Dame Fortune Winks - I Smile Back

All in a day's work at Zug Island.

I had just dropped into Detroit for the day to do a segment on Zug Island with Joe Rogan for his new show, Question Everything, premiering July 16th on the Syfy Network.

Immediately afterwards, I headed south down deserted W. Jefferson towards Downriver but decided to stop at the Zug Island sign and take a picture for a blog post on my trip while I was there. 

I swung my rental car into a small parking lot across the street between some abandoned Delray ruins and pointed the nose of the Japanese car towards the driveway.

Why I felt I needed another photo of the sign isn't clear to me, but I snapped a quick one and returned to my car, shut the door, and turned the key. In that small amount of time, a large car came out of nowhere and straddled my only escape route, a weed ravished driveway. 

My first thought was "Oh, shit! Welcome to Detroit."

The power window on the passenger side of the full size car went down and a white guy with a fancy camera said, "I see we are doing the same thing."

Not wanting to feel trapped, I got out of my car and engaged the person in a conversation. "What's your interest in Zug Island?" I asked as if it were any of my business.

Blast furnace being tapped at night.

"I'm making a documentary film about the environmental effects of Zug Island on the area."

"Fascinating," I replied.

"What's your interest in the sign?" he asked.

I told him I wrote a book called Zug Island:A Detroit Riot Novel. "I'm..."

"I know who you are. I saw your book on the Zug Island website, and I've read some of your blog posts." 

With that ice-breaker, we shook hands.

"Would you be interested in doing a few segments about Zug Island for the indie film I'm making?"

"Do steelworkers have dirt under their fingernails? Sure," I said. "But I don't live in the Detroit area anymore, I'm leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow."

We both looked disappointed. Then I was quick to add, "I'll be back in town in a few weeks doing research on my current project, The Rainy Day Murders, about John Norman Collins and the coed killings of 1967-1969 in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor."

"That works for me," he said. We exchanged contact information, and I waited a couple of days for a gmail with more information.

What this young filmmaker wants me to do is give a short biography of Samuel Zug at Zug's grave site and then do a couple of other segments about my experiences working on the island in 1967. Sounds easy enough.

Back then, the area was little more than a slum; now it is a ghost town, another casualty of rust belt technology impatient for redevelopment.

When completed, this film will be submitted to indie film festivals. Then, the producers hope to secure theatrical distribution and/or seek television broadcast opportunities. Whatever the outcome, it's a great experience for me that I couldn't miss.

I'm not one to believe in luck or fate, but if I'd been one minute sooner or later taking a picture of that sign, and if I hadn't been doing an interview with Joe Rogan that very morning on another project, I would have missed out on this opportunity. 

I think I'll put this experience down as dumb luck and follow Dame Fortune like a damned fool.

Is Zug Island Guilty of the Windsor Hum?

Joe Rogan and I upwind of Zug Island

Last week, I spent two days in scenic Detroit amidst the ruins of the ghost town of Delray and an icon of the rust belt, the industrial complex known as Zug Island.

I was there taping a segment for a new Syfy Network show called Question Everything hosted by Joe Rogan. It debuts on Tuesday, July 16th at 9/8c. See the link below for more details.

Joe is looking into the theory that the Windsor Hum keeping Canadian residents awake at night emanates from United States Steel's Zug Island blast furnace, pig iron operation across the Detroit River.

One theory has it that the annoying sound and vibration is coming from a secret installation on the island, connected somehow with the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Alaska.

Work began on that sub-arctic government project in 1993. An array of high powered radio frequency transmitters covering an area of thirty-six acres excites a targeted portion of the ionosphere for scientific and military applications. What those applications are is not clear to the public which makes this program popular among conspiracy theorists.

The project is located in Gakona, Alaska, and it is funded by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Department. Its remote location contributes to the mystique of the project.

 Zug Island is on the United States/Canadian border and is considered by Homeland Security as a border installation, so security has been increased. 

While we were shooting my interview, a black SUV with heavily tinted windows watched our every move. The co-producer told me that the mystery truck had been following them at a distance for two days.

Because United States Steel refuses to comment on the HAARP allegations, it begs the question for many people, "What are they trying to hide?". For my money, the Windsor Hum controversy cuts a sorry figure as a conspiracy theory. It doesn't even make a credible urban legend. 

Now, what the government might be doing in the cavernous international Detroit Salt Mine, which runs far and wide under the area, is anybody's guess.

http://www.mmatko.com/joe-rogan-talks-about-his-new-syfy-show-joe-rogan-questions-everything/

http://fornology.blogspot.com/2013/05/zug-island-focal-point-of-windsor-hum.html 

Zug Island - Focal Point of Windsor Hum?

Zug Island from Windsor, Ontario

For the last several years, residents of Windsor, Ontario, have complained of a low frequency hum which rattles their windows and keeps them awake at night. Canadian scientists have pinpointed the source as Zug Island, an industrial complex on the United States side of the Detroit River.

Because the blast furnace and coke oven industrial complex is an international border installation, it has come under the aegis of Homeland Security. Surveillance has been beefed up and one of two entrances to the island has been blockaded and fenced off. The exaggerated security of Zug Island combined with the mysterious hum has led to a number of conspiracy theories. 

The SyFy Network is sending Joe Rogan to Detroit to look into this matter, and I've been asked to participate because of my previous on-the-job experience working there and my knowledge of the plant. The producers saw my book, Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel, and thought I could add something to their documentary. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this project is kookie enough to interest me.

To learn more about the the Windsor Hum, view the link below:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zug-island-the-story-of-the-windsor-hum