Ghost towns Archives - Lost In Michigan

The Ghost Town of McClure

Posted on October 10, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

In the farmlands in the center of the state, northeast of Gladwin, stands an old church on a lonely dirt road. The people of the little lumber town of McClure worshiped in the wooden church. It’s about all that’s left of the town named after lumber baron William C. McClure who built a sawmill in 1883. After the trees were cut down it became a sleepy little farming community, and the church, which is now the Lighthouse Prayer Chapel, still marks the spot where the town once stood. I always think of how hard it must have been for the farmers to pull stumps from the fields. Before the giant hydraulic equipment we have today, it must have been extremely difficult backbreaking work.

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The Ghost Town of Onominese

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Cemetery, Ghost towns .

Rows of white wooden crosses stand in a simple cemetery near Lake Michigan. The people laid to rest under them is all that remains of Onominese. A small Indian village named after the Indian Chief Onominese. ( also spelled Onominee) The town was about five miles north of Leland, in the Leelanau Peninsula on Lake Michigan. The people that lived there mostly traveled to the town by canoe as there were no roads that led to the village.

Reverend Smith traveled through crude forest trails almost every Sunday from Northport to conduct church services. A small schoolhouse was built after the Civil War ended in 1865. Besides bringing religion and education to the native Americans the white man brought an epidemic of smallpox and diphtheria that killed off most of the small village’s population. It is the white crosses of those that died which stand in the field near Lake Michigan to tell the story of the small Indian village that once was.

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Judd’s Corner

Posted on August 14, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

Known more recently as Juddville, Judd’s Corners a few miles north of Owosso was first settled in 1853 when Connecticut native John Judd purchased 400 acres of land encompassing this area from the Hazelton brothers, who owned much of the township. A log school was erected in 1854, where Judd’s eldest daughter, Jane, taught. Over the next two decades a thriving community developed. In 1879, Judd’s Corners received a post office. By 1881 the village had a sawmill, blacksmith shop, general store, a creamery and two churches. Population, which peaked in the mid-1880s at about 175 people, began declining by the 1900s. The school that survives today, built in 1903, was originally faced with brick. The school and the Adventist and Methodist Episcopal churches are reminders of a once-thriving community.

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Porcupine Mountain Ghost Town of Nonesuch

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns, Michigan State Parks, upper peninsula .

The Porcupine Mountains in the western Upper Peninsula is the largest state park in Michigan. It is known for its hiking trails, waterfalls, and the Lake Of The Clouds. But few people know that hidden among the trees are the ruins of an old mining town. Nonesuch is a type of copper ore that exists in sandstone and the town was named after the ore. Mining began in 1867 and ended in 1912.

At its peak, the town had a population of 300 people and besides the mining buildings, it had a school, boarding houses, stables, and even a baseball team. Today stone walls can be found in the area where the town once stood. I also found some old cast iron machine parts including a large gear half-buried in the ground and held in place by a tree root.

The ruins can be found near the Little Iron River. A parking lot can be found off South Boundry Road with a trail that is about a half-mile long that will take you to the ruins. To find the parking lot drive straight south of the visitor center. A short road keeps going south where South Boundry Road curves to the west. Down that short road, you will find a small parking lot and an informational sign for the town of Nonesuch.

If you visit please stay on the paths and do not mess with the crumbling walls so they will remain open to visitors.

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P.S. I am a State Parks Photo Ambassador and if you love Michigan State Parks be sure to follow their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/MiStateParks

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The Glen Haven General Store

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in General Store, Ghost towns .

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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The Ghost Town of Podunk

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

Yes, there is a town in Michigan called Podunk. Actually, there are a couple of towns, in a few different counties called Podunk. This old schoolhouse in the forgotten town of Podunk is a few miles northwest of Gladwin. I could not find any info about the town other than the name and location, I am guessing it was an old logging camp, but it’s only a guess.

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Platte Post Office

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

South of Empire a little ways from M-22, I saw this old red building. Normally, I would not think much of it but I saw the wooden sign that read: PLATTE POST OFFICE 1868-1905. One of the residents of the town was F.B. Van Platten, Maybe that is where the name of the town came from. Today it looks like a rather lonely old building with a big pine tree protecting it. I think Platte was just another Michigan town that faded away when the timber was gone. If not for this sign and old building it would be completely forgotten.

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Good Harbor

Posted on November 9, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in autumn, General Store, Ghost towns .

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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A Michigan Ghost Town Church

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in autumn, Churches, Ghost towns .

This old church stands quietly in the town of Harlan located in northern Michigan east of Copemish. In the 1880s the railroad was originally going to go through the nearby town of Cleon. Because of the steep grades and sharp curves they decided to run through the town of Harlan instead. It gave the town a boost in population. Having several stores a blacksmith shop and a hotel, the town prospered until the railroad no longer stopped in the little town. By the 1950s most of the businesses had closed. Not much remains in Harlan but this old church and a few houses.

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The Lost and Found Michigan Ghost Town of Deward

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns .

The town of Deward northwest of Grayling had one of the largest sawmills in Michigan. The town was started in 1900 and named in honor of lumber baron David E. Ward. At one time it had a population of 800 people. It had a ferocious appetite for timber and after all the standing timber was logged off and cut into boards the sawmill closed in 1912 and the town died off. The buildings were dismantled and hauled away and the old sawmill was demolished leaving some concrete foundations.

Eventually, the trees grew back covering over the former townsite hiding it from view. If you know where to look you can still see the foundations and relics of the past. I felt like a modern-day Indiana Jones or Josh Gates, only without the hat, as I trekked through the forest looking for relics of the past.

I give exact locations in my Lost In Michigan books and not normally on the internet. Usually, with a little searching on google, you can find the locations of a lot of places but I had a difficult time finding the Deward ruins. I could find a lot of info about Deward, but the location seemed to be vague. I made three trips to the area until I finally found the lost town’s location. The maps show it near an intersection of Manistee River Road and Post Road. Actually, it is about a 1/4 mile south of there.

The best way to find the ruins is from county road 612. Take Manistee River Road north past West Cameron Bridge Road. About a mile and a half north of West Cameron Bridge Road you will see a two-track heading west with a small green sign with a binoculars symbol on it. Go down that road about 100 yards to a parking area. Take the trail down to the river. you will see an old wooden fence with concrete bases at each end left over from the sawmill. From the south base head into the woods about 50 yards and you will see the concrete foundations. You can’t miss them they are huge about the size of a pickup truck. The threaded rods sticking out of the top are about 2 or 3 inches in diameter. Whatever was mounted to them must have been massive.

During the summer you can get there in a car, but I would recommend a truck or SUV, especially in the spring and fall when it is raining a lot. If you want to get out and see something few people have seen, this as a great place to explore. You can see depressions in the ground where buildings once stood and there still is a dry ditch that I assume where logs were floated to the mill.

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