I found very little information on the town of Watson, even though the general store, a house, and a couple of buildings still remain standing in the long forgotten community. Watson is nestled in the south-east corner of Marquette County on road 426. Walter Romig’s Michigan Place Names say that it was a “mail distributing point” in
A Michigan historical marker stands near downtown Bay City and reminds us of a time when lumberjacks and sawmill workers labored for little pay and long hours. It reads: When Bay City’s sawmills opened in 1885, mill owners notified workers that wages would be 12 to 25 percent lower than in 1884. On July 6,
This beautiful fieldstone house stands along M-25 north of Harbor Beach in front of the Marina. It was built by James Grice who came to the Thumb in the 1860s from England. The house survived the great fire of 1881 and remained in the family until the 1960s when it was acquired by the city
Lumberman Newell A. Eddy, Sr.and his wife Marianna purchased the land around where the Lodge sits for their personal recreational use. The land was purchased in several transactions from 1908 to 1913. With the Construction of US-23 tourists began visiting the area. The Eddy’s son, Newell A. Eddy Jr. who also vacationed at the
Alma is located in the center of the Lower Peninsula and standing in the heart of Alma is an old stone Richardsonian-design house. Built in 1888 by lumber baron and business man Ammi Wright, the house was advanced for its time with its own hot water system. The Wright family owned the house until it
I have been to a lot of different waterfalls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula but my favorite is Alder Falls. Located northwest of Marquette it can be a little tricky to find on a two-track road off County Road 550 near Big Bay. After parking near a little wooden sign for the falls you need to
I saw this old general store in the small town of Burnips. It’s located southwest of Grand Rapids and got its start in the 1850s when James Burnip settled in the area. He built a general store and the intersection that it sat on was known as Burnip’s Corners. In time the town became to
Underneath the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron is the old Grand Trunk Railway Depot built in 1856. This is the depot a young Thomas Alva Edison worked at while selling newspapers and books to passengers. This is the part where I am supposed to write about Edison’s accomplishments, but I am thinking most people
I saw this old farmhouse south of Traverse City somewhere near Buckley. It looks as if it has a broken back with the center of the roof collapsed inward. I don’t know any history of this old home but it looks as if someone is cutting the grass. I like how the bushes or trees
Rockland is located in the western Upper Peninsula. The town was an old mining town where several Irish Immigrants came to mine. Southeast of town, off US-45 is the Irish Hollow Cemetery. It sits in the woods and the tombstones are surrounded by tall grass and ferns. It may be a little overgrown but it
