Tales of Michigan is a collection of fifteen stories from across the "Great Lakes State." Chosen to give the reader an insight into Michigan's rich and varied historical heritage, each of these tales relates a different aspect of the state's past. Among others, stories in this book include: The life of George N. Smith, a pioneering missionary, who, along with his family, endured years of hardship living with the Native Americans. A man with a common name, but an uncommon life. The story of Detroit's once proud status as "Stove Capital of the World." The fiery head-on collision of two passenger trains at Battle Creek caused when one of the crews ignored their instructions. The tale of William Bryce, a Union soldier that returned home following the Civil War only to succumb to injuries resulting from his experiences as a prisoner of the Confederacy. The struggle to build a bridge across the Straits of Mackinac that lasted nearly seventy-five years before the Mackinac Bridge was finally completed. A freighter's crew that entered into a life-and-death struggle with the Storm of 1913, the most destructive storm to strike the Great Lakes in modern history.