"Elk Capital of the World"

            Danielle and I drove up to Atlanta, MI today (basically we went to Gaylord and then an hour east) in order to visit MDA’s field office.  I’ve seen small towns before, but nothing quite like that.  For example, when we arrived at the office, we were a little early so we suggested that we would get lunch and then return.  Our suggestion was met with a good deal of laughter—“Where do you think you’re going to eat, there’s no place to go.”  That statement turned out to be a bit of exaggeration, but it did take a good amount of searching to find a tiny little diner that offered food.

Chute for testing deer

            Upon returning from our lunch, we get a brief tour of the building.  The Atlanta Field Office is one of those places that you could drive by without ever giving a second look or even having it register that someone is in there.  It looks like a warehouse along a country road.  As often is the case, looks are deceiving. The building has its own laboratory, offices, conference rooms, and even a wash bay for all the equipment.  The parking lot behind the building has row after row of chutes and gates just waiting to be trailered off to some farm for testing.  There are even special chutes designed for testing bison and deer.  Our tour guide, Steve Maniaci, explained that 90% of the equipment that MDA owns for TB testing is sitting in the parking lot of this building.  It just shows how much testing goes on in the northeast lower peninsula in comparison with the rest of the state.                                        

Chute for testing bison- has bars in the front to stop the bison
when they try to charge right through.



         After working in the office a bit learning how we schedule and stay on top of producers for testing and how we track animals in Michigan, Danielle and I checked into the Win-Sands Motel (not the finest of places to stay, but quite comfortable).  Atlanta is the “Elk Capital of Michigan” (I kept trying to say “of the world”, but everyone corrected me when I tried to pass that by them—I don’t think giving the town an ego boost could hurt).  We went looking for elk in a nearby state park, but struck out.  At least the town had a stuffed one on  display just to prove that they do exist here.