10/15/2026
Turning the pages of time 📚📖
📚 THE LIBRARY HAD WHEELS—AND IOSCO’S KIDS HELPED PAY FOR THE RIDE! 🚐
From Tawas City and East Tawas to Oscoda, AuSable, Whittemore and Hale, libraries and bookmobile stops connected our communities through books.
The countywide effort began in 1934. May McMurray helped organize the service alongside county school commissioner Edna Worden and Constance Bement of the Michigan State Library. They sought help from councils, clubs and neighbors—even donations of coal to keep the library warm!
In 1942, the county bought its first bookmobile: a used 1939 Ford delivery truck with swing-out shelves holding about 250 books.
Then local children helped give the service an upgrade. They sold fundraising tags, and efforts by the Friends of the Library raised more than $1,000 toward a replacement.
By 1948, a roomier Ford carried about 1,200 books. It had a folding table, a swiveling driver’s seat and enough headroom for adults to stand inside. Fourteen schools received visits and story hours, generally monthly when weather allowed.
Tawas City housed county headquarters; East Tawas had a book-repair crew. Whittemore used a librarian’s home, and Hale converted an old school building into a library.
The service kept rolling. A schedule beginning in January 1977 included Aldersgate Apartments in the Oscoda area and stops on Second Avenue and McKenzie Street in AuSable.
In 1978, a new $30,000 bookmobile replaced a vehicle that had traveled more than 110,000 miles. The Herald photographed director Mark Ames and driver Eva Joyce beside it, and librarian Jennie Fortune inside transferring more than 2,000 book titles.
And this library had a name: ORBUS! A January 1979 announcement credited second-grader James Balten Jr. of Sterling with the winning suggestion, chosen from 264 entries. His prize? A Guinness Book of World Records.
💬 Where did you visit the bookmobile, and which librarian do you remember?
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Sources: Museum’s Sociological Surveys, pp. 75–80; Tawas Herald, Dec. 29, 1976; Nov. 1, 1978; Jan. 3, 1979.
