'I just thought it was time': Bob Davis ends long chronicle of Port Huron history after completing guide

Bob Davis said he’s had several people tell him his extended series of online videos chronicling Port Huron’s history have been “like going on a trip back in time.”

The Port Huron native had already lived in Indiana to be near family for more than a decade before he started putting his father’s postcard collection — images of the area from the 1800s until the 1960s — to use in posts on YouTube in 2012.

“I’ve enjoyed making the videos because the pictures are so important to history,” Davis said. “You remember things when you see pictures, and when your audience is a certain age — say, my age or a little younger — they remember things.”

“Because they would remember this, or they would remember that and they enjoyed seeing it,” he added. “And then, there’s the other part of my audience that are history buffs, and they like to see things before their time.”

Despite his own change in geography, Davis has produced 234 videos and 48 DVDs and garnered more than 300,000 profile views on his YouTube page.

Now, however, he said he’s ready to hang up his hat on the project with completion of a by-subject guide to his videos.

“I’m almost 82 years old, and I’m not getting any younger,” Davis said. “So, I was afraid at some point if I’m not around, the guide would never get made. Even though I really have more history to share, I just thought it was time to go ahead and put that into a guide form.”

The guide itself has about 100 categories, Davis said, and is something he compared to “the old city directories.”

Those interested can contact Davis at bobnanmol@yahoo.com. He said PDF versions of the guide are available for $10 and in booklet form for $30. Further details have been shared on his “Port Huron History DVDs” Facebook page.

History buffs on the value of Davis’ work

Andrew Kercher, Port Huron Museums' community engagement director, often does research of his own into Port Huron’s history, sharing information in live walking tours and in posts on the museum’s Facebook page.

He said he’s watched all of Davis’ videos and initially made his own “homebrew guide” to find subjects later.

“It’s a huge beneficial source of information for sure,” Kercher said. “Top five easy (in terms) of people who interact with or write on Port Huron history. … He’s definitely up there for me,” he added.

Mike Connell, who often covered the local past in his Times Herald column, similarly ranked Davis among the region’s top historians.

“I have followed his videos from the get-go and often comment on them on Facebook. In my opinion, he is to local history today what W.L. Jenks was a century ago,” Connell said via email Friday.

He was referring to Jenks, a prominent attorney whose 1912 historic volume detailed St. Clair County’s founding history and residents. Referring to Davis, he said, “His work will outlive us all.”

Todd Carmody, who runs “The Thumb (Michigan)” Facebook group, said he’s shared all of Davis’ videos on social media, adding he thought it was cool to see how the area has changed over the years.

“I think Bob’s style is such that it makes it very easy to follow for people that may not be very easily interested in history,” said TJ Gaffney, another noted local history enthusiast. “… He does a very, very good job of explaining complex things in a simple manner. It keeps it interesting for people. Because that’s always a problem — people, they’re interested, but they want to see it in snippets.”

What’s next? ‘I’m sure I’m going to get bored,’ Davis says

Davis’ videos started with what he called a “four corners” series of images examining what used to occupy the intersection of Huron and Grand River avenues in downtown Port Huron.

“I learned right along with the people that were watching my videos,” he said. “At first, I was just trying to show pictures of how things changed, but after about the first 30, 40 videos, I decided the history was important, too.”

The videos were well-received, Davis said, so he kept going, heading north along the St. Clair River, up Pine Grove and 24th avenues, south toward South Park and Marysville, and west near Port Huron Township and out to Goodells.

An once “a couple more turned into a couple hundred,” he said he shifted gears, producing dozens more with “random” spot videos from around town.

Davis said he’s thought about other things to do now that he’s completed the history series but admitted there was “nothing really in the fire.”

“I’m sure I’m going to get bored. This has been such a big part of my life. I work sometimes 30 hours a week on a video — between research and cutting the video. That’s a long time,” he said. “And my honey-do list has suffered for some time.”

For now, Davis said he plans to relax.

Contact Jackie Smith (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.