This old church stands in the small town of Berville at the base of the Thumb. I don’t have a story to go with it but I thought it was a pretty little church on an Autumn day. Thank you for taking the time to look at my posts and I hope you have a wonderful week.
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Roaming around Michigan, I visit a lot of towns and cities. Hesperia is located along M-20 on the west side of the state at the southern part of the Manistee National Forest. The town was platted in 1866 and there are two stories of how Hesperia got its name. The first was that it was an Indian name for “beautiful gardens” since the area was once home to Indian tribes in the area. The second was that it was named from Hesperides in Greek Mythology, meaning “blissful garden”, located in the western part of Greece.
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The sign on the side of this building reads THE WINN SHOPPING CENTER. It looks as if it has been a while since anyone has done any shopping at the shopping center. The small town of Winn west of Shepherd was started in 1867 and either named for Mr. Winn or for Wynn England. I have seen a reference to both. The Town was platted by Wiley Dush and he changed the name to Dushville. After Mr. Dush died in 1898 the name of the town was changed back to Winn.
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Not a whole lot remains in downtown Alba these days. It was once a bustling community when the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad came through the area in the 1870s. The village was plated in 1878, and as legend has it, the town was named after Alba Haywood, a local entertainer. The town still gets a lot of traffic since US-131 passes through the old town and many motorists take Alba Road over to Gaylord.
I find it Ironic that the town was supposedly named after an entertainer because I remember the name of the town where I need to turn to go to Gaylord by the remembering the actress’s name Jessica Alba.
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While out traveling around exploring the Mitten State I visit a lot of small towns and many of the post offices I see are a typical brick building. I assume there is a standard plan that the post office used when building them. On occasion, I come across one that is a little bit different than the ordinary post office. On my way to the White River Lighthouse north of Muskegon I came across this cute little white and green post office. The area was originally called Sylvan Beach when it was settled in 1833. When the post office was established it was named Wabaningo after the local Ottawa Chief. In the early 1900s, the area was primarily a resort community and the post office was made a branch of the Whitehall branch and is only open in the summer months.
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I was traveling through the Thumb and I went through the small town of Minden City. In front of city hall, the Stars and Stripes were proudly waving in the spring breeze. at the base of the flagpole was a stone with the words:
Dedicated in memory of those who served our country that we may live in freedom.
A town may be small, or in a for away location, but it does not diminish the appreciation a community has for the sacrifices made by those who served. It is always nice to the American flags and memorials on my journey to remind me how lucky I am to have the freedom to roam this beautiful country.
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I like taking a break from the expressway in northern Michigan and take Old 27 to see the sights on the back roads. The small town of Wolverine was originally plated by the name of Torrey in 1881. After the post office was built that same year, the town was named Wolverine after the state animal. Old 27 or South Straights Highway passes through the town but most people just see the sign for it as they zoom past on I-75.
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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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In southeastern Michigan is the small town of Maybee located somewhere between Milan and Monroe. With a name like Maybe I hade to drive through it on one of my road trips. I looked up the history hoping there was a funny story to the town’s name but it was named after Abram Maybe who settled the area in the mid-1800s
As the sign reads on the road heading into town “MAYBEE the best little town in Michigan” It seems like a nice little town to me so I am not going to argue with them.
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So I am hanging out at home flipping through the five hundred channels of nothing on TV. I get to ESPN2 and they were showing the World Championships of Cherry Pit Spitting. Living in Michigan I have spit a few cherry pits in my lifetime so I had to check it out. I figured it would be someplace like Traverse City but it was in the small southwestern town of Eau Claire.
Normally I would be scratching my head and looking up on google where Eau Claire is located, but I remembered taking a pic of this old building in downtown Eau Clair. I guess when sports are on hold, ESPN has to show something and I will say it was much better than the world championships of sign spinning and the hamburger eating competition. I can only imagine what they are gonna show next weekend.
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If you are wondering the world record distance for cherry pit spitting is at 110 feet 4 inches.
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