{"id":25428,"date":"2020-05-28T13:38:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T17:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=25428"},"modified":"2020-05-28T13:38:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T17:38:14","slug":"self-proclaimed-mayor-revved-to-reopen-mich-joyriding-canoeing-hotspot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/self-proclaimed-mayor-revved-to-reopen-mich-joyriding-canoeing-hotspot","title":{"rendered":"Self-proclaimed mayor revved to reopen Mich. joyriding, canoeing hotspot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">The mayor of Hell has seen worse than the COVID-19 crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">John Colone was mistakenly pronounced dead and zipped into a body bag after taking fire in\u00a0Vietnam. But he returned to his native\u00a0Hell, Michigan, to become a successful businessman and booster for one of the state\u2019s most cherished getaway spots for sports car joyriding.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SvCna_r1_X4\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/8c5d6b44-6eb9-41fa-b348-da2458fc90e7-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos056.jpg?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"John Colone, the self-proclaimed mayor of Hell, Michigan, is starting to see sports cars return to the twisty roads around the Livingston County town.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/8c5d6b44-6eb9-41fa-b348-da2458fc90e7-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos056.jpg\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/8c5d6b44-6eb9-41fa-b348-da2458fc90e7-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos056.jpg\" \/>John Colone, the self-proclaimed mayor of Hell, Michigan, is starting to see sports cars return to the twisty roads around the Livingston County town.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">His businesses \u2014\u00a0Hellhole Bar, Screams Ice Cream, Hell Mini-Golf, Hell\u00a0Wedding Chapel and Hell Canoe &amp; Kayak Rental \u2014 have been shut down for months now, and he knows Michiganians are getting antsy. But he can wait a little while longer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re getting a lot of calls,\u201d said the self-proclaimed mayor in this unincorporated town as the songbirds \u2014 and revving engines \u2014 of spring lit up Hell\u2019s hills and twisty\u00a0roads\u00a045 minutes west of Detroit in Livingston County. \u201cWe\u2019re cleaning and anxious to get back open, but we\u2019re following the governor\u2019s orders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">As springtime warms Hell\u2019s roads, Colone thrills at the sight of auto enthusiasts \u2014 \u201cPeople love the roads and the curves and the corners\u201d \u2014\u00a0bringing their wheels to Hell\u2019s legendary country roads to stretch their legs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SvCna_ryPeo\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/e7a68e7b-1455-49bf-8dcb-c42bb848f2af-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos021.jpg?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"John Colone with his 1936 Dodge two-door sedan with the license plate \u201c4HellMI.\u201d\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/e7a68e7b-1455-49bf-8dcb-c42bb848f2af-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos021.jpg\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/e7a68e7b-1455-49bf-8dcb-c42bb848f2af-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos021.jpg\" \/>John Colone with his 1936 Dodge two-door sedan with the license plate \u201c4HellMI.\u201d\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThere were a couple\u00a0of Porsches out here earlier today when I came out,\u201d he said. \u201cSome guys came out here last week with a radar and clocked a Corvette at 123 mph. Why come to Hell? People need to have something to do in this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Hell, population 72, is a uniquely Michigan\u00a0town. At its heart is a man who has seen the world but whose heart belongs here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Colone was born 74 years ago with oil in his blood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cI\u2019ve always been a car guy. My first real car &#8230; was a \u201959 Plymouth. Mine was called Abaddon \u2014 everyone had a name for their car back then. In the Old Testament, Abaddon was the angel from Hell. That stuff\u00a0always came with me \u2014 I\u2019ve always had love for this little town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">He\u2019s owned a variety of hot rods over the years including a ground-shaking Dodge Viper and currently tools around town in a \u201936 Dodge two-door sedan with the license plate \u201c4HellMI.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Colone returned to Hell after his own crisis in Vietnam in 1968.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-SvCna_q_4pE\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/6077cb9f-8fc8-45b7-8af3-9c9bca3e7aa7-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos013.jpg?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"John Colone shows off a T-shirt from his souvenir shop.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/6077cb9f-8fc8-45b7-8af3-9c9bca3e7aa7-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos013.jpg\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/05\/21\/PDTN\/6077cb9f-8fc8-45b7-8af3-9c9bca3e7aa7-2020-0520-ctj-bu-Hell-photos013.jpg\" \/>John Colone shows off a T-shirt from his souvenir shop.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">He was a squad leader for the 101st Airborne.\u00a0\u201cMy goal is to live until I\u2019m 101,\u201d said Colone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">His battalion was on patrol in Kim Lien,\u00a0the birthplace of revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, when a firefight broke out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cI was shot three times on Feb.\u00a019,\u201d remembers Colone, who was shot in the leg, arm\u00a0and neck and\u00a0zipped into a body bag, toe tag and all.\u00a0\u201cWe were crossing over a river when all of a sudden everything broke loose. We lost 17 guys in a battalion of 23.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"teads-adCall\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"ad-position-62\" class=\"partner-placement partner-spike partner-placement-visible\" data-ad-placement=\"native-article_link\" data-ad-sizes=\"[&quot;fluid&quot;,[3,3], [2,6], [300,250]]\" data-monetization-id=\"native-article_link\" data-monetization-sizes=\"fluid,300,250,3,3,2,6\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">A guy named\u00a0Dan Marshall helped him.\u00a0&#8220;Then he got shot, and I remember him saying he wasn\u2019t going to make it. He told me to tell his mom he loved her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">He found her in Hawaii 30 years later and delivered the message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">After returning to the United States to heal,\u00a0he worked for auto dealers and learned the craft of selling cars. He\u00a0returned\u00a0to Livingston Country in 1977 to buy\u00a0Pinckney Chrysler-Dodge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Over 22 years, he built a successful dealership known for selling Vipers and shutting down the streets of Hell every year with the \u201cHell of a Cruise,\u201d a fundraiser for the Livingston County United Way that brought out 1,700 cars at its peak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThere were 63 places to have burnouts,\u201d he said of the cruise that started in Pinckney, ran through Gregory and Unadilla, and ended up on Patterson Lake Road through Hell. \u201cIt took us probably three hours to get through Hell with everyone doing burnouts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">After selling the dealership in 1999, Colone got bored and set about growing his group of Hell businesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">He\u2019s not the first character to put Hell on the map. The town was settled in 1838 by George Reese, his wife, and five children. Reese built a mill and a general store on the banks of Hell Creek. He ground the local farmers&#8217;\u00a0\u00a0abundance of grain into flour and ran a whiskey still.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cSo that first seven\u00a0to 10 bushels of grain became moonshine,\u201d recounts Colone. \u201cAnd a lot of times horses would come home without riders \u2014 and wagons without drivers \u2014\u00a0and somebody would ask the wife: \u2018Where\u2019s your husband?\u2019 The reply was always: \u2018He\u2019s gone to Hell.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">According to local legend, when the state came by in 1841 and asked George what he was going to name his town, he said, &#8220;Call it Hell for all I care. Everyone else does.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The town has officially been Hell since 1841. And today, it\u2019s\u00a0a destination for kayakers and canoeists who want to paddle from Bruin Lake to Hell Creek. Or flog a sports car over the twisties of Patterson Lake Road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Enter Screams Ice Cream.\u00a0When it reopens,\u00a0Colone will sell you a coffee mug emblazoned with the\u00a0acronym HUGS \u2014 short for the Hell, Unadilla, Gregory and\u00a0Stockbridge roads where motorheads like to play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cAnytime you go into a store\u00a0or restaurant, you\u2019ll get a free mug of coffee and a hug,\u201d said Colone as a Lotus Esprit raced by.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Although for now,\u00a0social distancing is putting brakes on the hugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The mayor of Hell has seen worse than the COVID-19 crisis. John Colone was mistakenly pronounced dead and zipped into a body bag after taking fire in\u00a0Vietnam. But he returned to his native\u00a0Hell, Michigan, to become a successful businessman and booster for one of the state\u2019s most cherished getaway spots for sports car joyriding. John [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25429,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25428\/revisions\/25429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}