You have probably heard someone make a joke about a two-story outhouse. One of my readers told me about a two-story outhouse near Cedar Lake in central Michigan, so I had to check it out for myself. The house that it sat behind was recently was destroyed by fire, so you can’t get a real good view of the old weathered privy but I did get this pic of it from the road, you can also see it a little from the Fred Meijer Hartland Trail. I did some research on google and I figure this has to be one of the most famous outhouses since it’s even mentioned in Wikipedia about the history of the outhouse, and since it’s on the internet I am sure it’s true.
The two-story privy and house were built by William Nelson, a wealthy lumber baron that had 7 daughters. The girls lived upstairs and the lower part of the home was Mr. Nelson’s office and General store that was frequented by lumberjacks. The Lumber Baron wanted to keep his daughters separated from the men so he built the outhouse with a bridge to the second floor of the home but the bridge collapsed in the 50’s. I read that it’s a 4 holer top and bottom with different size holes to match different size people, I guess they just read goldilocks before they built it. I am not sure how it “works” if the holes on top are in line with the holes in the lower part and its “bombs away” or if there is a tube that channels down to the ground giving a whole new meaning to the term “poop chute”, you know I could go on forever with the puns and jokes. but I better not.
Sadly the old outhouse collapsed a few years ago and a new replica was built in its place. This was one of the first places I visited when I started Lost In Michigan and I included it in the first book.
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