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Category Archives: small towns

Tustin Lumber and Grain

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Grain Elevators, small towns .

I saw this old building in the small town of Tustin. It looks as if it has been a while since it was used for lumber or grain. The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad sent Dr. J.P. Tustin, A medical missionary, to Sweden to recruit laborers. About 300 settled in the area south of Cadillac and when the town was granted a post office in 1872, they named it Tustin in honor of Dr. Tustin.

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I Found Mt. Forest while Lost Among the Farm Fields

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

mount forest michigan

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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Sidnaw’s Main Street

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns, upper peninsula .

The small town of Sidnaw is located in the western part of the Upper Peninsula. There is not much on Main Street but a few houses and what looks like a building that was a general store at one time. M-28 runs nearby and that is probably why most of the structures on Main Street are gone. Sidnaw is probably most famous for having a World War II POW camp. you can read my post about it HERE. The word “sidnaw” is Native American for small hill by a creek and that is supposedly where the town got its name from.

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The Old Church in Berville

Posted on November 15, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, small towns .

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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Beautiful Downtown Hesperia

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

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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Downtown Alba

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

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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Wabaningo

Posted on July 5, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

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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Small Town Memorial

Posted on May 18, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns, Thumb .

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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Lost In Columbiaville

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in General Store, small towns .

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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Maybee the best Little Town In Michigan

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns .

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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