According to early Genesee County histories, the first building in Gaines was a wood-frame railroad depot. It was replaced by this brick depot in 1881. The station closed when rail service ended in the 1950s. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Genesee Avenue / Walker Street Historic District in
I saw this big old lonely forgotten house south of Watrousville in the Thumb, and during these cold Michigan winter nights I imagine there was a large family living there that kept warm by the heat of the fireplace. I know people who heat their house with wood, and they do a lot of cutting
This old mill stands the River Raisin in Dundee. It was built in Alfred Wilkerson in 1848 with a dam made out of logs. It was built as a grist mill to grind grain. In 1910, the mill was sold to the Dundee Hydraulic Power Company, which built a concrete dam and converted it into
I saw this old shack or house or whatever it was not far from the waterfalls I stopped to visit. Looking on the map I show both the town of Dixon and Forest Lake on the map and it is not far from Au Train Falls. I am not sure if this is the last
This old school house sits in Topinabee in the appropriately named School House Park. I could not find much info about the old school other than the township owns it and hope to get the money to restore it or convert it into a library or something. It is a nice looking building, and at
David Thompson, a wealthy Detroit businessman, died in the early 1870s, leaving his estate to his wife Mary with instructions to establish a charitable institution. In 1874, Mary Thompson allocated $10,000 to build a home for aged women. However, construction did not start until nearly ten years later when land was purchased and Mary commissioned
The village of Lake Linden in the Keweenaw Peninsula suffered a devastating fire in May 1887, which affected 75% of the structures. Although the frame village hall survived, city fathers believed that a new fireproof structure with space for a fire station would be in the best interests of the community. In 1901, the
About five miles west of Higgins Lake along N. 13 Mile Road is a wooden sign for the long gone town of Stratford. The town started in 1897 when the Thayer Lumber Company purchased 13400 acres of virgin red and white pine The railroad laid tracks to the lumber town and hauled the logs out
On December 11, 1971 an explosion ripped through a tunnel being constructed under Lake Huron. 21 men were killed instantly and one worker died ten months later. The tunnel was being dug under Lake Huron for a new water source for Detroit. The tunnel stretched out 5 miles from the shore near Fort Gratiot a
deep in the Ottawa National Forest on the west side of the Upper Peninsula is the location of Camp Pori. It was a CCC camp during the depression and then used as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. After the war the camp was used by Michigan Tech as a training ground