Forgotten Places Archives - Page 24 of 25

The lonely Old Farmhouse on M46

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses .

I drive by this old Farmhouse on M46 near Breckenridge frequently, and I always wonder what its story is. I imagine there was a nice hardworking family living there, and at night they must have sat around the TV watching Jackie Gleason while the house protected them from the harsh Michigan winters. Why TV, because there is remnants of the antenna still on the roof. Its like the digital revolution has passed by, and now the house is just sitting empty waiting for some attention.

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the Remains of the Detroit House of Corrections in Plymouth

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

Traveling down 5 mile in Plymouth township I came across this complex surrounded by razor wire, and I knew this was not your typical abandoned motor-court. I stopped and took a few pics ( I got some from the parking lot, I don’t trespass ) and then when I got home I found out it was the old Detroit House of Corrections or DeHoCo. Interestingly, the main building was designed by famed architect Albert Kahn.

The first Detroit House of Correction opened in 1861 near Detroit’s Eastern Market. In 1919, the city of Detroit purchased approximately 1,000 acres in Plymouth Township to house a new Detroit House of Correction. A prison farm, with inmates sleeping in tents, was opened in 1920 of which there is a group of silos from the farm still standing in a field next to the defunct prison.
A permanent maximum security facility was completed towards the end of prohibition in 1930, I imagine there were some bootleggers and members of the Purple Gang that paid there debt to society at DeHoCo. It was eventually sold to the Michigan Department of Corrections int the 80’s and renamed Western Wayne Correctional Facility and became a women’s facility, The prison closed in December 2004, it is slated for demolition. Many places I photograph, I like to see saved, but in this case, I can’t see where this would be of use to the community, it’s not like a school or church that people have fond memories of. I am glad I was able to get some photos of it, in case it’s gone soon.

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The Old Kilmanagh General Store Now and Then

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

Roaming the back roads of Michigan i find all sorts of interesting places like this old General Store in Kilmanagh that looks like it right out of an old western movie set. One day while roaming the world wide web i cam across and photo of a familiar looking building then I realized it was the old General store in Kilmanagh. the caption for the photo said it was the Woldt Brothers general store, other than that, it’s all I know about it and that the building has aged a lot but the road looks better.

Here is a link to the original photo and a map pf Kilmanagh

Kilmanagh near Bayport in the Thumb was first called Thompson’s Corners, for Francis Thompson, an Irish homesteader who arrived in 1861. The name Kilmanagh was first used to describe the nearby Shebeon Creek, which would overflow each spring. A post office named Kilmanagh operated from February 1873 until June 1904

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The Haunted Silos of DeHoCo

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Haunted Places .

Traversing the back roads of Southeastern Michigan I stumbled upon this group of old abandoned silos on the corner of 5 Mile and Ridge road in Plymouth Township. I see old barns and silos all around Michigan and wonder about their history, unfortunately, I rarely find out anything and it remains a mystery. With this strange group of silos, I did find some interesting info. Doing some research on the internets I found some references to the “Haunted Silos” which claims the silos were part of a prison farm built by the Detroit House of Corrections and the silos were part of a large complex built in 1920. The complex was used until a new prison was built down the road in 1931. I don’t know if it’s haunted, but I can see why it got the moniker if it was part of an abandoned correctional facility.

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The Notorious Purple Gang and Their Connections to Mid-Michigan

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Bars and Restaurants, Forgotten Places, small towns .

Whenever I mention the Purple Gang many people ask me who they were because they never heard of them, which surprises me since they were one of the most ruthless and violent gangs in America. In 1916 Michigan adopted the Damon Act, which prohibited liquor effective in 1917, three years before national Prohibition, prompting bootleggers to smuggle booze from Canada to Detroit and the Purple Gang (sometimes referred to as the Sugar House Gang) was the mob that monopolized the flow of alcohol in Detroit. After prohibition was the law of the land about 40% of the illegal liquor came into the U.S. From Canada and the Purples distributed it with Capone being one of their many customers. The Gang was one of the most violent in America and it is rumored that the Purple Gang had a hand in the St Valentines Day Massacre. They were also suspects in the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.

The part of the Purple Gangs history that always interested me is their connection to central Michigan.

In Clare, the murder of gangster attorney Isaiah Leebove in 1938 was indirectly due to the Purple Gang. Oil promoter Jack Livingston had a disagreement with Leebove who was a Purple Gang associate. Convinced Leebove was going to have the Purple Gang kill him, Livingston shot and killed Leebove in the tap room at the Doherty Hotel before the Purple Gang could come after him.

A popular hangout for the Purple Gang was The Graceland Ball Room in Lupton. The building was built in the late 1920’s by “One Arm” Mike Gelfand a member of the Purple Gang, no one knows where the money came from to build it but many speculate it was from the Purple Gang. Al Capone was had visited it several times to do business and supposedly the rustic log interior had bullet holes in a few of the logs, sadly it burnt down in the early 1980s.

Not far from the south branch of Au Sauble river in northern Michigan on property once owned by William Durant, the founder of General Motors the “Detroit Partnership” a group of Detroit Mafia families built one of the largest ranches in Michigan history and the members of the Purple Gang were frequent visitors. The various barns surrounding the primary residence resembled modern day airplane hangars. They included an indoor horse riding area, dance parlor, interlinking tunnels and hidden rooms The property spanned acres and included a private runway, hunting area, servant quarters, junkyard, and an Olympic-sized pool. The house itself was involved in gang related activities for years. frequently visited by Jimmy Hoffa and is believed to be by some his “final resting place”. It was even searched upon his disappearance., and it was rumored to be the site of dozens of mafia-style executions. After being seized for tax evasion, the ranch laid dormant for years and eventually demolished. The property is now part of Forest Dunes Golf Club.

The purple gang was also rumored to have used Grousehaven Lodge which was built by auto magnate Harry Jewett which is currently part of the Rifle River Recreation Area. you can read the interesting story of Grousehaven HERE

There were also Ties to the J G Schemm Brewery in Saginaw. After the repeal of Prohibition, a group of investors from Detroit tried to get a license to brew beer at the old brewery. The state would not issue them a license, because of suspected connection to the Purple Gang. you can read about the brewery HERE

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The Strange death of the Sparling men in Tyre

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Haunted Places, Murders .

The tombstone of John Wesley Sparling in the Tyre Cemetery

The village of Tyre near Ubly in the Thumb was named after the Biblical place of Tyre because of its stony terrain, but it was the mysterious death of John Wesley Sparling and his sons that the town is most noted for. One June day, John Wesley quit work midday, clutching his stomach. His oldest son Peter rode his horse at breakneck speeds to fetch Dr. Robert A. MacGregor, who diagnosed a kidney ailment. John Wesley died on July 8, 1909, and was laid to rest in the Tyre Cemetery. The whole community attended the service. A year later Peter staggered from a field where haying was in progress and died 5 days later. Albert, the next oldest Sparling, became ill in church a year after Peter died; he suffered the exact symptoms as Peter and his father and died after a short struggle for life on 03 May 1911. On August 4th 1911 the strange symptoms struck a third Sparling son, Scyrel. Dr. MacGregor called in a colleague, Dr. Conboy, to examine Scyrel. Dr. Conboy suspected poisoning and reported the same to local authorities. Scyrel grew worse and died 14, Aug 1911 leaving only the youngest son, Raymond alive.

The prosecutor ordered the examination of Scyrel’s organs and they were sent to the University of Michigan which they reported finding arsenic. The body of Albert was exhumed and examined with identical findings, death by arsenic poisoning. Dr. MacGregor was arrested and tried for the murders of the four men in a trial which gained national attention. The prosecutor presented a case that John Wesley Sparlings wife Carrie was having an affair with the good doctor, and that he had her take out life insurance policies on her children who were strong and healthy at the time. Dr. MacGregor was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison.

the old abandoned grain elevator in the once booming town of Tyre

After Michigan Governor Ferris received an appeal on MacGregor’s behalf, he had the case re-investigated. The results of the re-investigation were not made public, so it is not known what facts it established. Nevertheless, in 1916, the Governor issued MacGregor a full and unconditional pardon. The Governor took the unusual step of having MacGregor brought to the state capital at Lansing where he handed him the pardon personally. In his statement the Governor said, “I am firmly convinced that Dr. MacGregor is absolutely innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.” The Governor shortly thereafter appointed MacGregor as the official state doctor to the Jackson prison where he had just been an inmate, again without explanation., MacGregor died In 1928.

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The Hidden Remains in a Michigan State Park

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Houses .

I was camping and the nice people camping next to me said hi, and we got to talking, I told them I take pics of Michigan, and they asked me if I had been to the “secret bunker”. What secret bunker? And they told me of this concrete bunker in the Rifle River Recreation area off the road near the viewing tower. I have been to the park several times before and have never noticed it. There is a sign on the tower that said the property originally belonged to Harry M. Jewett, but I really did not think much about it, I just figured he was some farmer and had a little cabin or something. Doing some research on the internets I found out all sorts of interesting facts about him and the lodge he built.

Harry Mulford “Hal” Jewett was born in Elmira, NY in 1870 and was a world class athlete for the University of Notre Dame. He was a two-time US National champion and he set the American record for the 220 yard dash in 1891 and in the triple jump in 1890. He also equaled the World Record for the 220-yard dash in 1892. He scored the very first touchdown for Notre Dame Football in a game against the University of Michigan on April 20, 1888, Michigan did win the Game 26-6. (It was said that the Wolverine fans in Ann Arbor were upset that the team was scored on by Notre Dame since It was the first time in over 4 years the team had allowed an opposing team to get a touchdown)

After graduating from college and serving in the Navy during the Spanish-American war he eventually became the president of the Paige Motor Car Company in Detroit. Paige even built a low price model named the Jewett.

In the 20’s Jewett was looking for a place to take his dogs and their trainers to hunt. He fell in love with the area near Lupton and purchased 7000 acres of land, He eventually built an enormous lodge bringing in Finnish “axemen” from the Upper Peninsula to fell and trim the logs for the construction of the lodge. Workers were brought in from the Detroit area, and overcoming difficulties in the rural area, the large two-story log lodge was built with all the modern conveniences, including steam heat, electric lights, a private bath and a large living room featuring a huge fireplace. There was also an observation room on the roof with a spectacular view of the area.

Grousehaven Lodge
photo courtesy of the Rifle River Re. Area staff

Jewett protected and restored the area for hunting ruffed grouse, partridge, and pheasant and made the area a world-class preserve. He also worked with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in stocking the headwaters of the Rifle River with trout, making it one of the best fishing areas in the state. It was reported that Jewett had spent over a quarter of a million dollars on grousehavens lodge and preserve.

When Harry Jewett died of a heart attack suddenly in 1933, his heirs lost interest in Grousehaven and in 1945 it was sold to the state of Michigan for $75,000, and was used by the Department of Conservation for fish and game research. In 1963 the lands were deeded over to the parks division and the lodge was torn down in 1967 you can still see some of the remains of the lodge near the observation tower.

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Remains of the old Grousehaven Lodge.

Sleeping Bear Dunes Alligator Hill Charcoal Kilns

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places .

The concrete structures located at Alagator Hill in the Sleeping Bear Dunes were built in the 1950’s by lumberman Pierce Stocking as kilns to make charcoal. The sawmill he set up near this spot produced considerable waste that was converted to charcoal in the kilns and was packed in bags for shipment to stores in much of Michigan and sold to campers and picnickers.

The kilns are concrete ovens in which limbs, slabs and other sawmill wast were stacked as tightly as possible. The open front was closed with concrete blocks and the wood set on fire just before the last blocks went in. controlling the air intake was tricky, to much air and the wood was consumed, too little air, and the fire went out. If successful, the fire burned slowly for several days. Once it was out, the charcoal was removed an spread to cool, then moved to the bagging shack.

Alligator Hill was the first managed forests in this part of the state. Its owner, D. H.Day protected the smaller trees to promote a future lumber harvest. When Pierce Stocking purchased the land in 1984, there was enough new growth to warrant a selective Harvest. The mill was closed and the kilns abandoned.

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The Haunted Ghost Town of Shelldrake Michigan

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Michigan Historical Markers, upper peninsula .

The town of Shelldrake, named after a duck common in the area, is a ghost town about 8 miles south of Whitefish Point, at the mouth of the Shelldrake River (also known as the Betsy River) on Whitefish Bay. In the 1890s and early 1900s, it was a thriving sawmill town during peak logging years on the Tahquamenon River watershed. By the 1920s repeated fires and the decline of lumbering led to its demise. Today it is a privately owned ghost town with only a few weathered, original buildings.

I found stories of the area being haunted by an old sea captain who stands on the dock. He has a pipe and a cape and he is usually seen from the lake, as boats approach the shore, he fades away and disappears. While researching the history of Sheldrake, I found out about the Tugboat Grace which was towing a scow in October of 1879 through whitefish bay headed for Goulais Bay in Canada. During a storm in the early morning, the tugboat broke down and drifted onto a sand bar about 200 feet offshore from Sheldrake. The tug filled with water and broke into pieces. The crew made it to shore, and after climbing the bank to safety the captain proclaimed “Thank God, we are all safe” and then suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack. I wonder if that is the captain that has been seen on the docks.

The Penoyer brothers from Bay City, Michigan began the first lumbering operations on the mouth of the Shelldrake River in 1895 with the construction of a sawmill, long docks, and a tramway into Whitefish Bay for loading lumber onto ships. They owned a large block of pinelands in the Tahquamenon River watershed. The Calumet and Hecla copper mining company bought the sawmill and uncut timber in 1899 for their mines. Calumet and Hecla sold out to a Canadian firm, the Bartlett Brothers, in 1910. Lumber milling continued at Shelldrake until 1925 when a fire burned down the sawmill plant for the second time.

By the late 1890s, Shelldrake had a sawmill, houses for workers that were equipped with bathrooms, a hospital, a schoolhouse, a post office, and an icehouse that could store enough meat to feed a population of 1,000 through the winter months. All of the buildings were plastered and had hot water piped from the sawdust burner. There was a stagecoach between Eckerman, Michigan and Shelldrake daily in the summer and three times a week during the winter. At one time there was also a passenger ship sailing between Shelldrake and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Shelldrake was listed on Michigan’s Historic Register in 1979 with the period of historical significance designated as 1600–1825. However, Shelldrake did not become settled as a lumber town until the late 1890s. The state marker text reads:
Shelldrake legend has it that Lewis Cass, governor of the Territory of Michigan, and his party of nearly 100 camped here in their search for the source of the Mississippi River in 1820. This area, once a bustling lumbering community, was first settled in the mid-nineteenth century. Shelldrake is now a sleepy resort and hunting place. Few of the weatherbeaten buildings that once faced the long boardwalk remain. This settlement is a reminder of the area’s lumbering era.
Although Shelldrake was sold to private owners during the 1930s,it never developed into a resort or hunting place despite what is recorded on the Michigan historic marker. It is now a privately owned ghost town with only a few weathered, original buildings at the site.

You can kinda see it from the road when your traveling from Paradise to Whitefish Point, but since it’s privately owned be respectful of the owners and don’t go exploring around it. There is a road leading up to it, but I am not sure it was a private road since I was there in the winter time, if it was, I apologize for trespassing. I wanted to get a pic for my Michigan Historical Marker Series, I just snapped a quick pic and left.

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Ten Haunted or Creepy places in Michigan

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Forgotten Places, Historic Places, Lighthouses, Michigan Historical Markers .

I love a good ghost story especially when there is some Michigan history attached to it. Here are some of my favorite spooky places I have found traveling the back roads in Michigan. If you find these places intriguing I hope you will take a look at the Lost In Michigan book for more in-depth information and stories HERE

The Bruce Mansion in Burnside township is said to be one of the most haunted places in Michigan and there is a story of the owner hitting a pedestrian and burying his body on the property

Bruce Mansion in Burnside Michigan

Northville Psychiatric Hospital in Northville, This state run hospital closed in 2003 and supposedly there are ghosts in the tunnels that run between building, I have not been there in a while and I hear it is being demolished for a new project on that site.

Northville Psychiatric Hospital in Northville

The Calumet Theatre in the Keweenaw Peninsula. According to Wikipedia it is inhabited by the ghost of a famous Polish actress Madame Helena Modjeska

Calumet Theatre

Pere Cheney near Grayling was an old logging town that was stricken with illness, all that is left of the town is some depressions in the ground and a cemetery with strange things happening in it. Pere Cheney was a lumbering town established in 1874 and one of the largest towns in the region at the time. The population grew to about 1500 people but in 1893 diphtheria spread throughout the village killing most of its population.

Pere Cheney Cemetery and ghost town

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, there are stories of a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper in the 1970s reporting many strange happenings at Eagle Harbor, including the sight of a faceless man in a plaid flannel shirt, the sounds of moving furniture and heavy footsteps on the second floor and lights turning on and off.

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

The Fenton Monastery The monastery was built in 1868 and was originally a Baptist seminary. By 1886 it became a retired home for Baptist priests and their wives and then Converted into apartments between 1935 and 1945. by the 1950s the building became a nursing home. I found some references of it being haunted but no stories of why it is creepy with part of the front fallen down. Sadly the old Monastery was torn down in 2016.

Fenton Monistary

The Pere Marquette Depot on Potter Street in Saginaw one of the largest Victorian era train stations in the United States There are several sources that claim the station to be haunted, bodies of soldiers who died in the war were shipped back to Saginaw by train to this depot. Richard Froeber was a casket maker in Saginaw and his shop was in the depot and he would build caskets for the fallen soldiers. There have been reports of people seeing a ghostly figure of a woman in white roaming the station.

Potter Street Train Station in Saginaw Michigan

The Marquette Orphanage,Built in 1915 and closed in 1980 there is a story of a girl who died in a blizzard and they held the funeral in the basement for her.

Marquette Orphanage

The David Whitney House in Detroit. This house was originally constructed in the 1890s by David Whitney, Jr. It was restored in 1986 and is now used as a formal dining restaurant. Both Whitney and his wife died in this mansion and are believed to remain behind to haunt it. An elderly man can be seen looking out the windows and the elevator will move between floors without anyone in it. Now it’s a resturant with the third floor converted into the “Ghost Bar”

The David Whitney house in Detroit

Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in the thumb rumors of an apparition of a woman wearing an apron appearing in a second floor window, footsteps on the tower stairs, ice cold spots appearing then dissipating, Peter Shook, was the first lighthouse keeper at Point aux Barques. In 1849, he drowned along with two others on their way to Port Huron to pick up supplies, leaving his wife Catherine the honor of being the first woman lighthouse keeper in the Great Lakes.

Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in the thumb

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