Northeast of Ann Arbor on Plymouth Road is the small town of Dixboro. In 1824, retired sea Captain John Dix purchased about 500 acres of land. He built a house and a sawmill and then plotted a section of land that became the town of Dixboro. The little village was growing quickly until the railroad decided to lay tracks through Ypsilanti instead of Dixboro.
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There is not a whole lot in the small Upper Peninsula town of Covington. Some houses, a post office, a beautiful church, and an old general store can be found in the town located near the junction of M-28 and 141. John Lyons was the first postmaster in 1895 and he named the town for Covington Kentucky where he came from.
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Near the point of Old Mission Peninsula is the town of Old Mission. This old building sits at the north end of the town. I am not sure what it was but it looks like an old general store. If you visit the lighthouse at the point be sure to take a side trip through the historic town of Old Mission. There are a lot of historic places to see on your trip through the old shadow town.
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This old General Store stands in the town of Glen Haven. It is kind of a ghost town in the fact that no one lives there anymore. It is part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I have seen this old store many times. Maybe someday I will get a chance to go inside and check it out. I tend to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes out of season when everything is closed up for the winter. I like the peace and quiet when nobody is around but that means a lot of places are closed to tourists.
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If you have ever driven down M-81 in the Thumb you have probably gone past this old building in the small town of Watrousvlle. The historical marker next to the building reads:
Aaron Watrous and his crew of loggers came here in the thumb in 1852 to cut the virgin pine of the Cass River Valley. In 1860 he platted the town naming it Watrousville, and a few years later constructed this building as a general store. The flagpole in front is thought to have been erected during the 1864 presidential campaign. Watrous died in 1868, and in 1882 the building became the Juniata Township Hall. Since 1972 it has been a museum of the Watrousville-Caro Area Historical Society.
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Bracing itself against the wind and snow for several years the remains of this old general store still stand in the small forgotten town of Dighton. Located a few miles south of Cadillac, the town was named after Dighton Marvin. At one point it had over 1000 residents and three sawmills. Not much remains of the old sawmill town today. A store and a few houses are all that is left of the once bustling community.
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The town of Good Harbor once stood along the shores of Lake Michigan between Glen Arbor and Leeland. In the 1860s H. D. Pheatt built a dock in Good Habor Bay to supply passing steamships with firewood. Over the next few decades, a couple of sawmills were built. The town had grown in population and had a hotel, general store, school, and some saloons. The interesting thing is Centerville and Cleveland townships boundary lines ran down the middle of Main Street in Good Harbor. Centerville did not allow saloons, so Good Harbor’s saloon was built on the Cleveland township side of the street.
In1905 the last remaining sawmill caught fire and burned down. Because most of the timber had been cut in the area the sawmill was not rebuilt. in the 1920a the old wood buildings still standing in the empty town were dismantled and the lumber used to build them was sold.
Not far away from where the town once stood, I saw this old building that looks as if it was a store at one time. I am not sure if it was standing in the time that Good Harbor was prosperous, but there is nothing left of the town. This old building is nearby and reminds me of the old sawmill town.
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In the southeast corner of the Upper Peninsula, near what’s left of the town of Stalwart, I came across this old store. It looks like it has not been occupied for a while. Yellow flowers and green grass are growing all around it without any foot traffic to impede their growth.
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I was going through my archive of photos from my travels because I can’t or will not travel right now. I came across this pic of an old building in Columbiaville that I never posted. I am not sure what this place is or was but it looks like an old general store at one time.
In 1848 a sawmill was built by George and Henry Niver, on the bank of the river. The town became known as Niverville until 1857, when the first post office was established. A town named Niverville existed in Michigan, so a new name was needed. Columbiaville was suggested by the Nivers, after their native county Columbia, NY.
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Not much remains of the town of Damon but an old general store and a few houses. In the late 1800’s it was a booming lumbering town with a hotel and school for the children o the lumberjacks. The town was the inspiration for the town in James Oliver Curwood’s book Green Timber. Located about 10 miles north of West Branch The town was first settled in 1878 and named for George Damon owner of the firm Cutting & Damon. It was given a post office in 1880 then closed in 1907. The post office was briefly reopened in 1911 but closed two years later in 1915. I only assume most of the timber was gone and there was little work for the residents and they moved on.
P.S. I still have yet to read Green Timber. I have a few other James Oliver Curwood books but I have not found a copy of Green Timber yet. I am sure I could get one from eBay but that is not as much fun as looking for one in a used book store.
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