MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – Michigan doesn’t really have a solid, consistent way of naming things.
Many of our counties were named after members of President Andrew Jackson’s Cabinet in a failed attempt to win his favor when Ohio invaded and annexed a part of the Michigan territory. Some counties are named after indigenous words, while others are made-up gibberish that were meant to sound like native words.
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We aren’t even consistent with the spelling or pronunciation of the same words. I’m sorry, the Mackinac Bridge is located in Mackinaw City? Why is Charlotte pronounced Charlotte instead of Charlotte? Why are there so many Berlins in Michigan?
Related: How to correctly pronounce Michigan cities, streets, people and other things
Heck, Detroit is named Detroit because the French called the river “le détroit du Lac Érie,” which translates to “the strait of Lake Erie.” Detroit means “strait.” The Detroit River is basically “River River.” What are we doing?
This may have gotten away from me.
Where Selfridge got its name
There are a few places where we know exactly how and why they got their name and Selfridge Air National Guard Base is one of them. It was named after a man who helped shape military aviation history.
Lt. Thomas Etholen Selfridge was born in 1882 in San Francisco. He would later graduate from the United States Military Academy in 1903.
Selfridge had an interest in aircraft and had set up a meeting with Orville Wright to look into the possibilities of aircraft in warfare.
On Sept. 17, 1908, Wright took Selfridge up on the Military Flyer, a modified version of the Wright Model A. When they took flight, it was carrying more weight than it ever had before.
The two circled Fort Myer a few times before experiencing a mechanical error. The right-hand propeller broke and struck a wire, leading to a loss of control and a subsequent crash. Wright attempted to glide the craft down safely, but it hit the ground nose-first.
Wright was severely injured and was hospitalized for weeks. Selfridge cracked his skull and died within hours. He was the first person to ever die in a plane crash.
He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was 26 years old.
Selfridge was one of the first people to actually look at the military applications of aircraft and his legacy lives on because of it. In addition to Selfridge Air National Guard Base, he has a memorial at West Point Cemetery and a gate between Arlington National Cemetery and Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall is known as the Selfridge Gate.
What couldn’t be salvaged of the Wright Flyer can be seen at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio.
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