- Hello, everyone, I'm Matthew Ozanich, and welcome to Destination Michigan.

You know the crew here on the show has spent years highlighting the remarkable people and places that make our state great.

Our roots run deep with pride.

And tonight we have a very special episode for you, featuring the hometowns where we all grew up.

We're gonna start things off in Livonia, where executive producer Chris Ogozaly, takes us to a fascinating place called Greenmead Historical Park.

From there, we'll head to Holland, where camera guy, Adam, has a lot in store for us at Nelis' Dutch Village.

Then it's off the town of Manchester where our very own Stefanie Mills braves the heat at the world famous Manchester Chicken Broil.

Finally, we'll be heading to my hometown to close out the show with a night at the ballpark in the capital city.

(funk music) From our home base here in Mount Pleasant, we head to metro Detroit and pay a visit to the hometown of Destination Michigan executive producer, Chris Ogozaly.

This marks our very first trip to the city of Livonia, where I followed along with Chris with a few cameras in tow, as we explored this nearly 100-acre, two-century-old piece of Michigan history.

- [Chris] Navigating your way through Livonia is as easy as a Sunday morning.

You see roads like five, six and seven-mile, let you know you're headed east and west, while Newberg, Farmington and Middlebelt will point you north or south.

Livonia is a lively place to grow up, and as a youth, you'd find me on the baseball field, at the mall, or on one of the local golf courses.

However, this time I wanted to absorb the history of Livonia, and Greenmead is just the place to do it.

- [Interviewee 1] Greenmead Farm so was purchased in 1976 from the estate of Mrs. Jean Boyd Hill.

But the preservation of Livonia's history actually started quite a few years earlier.

The Livonia Historical Society was formed in 1956, and some of their members were the driving force to preserve Livonia's old buildings.

In 1976, of course, was the bicentennial.

And many people throughout the United States were really focusing on our history.

And that included Livonia Historical Society and the Livonia Historical Commission at that time.

They are recognizing that change is happening in Livonia.

We had come from our township status of being an agricultural and rural area.

The citizens had voted to become a city in 1950, and we are starting to see more and more subdivisions being built, more houses being built, and they're recognizing this change and seeing that if we don't take action, we are going to lose a lot of our history and the buildings from the original settlers to this area.

- [Chris] Historic preservation can be a challenging assignment, but the folks at Greenmead are eager to make this Livonia gem sparkle.

- [Interviewee 1] We are really surrounded by trees.

We've been placed up on a hill.

But the main goal was that when you came into Greenmead, you really stepped back in time.

So we really tried hard to block off those modern things, the cars, the noise, so that you feel like you are stepping back into a different part of Livonia's history.

There are quite a few people that do not know Greenmead is here, and they are surprised when they come in, how vast it is, how much we have, and how much we have been able to preserve here.

A 95-acre historical site is rare, and the amount of structures that we have.

Larger structures and smaller structures, we number 30.

So we are very fortunate that we've been able to do such a great job preserving Livonia's history here at Greenmead.

- [Chris] But where would the folks from Livonia gather as a community?

- Think about Livonia, we don't have a downtown, and it's because people had such large tracks of land that they were very self-sufficient, and it was where the trails that then became roads intersected, where people congregated at.

- [Chris] Let's bring some of these meeting places into focus.

- [Interviewee 1] This is the Historic Newberg Church.

It was built in 1848.

The church has been home to Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians throughout the years, and went through a bit of a renovation beginning about 1900 where we added on the Sunday school wing.

We increased the size of the front door to have a double door that opened, and then of course, the stained glass windows were fundraised and added in as well.

The Newberg School was built in 1861.

A one-room schoolhouse would have had children from approximately five years old up to about eighth grade.

Newburg, Livonia Township, did not have a high school, so any time past eighth grade, you would've been going to Plymouth to attend high school if you wanted to further your education.

Girls sat on one side, boys sat on the other side.

The younger students sat on the front with the older kids sitting towards the back.

You would've had one teacher, either a male or a female.

Female would have made less money than the male teacher at the time.

And they would have been provided housing.

They were expected to come in at 8:00 in the morning, and if it was cooler weather, make sure that the fire was going in the stove so the students were comfortable when they got to school.

And of course, they cleaned the building as well.

And they would've taught all of the grades present in the classroom at that time.

Many of the students would have to provide a cord of wood for the schoolhouse as part of their tuition fees, if you will.

(interviewee 1 chuckling) The A.J.

Geer Store was built in 1908.

The Geer Store would have had your general merchandise, would have had some clothing items, fabric, shoes, food supplies, some canned items, things that were grown in the area.

And of course, at that time we would've had the Sears catalog or Montgomery Wards where you could order things from a catalog and have them shipped to the Geer Store for you to pick up.

- [Chris] Greenmead does a magnificent job preserving Livonia's past, but what's in store for the future?

- [Interviewee 1] Greenmead Farms in the Village is not significant in that some major historical event here, but what it represents is the way of life of hardworking people during the westward expansion of the United States.

The earliest white settlers to Livonia Township came from the East Coast.

Many from the state of New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, who traveled the Erie Canal in search of land and freedom.

The story told by the buildings and the people that lived in them, is really the story of many villages, townships, and cities within the Midwest.

Greenmead for now is a hidden gem in Livonia.

I think it's important for everyone, not just in Livonia, but in every community, to make sure that we preserve our history because we are the caretakers of our own history.

Someone else isn't doing it for us.

Our roots are important, our history is important, our genealogy is important.

We have to make sure that we preserve our history so that we can make good decisions moving forward for our future and for our future generations.

- Adam Miedema, Destination Michigan shooter and editor grew up just outside of Grand Rapids in the town of Grandville.

And like many, his childhood included games of baseball in the backyard and bike races around the neighborhood.

But the real highlights were piling into the minivan for a school field trip.

So naturally, Adam wanted to take us along on his favorite field trip for a glimpse of his childhood and to learn about his Dutch heritage.

Come along with us to Nelis' Dutch Village in Holland.

(upbeat music) - [Joseph] I like to describe Dutch Village as a step back in time to the Netherlands of over 100 years ago on our day when a festival came- (festive music) Historically our mission was to provide an educational historical look at the Netherlands.

In the past few years, we've added that part when a festival came to town because we've done all the fun stuff for kids now.

We went from purely being about what the Netherlands was over 100 years ago, seeing the old world crafts like wooden shoe carving, all those things, to now adding the fun stuff for the kids.

And we arrived at that because we've always had the swing ride and the carousel ride, and it occurred to me like, they don't have a swing ride in the middle of every Dutch village in the Netherlands every day of the year, only on the day when a festival or carnival would come to town.

- [Matthew] Walking into the park, you feel as though we were transported to an actual Dutch village.

As we wandered and explored, we were surrounded by entertainment and education.

Around every corner and in every building, there was something new to see and experience.

- [Adam] You're just gonna have a great day with your family.

You're gonna learn a little bit, you're gonna try some different things.

You're gonna do things that you can only do here and nowhere else in the world.

Make your own stroke waffle cookie for example.

We created that.

No one else does it anywhere else in the world.

Certainly you can get a fresh stroopwaffle.

- Let's do a - from a market in the Netherlands and it's great and it's fantastic, but the kids here get to make their own.

(upbeat music) - That's a good stroopwaffle.

- [Joseph] We're doing these interactive experiences.

Our newest demonstration that we do is a cocoa to chocolate demonstration.

And at the end of it, everybody gets to taste different kinds of chocolate out of these chocolate bars because most people think that a chocolate bar is only milk chocolate, a Hershey bar.

And really that's just one sliver out of a spectrum of chocolate.

And a lot of people don't understand the difference between cocoa and chocolate.

And what's the significance of cocoa to the Dutch village?

The Dutch for centuries have dominated the cocoa business.

And why did they do that?

Because they were able to grind the cocoa beans faster than anyone else in the world with these windmills that they had right next to these water passageways to move it in and out with freight lines.

So that's kind of who we are and what we do now.

(upbeat music) - [Matthew] Every 20 minutes throughout the day, there is a different demonstration that occurs.

Visitors step back in time to hear how wooden shoes are made.

Learn about delftware pottery.

Witness how farmhouse cheese was made using old world equipment.

But by far the most popular presentation is the Dutch dancers.

These dancers clad in wooden shoes is a sight worth seeing.

(folk music) - [Announcer] In just a few moments, we'll be getting started with the first performance of the Dutch folk dance.

- There will be eight dancers, so four couples.

They'll perform three different dances.

So a gallops, a waltz, and then the third one is called the booms.

- If you'll join me giving our dancers a nice warm welcome, we'll get started.

(crowd clapping) (folk music) - We do teach the crowd a little Dutch dance immediately following the Dutch dance performance.

So they get to learn their own Dutch dance and then they become honorary Dutch Village Dutch dancers.

So everyone will get a badge.

(upbeat music) - [Matthew] After a few spins and kicks on the dance floor, I had gained a better understanding of the rich Dutch heritage that is prominent throughout the West Michigan area.

Like many in the area, the Nelis Family can be easily traced back to the Netherlands.

- My grandpa came from the Netherlands in 1910.

He was the oldest of 12 kids.

My great grandpapa said, "Hey, you gotta go find some land in the Promised Land."

And by about 1917, made it up here to Holland, Michigan.

Started doing some farming because that's what the family's history was in the Netherlands, tulip farmers.

By 1922, they bought the property that they were farming.

And that occurred in November of 1922.

And so now we're 100 years out from that.

We're celebrating 100 years of the Nelis Family being in business.

- [Matthew] More than a century ago, the Nelis Family sought to make a new start in the land of opportunity.

After 100 years of business, that family has a new vision.

- [Joseph] Our vision now is to be a place where families can create family memories.

There's a lot of, I think urgency in that nowadays.

Preserving heritage and that kind of stuff is admirable.

There's really not a lot of urgency to it because it'll be like, well, we should go see how wooden shoes are made.

Well, we can do that today or we can do it tomorrow or we can do it next week.

And we found that urgency in making time for your family, making these family memories.

And our ultimate goal is to become a family tradition for these families with young kids to where they say, "This is our annual trip to Dutch Village.

We do it every year, and we just love seeing what you do."

But at the same time, we are preserving that Dutch heritage too.

We're not going away from that.

- [Matthew] Next up on our destination Michigan hometown tour is our very own Stefanie Mills.

Now, as you may know, Stefanie was actually born in Germany and moved to Michigan at a young age with her family settling in the town of Manchester.

While Manchester may be a small town, it's known near and far for an annual event that has folks lining the street as far as the eye can see.

Stefanie Mills now introduces us to the Manchester Chicken Broil and a behind the scenes look at what goes into prepping and cooking for this massive feast.

- Welcome to Manchester, my hometown growing up and home of the famous Chicken Broil.

(folk music) It's a huge community led event that brings in thousands of visitors to this town every July year after year.

(folk music) - [Gary] Not many places could pull this off, and I'm not sure you could start it today anymore.

I think there's such a tradition that people come back year after year, just keep coming or maybe bring their kids with them.

- It's a real happening.

Here you've got 2000 people in town, and you get 8,000 to 12,000 people.

- [Stefanie] And this year, one of those who showed up was me, high school graduate from Manchester.

This is where I grew up, a charming town located about 25 minutes from Ann Arbor.

We pride ourselves on community supporting each other and rally fiercely behind our mighty flying Dutch.

- A lot of classes have class reunions.

This is almost like a class reunion here because people come back, they look forward to it every year.

They're working with their buddies, they catch up.

- [Stefanie] So what is the deal with this feast?

Well, we spoke with longtime volunteer Jim Mann.

about the chicken broiler's beginnings.

He, along with the next generations of his family, are a vital piece of the event and have been since its inception.

- It started in 1954, and I think this is 69th year.

The Exchange Club, which was a group of men, learned through our Klager Hatchery.

We had a hatchery in town that hatched chickens, and they were tied in close to Michigan State.

And then this new process, cooking chicken halves real slow over an hour and a half, two hours.

So we tried it as the exchange club back in '52, '53, and put on this meal for the the members' wives.

- [Stefanie] So what started off as a way to cook for the wives, quickly grew into so much more.

- And from that they said, "Hey, we could maybe turn this into a money maker."

We had a project that they needed, which was the fence around the athletic field here.

And so that was a three year project they did to build the fence.

And so they had the Manchester JC Group join the Exchange Club, and that's how it all got started.

And that was sort of like it own LLC, vineyards.

- [Stefanie] The money the Chicken broiler raises supports many community led organizations, including the school, athletics, band uniforms, and the historical society, just to name a few.

It's also probably a big reason it brings back visitors to this town year after year, among other things.

- They love to come and see the men cooking.

At any one time, we've got 4,000 chickens cooking at one time, and it's a real happening to watch.

And they love to watch the coleslaw being made.

They got the old coleslaw cutters and they all make it right on the spot.

For the takeout, we've got this conveyor belt system that they use.

And it's just something to see.

And of course, it's a small town, so it's a big deal for people in a small town.

(upbeat music) - [Gary] And each pit holds about 1200 halves of chicken.

Usually takes about 90 minutes to cook them and we have put salt and butter on them.

That's all the seasoning we use.

We don't use any barbecue sauce or anything else, just salt, butter and charcoal.

Try to get them done so they fall off the bone.

- [Jeff] And once they're done cooking, they put them in pots, and we kind of steam them over some charcoal till they're ready to serve.

They come out mouthwatering.

- [Stefanie] It takes about 450 volunteers to make it all possible.

No one gets paid and recruiting is all done by word of mouth.

And just like the people who come here for the food every year, so do those who help put it on.

- Most of the people that do work here, work in the same spot every year.

And they're very proud of their spot and we have a hard time getting them to to move I don't want a sugarcoat this, this is tough work out here.

It's very tough work.

It's hot, it's dirty, it's nasty.

People have to volunteer because you couldn't pay them.

(attendants speaking indistinctly) - For our final stop today, we head to my hometown of Lansing.

And there's a lot to see and do in the capital city, especially during the summer months when folks are getting outta their houses and finding any and all ways to spend time outside with family and friends.

(upbeat music) We've made our way down to the capital city more than a couple times over the years here on Destination Michigan.

Like our visit to the R.E.

Olds Transportation Museum, or our kayaking trip down the Grand River.

And each visit fills me more and more with hometown pride.

A lot's changed in the last couple of decades for the city of Lansing, with something new and exciting seeming to pop up around every corner.

We'll start our visit today in Old Town Lansing.

Once empty buildings, now filled with life.

But to see Old Town in full swing, might I suggest their annual jazz fest.

Each summer, the corner of Turner and Grand River gets transformed into one of the hippest jazz joints around.

And with the streets lined with people, it's a great chance to meet Lansing face to face.

(upbeat music) Not far away on Michigan Avenue in the middle of the city, is a field of green where we'll spend the rest of our day in Lansing.

In fact, I convinced the entire Ozanich family to make it down to the ballpark on a hot August night.

Our first family trip here was over two decades ago.

And even with all the changes that have been made over the years, it still evokes the same feelings it did all that time ago.

(jazz music) And to catch us up on what's happening now at the park, we sat down with GM Tyler Parsons and broadcaster, Jesse Goldberg Strassler.

- We are Jackson Field.

We are on Michigan Avenue in between Cedar Street and Lard Street downtown Lansing, the home of the Lansing Lugnuts, the High-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.

- I'm the first homegrown GM in Lansing Lugnuts history.

Coming back here and just seeing how much it's grown and changed and the opportunity to be part of your hometown team, it really tugged at my heartstrings and what an incredible opportunity and what a cool area now that is, that is seeing just so much rapid growth and excitement.

- [Jesse] It is so cool that we are downtown, that you can walk here.

And when you leave this stadium, you can walk to all sorts of great places to eat.

The capital is right there.

(jazz music) The capacity is larger than people expect.

We draw some of the largest single game crowds of any team around the country, shy of Triple-A.

So the amount of fans that come here is exceptional.

The outfield lofts are so cool, just having apartments up beyond the center field wall.

There's a lot here that helps Jackson Field stand out compared to all the rest of the ballparks.

(jazz music) - [Matthew] The park has gone through a couple of name changes since it opened in 1996.

Today, the sign outside reads Jackson Field, but the team taking that field has always been the Lugnuts.

Now, when I first heard the name, Lansing Lugnuts back in '96, I'll admit it seemed a bit odd, but if you think about it, Lugnuts is the perfect name for the Lansing team.

(jazz music) - [Jesse] What can bring the team together with the community?

You're in Lansing, Michigan, you're in the home of Ransom E. Olds, you're in the home of Olds Mobile, so let's go cars.

The Lansing Lugnuts is alliterative, it's silly, and it's automotive.

And so it's all that is us.

It's the same like the Milwaukee Brewers.

There's some fun there, and it's also us.

You know a minor league team is doing it right if everybody else is going, "That seems absurd, I like it."

And the people who live there go, "Darn right with the Lugnuts.

Yeah, let's go nuts."

(jazz music) - [Matthew] Plenty of people were definitely ready to go nuts as thousands poured into the stadium, coming by the busloads.

Church groups and family reunions, young and old filling the stands ready for their Lansing Lugnuts to take on the Great Lakes loons.

But before the actual athletes could take the field, I had to show off my arm for the crowd.

Now I will admit the throw was a little bit outside, but at least it didn't make its way into the stance.

And while the Ozanich family takes their seats behind home plate, the staff at Jackson Field does what they do best, create a fun and family friendly atmosphere for all to enjoy.

Now, make no mistake, the baseball is always center stage in a minor league park.

But more and more, those behind the scenes are finding innovative ways to generate excitement.

- The folks here, Tyler Parsons' our general manager.

Greg Kiger, assistant GM in charge of special events.

They're always looking to push the envelope.

What are cool things we can do here at the ballpark?

What are new things we can do here at the ballpark?

This ballpark is open for business for a lot more than just baseball.

Heck, at the very start of this year, we hosted a great game between Michigan and Michigan State.

So I think we might be seeing a lot more college baseball here too.

(jazz music) - I think the biggest thing for me was continuing to grow us into a year round entity.

Where we started off here.

"And really the first 20 years of our existence, it was like, we're gonna do 70 baseball games and that's our bread and butter and that's kind of it.

Well, we started seeing that broader message and going, "Well, what else can we do in the fall?

What else can we do on off weekends?

What other things can we do to bring people down here and really activate this ballpark year round for our community?"

And that's for me, been one of our big talking points and development we have here with the overall organization is, "Hey, let's push the envelope, let's try some things.

It's rugby."

We did a holiday lights show here.

We've done Bourbon festival we got going up here, we did Nitro Circus here with dirt bikes and BMX and all those kind of stuff, and large scale concerts.

I mean, anything we can do.

And it can be as big as a 10,000 person event or as small as 200 people.

And anything we do here can make an impact around the businesses here and then with our overall operation.

(jazz music) - [Matthew] Even with all the great events and innovative plans for the ballpark, the facts still remains that it is a ballpark, and baseball will always be number one.

(jazz music) - From the baseball side, starting last year, we jumped up to High-A.

We reaffiliated with the Oakland Athletics.

So we're going to continue to see more of our Lugnuts players arrive in the major leagues with Oakland.

We're going to be seeing a ton of Lugnuts playing for the Oakland Athletics, and leading them on to their next post-season births.

(jazz music) - We actually talk a lot about the things we do here, but we're still a baseball stadium, and we still love hosting baseball games and the Lugnuts have been here as an identity and a staple since 1996.

It's a lot that goes into it.

I think a lot of people don't understand that this is a 10,000 plus seat venue and there's just not many mile stadiums that are that large.

Everyone has bought in to go and hey, this is what we're doing here and we wanna make this the best possible experience for everyone.

That's everything we do here.

And then obviously the field looks great.

It's a great playing experience and locker room set up for our players and coaches while they're here.

So it's a lot of moving parts.

There's a lot of people that make me and the rest of our operation look really, really good for all the work they do around here at the stadium.

(jazz music) - And just like that, this episode of Destination Michigan comes to a close.

We certainly hope you enjoyed our hometown tour today.

And from Chris, Adam, Stefanie and myself, we want to thank you so much for watching, and we'll catch you next time.

(upbeat music)