Sunday, September 18, 2011

Found It

Manistique, Michigan

I knew this DI had been operating as late as 2000, but didn't know if anything was still standing. Finding the well preserved, though currently unused, facilities, made my day. More later. I'm having internet connection problems.

2 comments:

Scott Kirkpatrick said...

except for coldwater, your recent DIs have all been within a few miles of the Lake shore. Does this mean that cheap land and a population of summer folks are necessary ingredients to keep a drive-in healthy?

Incidentally, I see that Manistique has a small airport. Have you tried stopping in at airports, locating the flight school, and asking one of the older flight instructors where are the DIs in the area? The older instructors probably still teach their students to be prepared for when the engine stops (the younger ones teach how to work the virtual panel), and DIs are very visible landmarks from the air. The FAA sectionals used to have a symbol for them.

scott

Carl Weese said...

Hi Scott, that's really interesting. The airport is directly across the highway, route 2, from the former drive-in. There's a complex mix of what lets a DI survive, but a vacation/resort area with nearby land that hasn't been priced out of reach is a good contributing factor. I just shot a gorgeous little drive-in out on the Door County peninsula, above Green Bay. But both DIs I was going to shoot along the corridor from Green Bay to Wausau have died since my latest research. Targets and shopping centers now.