ADRIAN — A new book of photographs marks the 50th anniversary of the Palm Sunday tornado that ripped through Lenawee County’s Devils Lake area in 1965, killing six people there and causing millions of dollars of damage.
Local historian Dan Cherry has compiled 160 pages of color photographs of the tornado’s aftermath and added accompanying captions. He’ll discuss his photographic history of the deadly storm, titled 50 Years Later ... April 11, 1965: The Palm Sunday Tornado, at a 7 p.m. Thursday appearance in the Lenawee County Historical Museum, 110 E. Church St.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase at $31.80, including sales tax. All proceeds will go to the Lenawee County Historical Society for museum building maintenance and upgrades. The book also can be bought online at lenaweemusem.org or by calling 517-265-6071.
Mr. Cherry, 41, is a fifth generation Lenawee County resident who lives in Addison. He has long been interested in the Palm Sunday tornado, and published a book about it, Night of the Wind, in 2004 as a historical society fund-raiser. He interviewed 125 people and collected original photos of the devastation. But the cost of color publication then was beyond the historical society’s budget, and the photos appeared in black and white.
Mr. Cherry saw his new book as an opportunity to rectify this deficiency. All of the more than 200 photos are in their original color. “Nothing has been colorized,” Mr. Cherry explained. “They are all Kodachromes and Polaroids. When I worked on my first tornado book, people were generous, and when I put out the call for this book, I had the same result.”
April 11-12, 1965, saw an outbreak of 47 tornadoes across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa that killed 271 people and injured 1,500. On the northern edge of Toledo, one twister killed 15 people and injured 208.
Eleven died in Lenawee County, where most of the destruction occurred at Devils Lake. The victims included a family of six who perished there. The sheriff at the time, Richard Germond, estimated the Lenawee County damage at $3.54 million.
Interest in the Devils Lake tornado remains strong, Mr. Cherry said. To date, Night of the Wind has gone through multiple printings and sold almost 3,000 copies. Four hundred copies of 50 Years Later ... have been printed, and they are selling briskly.
Ray Lennard, a historical society board member, said money raised from sales of the book would be put to good use. The museum, in a former fire hall, needs chimney repairs and restroom upgrades. “We’d like to raise as much money as we can,” he said.
Contact Carl Ryan at: carlryan@theblade.com or 419-724-6095, or follow him on Twitter @CarlCarlryan17.
First Published February 23, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
