own demise. The Michigan United Railway started a bus company in 1925. It could have provided feeder lines to the electric railway, but instead ran parallel services. The railway immediately ran in the red and shut down within 5 years. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/street...

kevinforsyth.net

The Streetcar and the Interurban Railway - A Brief History of East Lansing

How a local horse-drawn streetcar grew into an electric interurban from Lansing to Owosso, serving East Lansing and the MSU campus along the way.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Deep in the weeds watching Integrity's return — anyone know who this Cessna 208 is, lurking about at 4,900 feet with callsign WILDCARD? None of the usual flight trackers report a tail number.

Image from Flightradar24 of an unknown aircraft circling around the recovery area of the Integrity spacecraft.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Clearing up a common misconception, the Sanford Farness House was not designed by Frank Lloyd Wright—there are no FLW houses in East Lansing—nor by Farness himself. It was by Robert Pond, a student of FLW, who later designed several buildings at Indiana University. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/farness/

Sanford Farness House, November 2003. Photo by Kevin S. Forsyth. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Why did I write an article about a woman who died more than 130 years ago, before she could reach her potential, and was later all but erased from history? Because it's still less depressing than current events. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/susann...

kevinforsyth.net

Susanna Anderson (M.A.C. ’91) – A Brief History of East Lansing

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

I posted a new article, about another forgotten name of MSU — except in this case, it turns out that he wasn't just forgotten: one of MSU's most famous names took credit for his work and thereby was responsible for him fading from the narrative. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/arthur...

kevinforsyth.net

Arthur A. Crozier — M.A.C.’s forgotten forester – A Brief History of East Lansing

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

After so many years of looking at these maps, seeing a street that no longer exists, only to finally realize that it was never really there at all. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/colleg...

An excerpt of Chace Newman's 1915 city map of East Lansing.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I posted a new article, and it's not an April Fool's joke: before the area around Spartan Stadium and the Breslin Center was part of MSU's campus, it was platted as a neighborhood named "Riverview"—with a whopping 2,529 individual lots. #MSUHistory #LostEastLansing kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/riverv...

kevinforsyth.net

Riverview (1891) – A Brief History of East Lansing

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

A piece of speculative history about Thomas Gunson, who was a fixture on the M.A.C. campus for five decades, East Lansing’s third mayor, and has a street named in his honor. Did four women work behind the scenes to orchestrate his hiring at the College? kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/thomas...

kevinforsyth.net

Thomas Gunson comes to M.A.C. – A Brief History of East Lansing

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

I am not looking to return to the days of polio epidemics and the Great Depression, but there is something endearing about the crusty town doctor who would sometimes accept home-grown veggies as payment, and believed "when patients can afford to pay, they will." kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/oscar-...

Dr. Bruegel sits in a horse-drawn sleigh on a snowy day, perhaps about to make a house call.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Stopped at Superdawg yesterday to spend my birthday coupon, and had the best meal that I've had there in a very long time. Whoever is working the kitchen these days is doing it right, and clearly Maurie and Flaurie benefitted from their extended spa day.

Maurie and Flaurie, back from their spa day and gleaming in a fresh coat of paint, stand atop the Superdawg drive-in at Milwaukee and Devon Avenues.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

A lot of my research of late has been on some of the lesser-known women of MSU. Here's a new article on Professor Anna E. Bayha, who specialized in textiles and clothing, died much too young, and would be utterly forgotten if not for an ongoing award in her name. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/profes...

kevinforsyth.net

Professor Anna Bayha – A Brief History of East Lansing

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

East Lansing has a new historic marker, erected by the owner of the Chester Clark house. I provided its text, adapted from the fuller article on my website: kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/willma...

Historic marker at the Chester Clark house. Photo credit: City of East Lansing.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

That article omits one other forgotten airfield, unrelated to Art Davis: a landing strip on the MSU campus, north of Mount Hope Road and west of Farm Lane, that was apparently forced on an unwilling administration in the 1950s by the well-meaning state chapter of the International Flying Farmers.

Excerpt from USGS topographical map, East Lansing (1970), showing the "landing strip" north of Mount Hope Road and west of Farm Lane.

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Older East Lansingites may remember Davis airport, a grass field tucked away in what was then the boondocks north of town. I'm still getting my head around the idea that its builder and namesake, Art Davis, in 1921 used Bailey Park as his personal flying field. kevinforsyth.net/ELMAC/the-lo...

kevinforsyth.net

The lost airfields of East Lansing – A Brief History of East Lansing

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Kevin Forsyth @kevinforsyth.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Well, here we are. I can't say this will ever feel as vital on a daily basis as the old birdie site once seemed, but it has been interesting to see who's around here, and to go through my old following list to remind myself of what I've been missing since that place imploded/embraced evil.

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