Not to be confused with Plainfield Township near Grand Rapids, the small town of Plainfield sits near Stockbridge. The first settler came to Plainfield in 1835 and the town was originally called Dyersburg for the second settler Phillip Dyer. When it was given a post office it was named Plainfield after Plainfield NJ. There are a few houses in the little town of Plainfield and this old store with an Alis Chalmers sign.

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The small town of Dansville is southeast of Lansing. In 1844 Samuel Crossman came to the area and a few years later opened a store. He sold the store to his son Daniel who plated the town in 1857 and called it Dansville. The town prospered with the nearby railroad and some believe the citizens were trying to be the home of the state capital after it was decided to move it to the middle of the state. A series of fires destroyed many of the businesses downtown and most were never rebuilt. The town was destined to remain a small town and not the state capital if it was even considered for the honor.

It would not be surprising if the town was considered for the capital. Many towns lobbied for the distinction and it is an interesting story as to how Lansing became the capital. You can see my post about it HERE

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It’s been a while since I  had time to go on a road trip, so I took a short one north of Saginaw to see what I could find. North of U.S. 10 is mostly farmland and more farmland, with ranch style houses and more ranch style houses. I meandered along the back roads seeing what I could find.  Somewhere between Pinconning and Rhodes, I saw this old building and my first thought was ” I wonder what that is” then I saw the corner-stone Mt Forest Community Church 1933. I guess now I know what it is, and I found the old sawmill town of Mt Forrest, or at least what is left of it, an old church and a few houses.

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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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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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