(upbeat music) - [Male Narrator] On this edition of "Great Lakes Now," an invisible giant lurking in the forest undetected for centuries.

- [Johann] The large individual was probably several thousand years old.

- [Male Narrator] How old time gangsters got away from it all.

- There's always a great relationship between the towns folk and the mafia.

- [Male Narrator] And news from across the Great Lakes region.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

The Consumers Energy Foundation is committed to serving Michigan, from preserving our state's natural resources and sustaining our future, to continuing business growth, academic achievement, and community involvement.

Learn more at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

The Richard C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, The Polk Family Fund, Eve and Jerry Jung, The Americana Foundation, The Brookby Foundation, Founders Brewing Company, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- Hi, I'm Ward Detwiler.

Welcome back to "Great Lakes Now."

If you're like me, you haven't spent a lot of time celebrating fungus, but in one town in our region, there's of fungus with a following.

(whimsical music) - [Female Reporter] Mushrooms can appear as if by magic.

But what you see popping up on your lawn is just the fruiting body.

This fruit doesn't come from a tree.

Instead, it comes from an underground network of fungus called mycelium and these fungal networks can be huge.

This is Crystal Falls, a friendly, quaint community in Michigan's upper peninsula.

In 1992, the residents of Crystal Falls found out they had a remarkable, gigantic, and nearly invisible neighbor after scientist and forest pathologist, Johann Bruhn, discovered one of the largest fungal networks on the planet.

- Here's an example of a very poisonous mushroom.

We estimated that the large individual occupied about 38 acres of the forest floor.

I think we called it something like a hundred tons, and was probably several thousand years old.

- [Female Host] Johann is a key figure in a documentary about the discovery, aptly titled "The Humongous Fungus Among Us."

It was created by filmmaker and Crystal Falls native, Tim Warmanen, who works in video post production in Chicago.

- I used to tell people that I work with in post-production that, you know, I grew up in this small town next to this really giant mushroom.

And people said like, what are you talking about?

And I always questioned, like, what am I talking about?

I feel like people in the community maybe didn't know a ton about it.

And so, you know, I thought maybe we could interview the original scientists who discovered this thing.

Like, best to go to the source.

- [Female Reporter] Tim began working on the project in 2013 and in 2021, it premiered at the Crystal Theater in downtown Crystal Falls.

(eerie music) - [Female Narrator] There's something lurking in the woods.

Literally hundreds of newspapers, magazines, even the television networks are covering the humongous fungus and it's conjuring up all sorts of images.

- [Female Host] When the fungus was discovered and when the documentary was shot, Jeff Syrjanen co-owned the Crystal Falls Ben Franklin variety store.

(whimsical music) - And at the time, everyone was thinking it was an April fool's joke because it just sounded so bizarre to most people here.

(whimsical music) - [Female Host] Bizarre or not, when Jeff heard fungus, he saw an opportunity.

- [Jeff] The Fungus Fest starts today.

- [Female Reporter] He helped to organize a number of community events and parties, all centered on the humongous fungus discovery.

Jeff and his wife even came up with humongous fungus t-shirts.

- [Jeff] Played with our words a little bit and changed the spelling of humongous a little bit to go along with the fungus.

- This is the current one.

It's become definitely a part of Crystal Falls history.

(both laugh) - [Jeff] If I had to guess, in the past 30 years at the Ben Franklin store, we sold roughly 20,000 humongous fungus t-shirts.

- [Female Reporter] The community fell in love with the humongous fungus, and in 1992 began celebrating it with an annual Crystal Falls Fungus Festival.

Since then, the fungus and the festival have become part of the town's identity.

The mushroom also made a splash in the media, and in the scientific community.

(audience applauds) - It was one of these bizarre items that was in the paper today.

You may have read about this.

The scientists have found the world's largest living organism in Michigan.

Did you read?

It's a 100 ton mushroom.

True, a fungus spread over 30 acres, and the most amazing thing that they didn't tell you, it's sitting on top of a 500 acre porterhouse steak.

(audience laughs) (whimsical music) - [Female Reporter] Myron Smith was a graduate student when the fungus was discovered and studied it with Johann Bruhn and scientist Jim Anderson.

- [Johann] Jim worked on the genetics of armillaria.

Jim had just taken on a new graduate student, Myron Smith.

We were a tremendously compatible team of researchers, as well as friends.

- When that paper in '92 came out, there was a lot of press interest and there was a lot of appreciation for the publicity that was gained about fungi in general, 'cause fungi are super interesting and very important and rather mysterious.

- [Johann] If the environment stresses living trees, armillaria is gonna take advantage of that stress and kill them.

- In the natural ecosystem, they're really fulfilling a need.

And the other rule that this fungus has in the forest ecosystem is that it's really important for recycling nutrients.

- There are a lot of lessons to be learned from how these organisms have lived for thousands of years in the same spot.

Obviously, they're managing their resources efficiently and sustainably.

- [Male Reporter] Is there that the humongous fungus will outlive us all?

- It's a certainty.

- It's guaranteed.

- Almost.

Maybe not guaranteed.

But it's pretty close.

- Oh, I think so.

I think it's a guaranty.

- [Man In Brown Shirt] It's guaranteed, I think.

- [Female Reporter] Over the years, Johann, Myron and Jim, learned that the fungus was much larger and much older than they originally thought.

- [April] You've been studying this individual for decades now.

Give us an idea how large and how old?

- [Johann] Now we know that it's at least 2,500 years old.

It weighs about 440 tons and it occupies an area of almost 200 acres.

- [April] Wow.

That's big.

(whimsical music) - [Female Reporter] They also discovered the fungus's genes are remarkably stable.

An organism so large and old, might be prone to a lot of mutation but Myron says that's not the case.

- [Myron] We're not sure how it maintains that stability but, you know, it's a real lesson, somehow, in how to protect and maintain your genome.

And we can contrast that, for example, to cancer in humans, where the genome very quickly takes on new mutations.

This organism has fewer mutations from one end to the other than we do as humans from our fingertip to our toes.

- [Female Reporter] Tim says the mushroom and his film about it are a testament to what sets his hometown apart.

- And I think it's just really, it's something that we can celebrate being about the wonders of nature in a small community.

And I think, most importantly, it was one way, like one line in the film talks about discoverability and what makes your community unique.

And it's something that the science has drawn people in to the community and drawn people together to talk about the wonders of nature.

- [Female Reporter] In many ways, as the mycelium is the connective tissue of this Great Lakes ecosystem, it's also become a source of unity for the town of Crystal Falls.

- [Jeff] The local people just get a nice smile when you even bring up the word humongous fungus.

It's just been a a real happy thing for our community, and it just kind of puts us on the map in a different way, a way that is exciting and fun for people.

- [Female Reporter] But in case you're planning your trip to Crystal Falls to find the mega mushroom... - And I've been asked this many times 'cause I seem to be the person that answers most of the questions up here.

We always tell 'em that it's something you can't see.

It's something that you really don't need to go to.

And then of course, they ask me, is it real or did you guys just make all this up to get a little publicity?

And it's like, no, but we really wanna protect the forest and the area where the mushroom is.

So, we do discourage people from going into that area.

- [Female Reporter] But don't worry, there are lots of mushroom-related activities on offer in Crystal Falls.

So, if you need a fungal fix, consider checking out the town's Annual Humongous Fungus Festival.

It's open to the public and takes place every summer.

- For more about the humongous fungus and the documentary, visit greatlakesnow.org.

During prohibition, the Great Lakes region hosted its share of organized crime, maybe more than it's share, but where do those gangsters go to relax?

- [Male Reporter] Life as a gangster wasn't easy.

First, you had to line up a getaway driver.

(dramatic music) Then, club the guards.

(dramatic music) And finally, escape with the money.

(dramatic music) (people scream) It was exhausting work.

So, after a long day of robbing banks, it was good to unwind and head up north for a little downtime.

(birds chirp) - I think a lot of gangsters came north for vacationing.

- [Male Reporter] That's author and retired professor, Robert Knapp.

He has spent years researching gangster activity throughout the Great Lakes region.

His latest book is titled, "Gangsters Up North."

One gangster getaway was this lodge.

- [Robert] The Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, very close to the upper peninsula of Michigan border, was a place where gangsters decided to go for some rest and relaxation.

- [Male Reporter] In 1934, the FBI was tipped off that John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson were going to be at the Little Bohemia.

The G-men saw an opportunity, but after an epic shootout, all the gangsters got away.

- [Robert] So Little Bohemia goes on the map of gangster activities as being one of the biggest fiascos in terms of the federal officers trying to catch these big name gangsters.

- [Male Reporter] Damage from that shootout is still visible today at the Little Bohemia Lodge.

According to Knapp, gangsters went up north for more than just R and R. In 1925, Michigan got its first commercially-viable oil well kicking off an era of oil exploration and production.

- So, what happened then was that gangsters from Detroit were looking for a way to launder money and oil is a perfect way to launder money.

- [Male Reporter] Sam Garfield had invested in speakeasies, gambling and prostitution in Detroit, and he persuaded The Purple Gang, Detroit's mob led mainly by the four Bernstein brothers, to put their money in oil wells around Clare, Michigan.

Oil speculators, including gangsters, began visiting Clare and staying at the Doherty Hotel.

- [Robert] There was a very high stakes game going all the time, including the Catholic priest at the time, in the basement of the hotel.

- There's always a great relationship between the towns' folks and the mafia, or The Purple Gang.

- [Male Reporter] Richard Doherty is a fourth generation owner of the Doherty Hotel.

The hallways of the hotel are lined with photos and news articles about gangsters and the oil boom.

- This whole gangster era, and with a hotel starting about the same time, you know, that's American history and we do embrace it.

- [Male Reporter] The Doherty Hotel was the scene of one of the most dramatic events in Clare's history.

- [Robert] This is where the murder of Isaiah Leebove took place in 1938, May 14th.

- [Male Reporter] Isaiah Leebove was a mob attorney and fixer for The Purple Gang, and he handled their oil investments around Clare.

Leebove had teamed up in the oil business with a guy named Jack Livingston, but Livingston was an alcoholic, and eventually Leebove cut him out of the business.

Meanwhile, Ray Bernstein had been sent to prison for murder and Ray's brothers hired Leebove to get him out.

Leebove tried for two years, but then he gave up and returned his retainer fee to The Purple Gang, who were not happy with Leebove's services.

- The story in Clare was that the Bernstein brothers wanted revenge on Leebove and had enlisted Livingston as the agent.

- [Male Reporter] On the night of May 14th, 1938, Leebove was having a drink with a couple of friends in the lounge of the Doherty Hotel.

- So, Jack walks into the room, stands here in front of the booth, pulls out his 38.

Blam, blam, blam.

Shoots Leebove three times - [Male Reporter] Livingston then went upstairs to his room at the Doherty.

- So, the chief of police goes up there and knocks on the door.

Jack opens the door.

Jack says, "Did I get him?"

And the police chief says, "You got him, Jack."

- [Male Reporter] In a trial that captured the attention of people in Clare, Livingston was found not guilty by reason of insanity and set free.

In the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, there was a long parade of gangsters in Michigan, famous and not so famous.

- John Hamilton is the only gangster that I came across that was actually born up north.

Joe Zerilli and "Black Bill" Tocco were mafia figures in Detroit and bought land on the Eastern side of Higgins Lake.

- [Male Reporter] Perhaps the most famous gangster to ever visit Clare was Meyer Lansky.

- He was a big time gangster out of New York who worked with the mafia, especially in the early '30s, Lucky Luciano, and was part of Murder, Incorporated, the murder for hire operation.

- [Male Reporter] In the 1950s, Lansky was heavily invested in casino operations in Cuba.

But when Fidel Castro came to power and shut down the casinos, Lansky lost a fortune.

Sam Garfield came to his rescue.

- And Sam said, well, you need to invest in Michigan oil.

So, he did.

So, this rig, this pumper, is very similar, in fact, it might even be one of the ones that Meyer Lansky owned and gained about $25,000 a year in income from the the oil wells in this part of Clare County.

- [Male Reporter] Of course, not all the amazing stories of gangsters up north are true.

There have been lots of tall tales and rumors over the years.

One rumor said that The Purple Gang built and operated the Graceland Ballroom in Lupton, Michigan.

None of those rumors were true, but the gangster mystique was valuable.

- [Robert] And a man named Pastula bought it in the '50s and cashed in on these rumors.

He advertised it as a Purple Gang hangout and he put a mannequin on the balcony with a machine gun.

He just made up these things and by him making these up, it caused even more Purple Gang rumors to be propagated.

- [Male Reporter] While putting together his book, Knapp found that he had to separate fact from a lot of fiction, especially when it came to the most notorious gangster of all, Chicago's Al Capone.

Capone did do a little hunting and fishing in Northern Wisconsin, but there are many stories about Capone spending time up north in Michigan and having secret escape tunnels.

Knapp says Capone went to Benton Harbor a couple of times, but he never got further north than Lansing.

And as for those secret tunnels, Knapp says he never found any.

- [Robert] If Al Capone stayed in all the places where people say that he stayed, he would never have time to be in Chicago.

- For more about gangsters and their getaways, go to greatlakesnow.org.

And now, for our collection of news stories from around the Great Lakes region.

It's "The Catch."

(upbeat music) - [Female Reporter] In Ann Arbor, Michigan, a study by researchers at the University of Michigan predicts more intense allergy seasons due to climate change.

Professor Allison Steiner leads the team.

- We looked at where, when, and how much pollen would change in the future based on its response to warmer climates.

And we found that by the end of the century, or around 2100, pollen emissions could increase by about 16-40% for the United States when we look at just changes in temperature and precipitation, but the increases could be much larger if we also account for how higher CO2 concentrations may influence pollen production.

- [Female Reporter] Higher global temperatures and carbon dioxide levels could also mean that allergy seasons start earlier and end later.

Steiner and her team developed a predictive model that forecasts the amount and timing of pollen production for the last two decades of the 21st century.

- For example, in the spring, like right now, we're just gonna start to see the tree pollen come out first from deciduous trees.

And we can also see pollen come out a little bit later from pine trees in the Great Lakes region.

In the summer, that's a time period when grasses start to emit pollen and then other types of weeds, like ragweed, will come out in the late summer or early fall.

So, we looked at how climate was influencing the timing of all of these different types of pollen.

And we found that for trees, we could see a shift in the pollen season by about 10 to 40 days by the end of the century, depending upon the type of plant.

And we saw that the grasses and the ragweed would shift a little bit later in the season.

Because they come out later, they're gonna be shifting a little bit later, as well.

- [Female Reporter] While this is bad news for those already suffering from seasonal allergies, the model could mean better pollen forecasting across the United States.

- We don't have very much data about pollen.

There are a handful of centers across the Midwest that are counting pollen on a daily basis.

These tend to be located at allergy centers and we're hoping that the model can fill in some of those gaps in terms of space and time to provide better forecasts for people to manage symptoms.

- [Female Reporter] In Ohio's 9th Congressional District, which includes the Lake Erie shoreline from Toledo to Cleveland, US representative Marcy Kaptur has introduced the Great Lakes Authority Act, which would establish a federal Great Lakes Authority.

Toledo Blade environmental reporter, Tom Henry, has written about the proposal.

- The authority is proposed to help coordinate efforts at restoring the Great Lakes and promoting Great Lakes education, educational opportunities, and businesses.

- [Female Reporter] Kaptur developed the proposal with US representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan and seven other house Democrats.

It would be a one stop shop for promoting the region for a variety of approaches.

- This is a pretty new concept of dovetailing everything together into one big authority.

Most programs, such as the US EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office, are focused in one area, in that case on the environment.

This is trying to unify the region's efforts on business, education, environmental restoration, and other aspects.

- [Female Reporter] The proposal calls for $30 million in funding for the first year and $50 million each year after.

The majority of that funding would come from the infrastructure bills recently passed by Congress.

- There is a lot of bipartisan support for Great Lakes programs.

A program called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which the US EPA mostly takes the lead on with the Department of Interior and others.

I mean, that's one of the few things in Congress both Democrats and Republicans have consistently supported.

So, it'll be interesting to see how much bipartisan support this gets.

- [Female Reporter] In Traverse City, Michigan Anishinaabe journalist, Sierra Clark, has been reporting about tribal fishermen throughout the Great Lakes region.

- The story I've been covering came out of talking to a few tribal fishermen in past stories that I had done and it covers harassment regard tribal fishing.

This is not something new in the state of Michigan or neighboring states, such as Wisconsin and Minnesota, even after the reaffirmation from Tribal Fishing Rights.

- [Female Reporter] The reaffirmation came from a federal court which ruled in 1979 that treaties uphold the tribe's fishing rights that cannot be limited by the states.

In the 1980s, harassment of tribal fishers spiked, mainly centered on the use of gillnets.

Gillnets are prohibited by state laws that govern non-native anglers, which makes some resentful.

While incidents are less common now, in recent years there have been signs of rising violence toward Native American anglers.

That's according to the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.

- I'm covering the story right now because there is a lot of misconception on what treaty fishing rights are.

But there are also a lot of upticks in the springtime regarding tribal fishing harassment.

So, I really wanted to bring a piece to the public, so one, it can help educate, and two, just as a reminder that these are sovereign nation rights.

These are not special privileges.

The story fits in with a larger issue of there really being a cultural misunderstanding or a lack of education that tribal nations in what is now the state of Michigan are their own governance.

They have their own laws.

They have their own management plans.

And we really see this a lot, especially with issues regarding natural resources.

- Thanks for watching.

For more on these stories and the Great Lakes in general, visit greatlakesnow.org.

When you get there, you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to get updates about our work.

See you out on the lakes.

(upbeat music) - [Female Narrator] This program is brought to you by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

The Consumer's Energy Foundation is committed to serving Michigan, from preserving our state's natural resources and sustaining our future, to continuing business growth, academic achievement, and community involvement.

Learn more at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

The Richards C. Devereaux Foundation for Energy and Environmental Programs at DPTV, the Polk Family Fund, Eve and Jerry Jung, the Americana Foundation, the Brookby Foundation, Founders Brewing Company, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(gentle music)