Thumb Archives - Lost In Michigan

Lost in Silverwood

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns, Thumb .

O.K., I wasn’t really lost in Silverwood, that would be hard to do since there are only a few streets in the town. The town sits in the Thumb between Mayville and Marlette. I found this building that looks like and old school house or a church, or probably both. There is an old store in town that I have tried to get a pic of a few times, but every time I am in Silverwood there was a truck parked in front of it, oh well, maybe on the next trip.

When the railroad was ran through the area in 1882, the residents applied for a post office. One suggested naming it something easy to remember, and the post office named “Easy” opened on April 13, 1882, with James R. Chapin as the first postmaster. The name changed to “Rollo” on March 27, 1890, and changed again on May 2, 1892 to “Silverwood”, after the nearby stands of white pine. For what it’s worth, I like the name Silverwood, it sounds like something from a Clint Eastwood western.

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The Small Town of Palms

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns, Thumb .

This old concrete building stands next to the railroad tracks in Palms. I am not sure what it was orginally used for but it looks as if it has been a long time since it was utilized.

You could possibly call Palms a ghost town but a few people still live in the small town located in the Thumb between Cass City and Lake Huron. I figured a name like palms it was named after the palm tree but as any astute Michigander will tell you there are no palm trees in Michigan. The village was settled in 1850 by Canadians John Smith & Michael Dyer. It was businessman Francis Palms who owned most of the land for timber, and when he brought the railroad to the little community in 1881 they named the town in his honor.

Palms owned the most land in Michigan in the mid-1800s in both the Lower and Upper Peninsulas. After harvesting the timber he sold the land but retained the mineral rights. He made a fortune off the copper that was discovered under the property he once owned. He was the president of the Michigan Stove Company and vice president of the Detroit, Mackinac and Marquette Railroad. At the time of his death, his estate and savings were worth over ten million dollars. The largest estate in Michigan at the time.

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The Yellow House In the Thumb

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Thumb .

This Second Empire style mansion In Port Sanilac was built in the 1870s by Doctor Joseph Loop. A native of New York, Loop moved to Oakland County, Michigan, in 1843. he and his wife, Jane Gardner Loop pioneered this land in Sanilac County in 1854, and after graduating from the University of Michigan medical department in 1855, he opened a practice in Port Sanilac. When this home was built, he kept an office on the lower floor, and serviced a forty-mile circuit, bringing medical care to much of the county. Doctor Loop died in 1903 at the age of ninety-three, leaving the home to his only child, Ada. She and her husband, the Reverend Julius Harrison passed it in turn to one of their sons, Captain Stanley Harrison. In 1964 he deeded it to the Sanilac County Historical Society for a museum.

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Port Sanilac Lighthouse

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Lighthouses, Thumb .

The town of Port Sanilac stands along Lake Huron at the intersection of M-46 and M-25. The lighthouse in town has been guiding ships in this harbor town since 1886. It has a unique tapered tower that flares out at the top. I read somewhere this was done to conserve bricks during construction. The lighthouse is privately owned but you can get a good view of it from the park next to it.

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The Lexington House

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Thumb .

This beautiful old house stands along M-25 south of Lexington. I am not sure about its history but it is now a bed and breakfast.

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A Ghost Town Bridge

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Ghost towns, Thumb .

Nestled among the trees and over a small creek is an old iron truss bridge. The sign hanging from the top beams reads: MICHIGAN BRIDGE AND PIPE CO. LANSING MICHIGAN. You can see the old bridge from M-25 near Port Austin and it was part of the old sawmill town of Port Crescent. The town started back in 1844 when Walter Hume built a hotel and trading post near the mouth of the Pinnebog River. A few sawmills sprang up in the area around the river and the town was known as Pinnebog but another town upriver had the same name. It was decided to change the name of the town to Port Crescent for the crescent shape the river made as it flowed into the Saginaw Bay.

The lumber town continued to thrive and even survived the Great Fire of 1871. Woods and Company built a large steam-powered sawmill with a brick smokestack that soared into the sky. The town had several houses and even built a large two-story schoolhouse to educated the children. By 1881 the lumberjacks had cut most of the timber, and what was still standing, was mostly destroyed by the great fire that swept through the thumb. Slowly houses and buildings were moved or dismantled and taken to the surrounding towns such as Port Austin and Bad Axe. By 1894 all the buildings were gone and very little remained of the once prosperous town. The trees were gone, but a few people realized the sand was valuable for glass making and copper smelting and began mining and shipping the sand around the Great Lakes.

By the 1930s sand mining operations have ceased and that would have been the end of the land being used for anything. After WWII and the prosperity that followed Michigan families began vacationing during the summer. The state of Michigan acquired the property along the shoreline in 1959 and established the Port Crescent State Park. Little remains of the town of Port Crescent. The old bridge is used for a hiking trail and the foundation for the sawmill chimney stands near the entrance to the campground. Next time you visit Port Crescent State Park, or drive past the sign for it on M-25, maybe you will remember the town and the hard-working lumberjacks who lived there.

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The Big House in Port Austin

Posted on September 8, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, Thumb .

This big old red and green house stands near the tip of the Thumb in Port Austin. It is now known as the Garfield Inn but it was originally built by Charles G. Learned. A historical marker stands next to it and reads:

A native of New York, contractor Charles G. Learned helped build New York City’s water-works system and the Erie Canal. Around 1837 Learned and his brother-in-law purchased several thousand acres of pine land in Michigan’s Thumb area. Two years later, Learned and his wife, Maria Raymond, came to Port Austin and bought a house and three acres at this site. Learned’s cutover pine land became a 2,000-acre farm where he prospered as an agriculturalist and dairy farmer. With profits from his lumbering and farming enterprises Learned enlarged and updated this house in the French Second Empire style. In the 1860s Ohio congressman, later president, James A. Garfield, a family friend, was a frequent guest here. From 1931 to 1979 the house served as the Mayes Inn and Tower Hotel.

There were rumors that President Garfield was smitten for Charles Learned’s wife Maria and that president requested that he travel to Port Austin to see her after being shot, but he was not permitted to travel and died from his gunshot wounds.

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Easy In Silverwood

Posted on July 23, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in small towns, Thumb .

The small town of Silverwood sits in the Thumb between Mayville and Marlette. I always thought the name sounds like something from a TV western or movie. It was not the first name of the town. When the railroad was built through here in 1882, the residents applied for a post office. One suggested naming it something easy to remember, and the post office named “Easy” and opened on 13 April 1882. I am not sure why but in 1890 The name changed to “Rollo” and changed again in 1892 to “Silverwood”, after the nearby stands of white pine.

P.S. There is a nice old building in town that is used as a store. For years I have been trying to get a nice pic of it but every time I am in the area, there are a bunch of cars parked in front of it. So instead, I took a pic of this building. I am not sure what it was but the stone at the top reads. H. C. BEARUP 1896.

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The General Store in Huron City

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in General Store, Thumb .

This old General Store sits in Huron City near the tip of the Thumb. It was built in 1885 after the great fire of 1881 that swept through the forests of the Thumb. It closed in the 1950s and is now part of the Huron City Museum.

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The School At The Tip of the Thumb

Posted on June 1, 2022 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Schools, Thumb .

This large brick building stands along M-25 near the tip of the Thumb. Above the front door carved in stone are the words. GRINDSTONE CITY SCHOOL. I have seen several one room schoolhouses around the Thumb, so I imagine when this building was built in the early 1900s, the citizens of Grindstone City were proud of it. I am not sure when it closed, but it is privately owned now.

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