This web site dedicated to preserving the wonderful history of the State of Michigan! We have over 4000
attractions featured with over 20,000 photos and thousands of information updates! Movie Theaters,
Drive-Ins, Auto Racing, Amusement Parks, Motels, Resorts, Tourist Attractions and much more!
Click the button in the menu to the left to see a random sample!
This is the new version of Water Winter Wonderland, if you prefer the legacy version you can find it at http://www.lostmichigan.com.
Lately I have been going bonkers on the historical newspaper sites finding TONS of information on old theaters. It is almost addicting as I have been
doing it for several hours every day for a week or more. I have posted items that hopefully provide context and new information on some of these
old houses. Who ran them, when they were built and opened, various incidents that occurred and so forth.
I am also comparing my master list of theaters to other sources to fill in the gaps for what I might be missing. I even hired somebody on Fiverr to
transpose an old business catalog from the 20's into text to add to my information. The total number of theaters in the state
is now almost 2200.
That is not to say they were all open at once, but that is still a staggering number when you think about it. Some of these were opened
and changed names over the years but most are unique, separate entities. Smallish towns you wouldn't think would have a theater at all
had several over the years in some cases. The research work continues on my quest to have the most complete
coverage possible....
I went out and took some fresh photos of 10 or so local indoor theaters and a couple of drive-ins over the last few days.
The links to those are below.
I bought a new Canon EOS M50 camera as my iPhone photos were unsatisfactory. It shoots decent video so I hope to be adding
some videos to the site. I am toying with the notion of starting a YouTube channel for the site also.
The out-of-state drive-ins that were missing city names have been fixed. I am getting
close to having a complete address for every featured location. There are a couple dozen that remain unknown.
If you have information you would like to share, you can use the form here, or click the
"Submit New Info or Correction" button on the page for the individual location.
You can also email me at waterwinterwonderland@gmail.com.