08/09/2026
Michigan Ghost Towns of The Lower Penninsula by R. L. Dodge
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267751385819
Very little has been written about Michigan ghost towns. This series of books is the first ever published on the subject. Ghost towns are usually thought of as being located in the far West, where actually very few ghost towns exist compared to the thousands of abandoned towns and locations that dotted Michigan maps of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Towns along the hundreds of miles of railroads and mining locations of the Upper Peninsula in 1905 appear almost as hundreds of fly specs on maps and are barely legible under a strong magnifying glass. Upper Peninsula ghost towns differ from lower Michigan sites in that many of the abandoned houses and building still stand, even though many are more than 100 years old, while most lower Michigan ghost town sites are more difficult to locate and have reverted to nature. The Upper Peninsula, especially in the western and northern counties, has so far escaped the ravages of civilization common to lower Michigan, due to the remoteness of many areas. It is possible that modern-day ecologists and an ecology-minded generation may do something to preserve the beauty and natural surroundings of this last frontier of Michigan remaining in the 20th century. It now seems impossible that the scars left on much of the country from mining will ever be erased. However, little evidence remains of the logging days when much of the peninsula was ravaged by logging the virgin timber. These scars have been healed by nature, now bearing vast stands of second-growth timber that is harvested only as it matures. The Upper Peninsula is still an example of small-town America. People everywhere are friendly and here families still sit on their front porches on a warm evening and sleep easily at night without bolting their doors in fear of burglars ransacking their homes. It is a place where people stop to pass the time of day on the street, stand in long lines, even in the smallest communities, to attend church services on Sunday, and where fishermen, mine workers, and laborers of the woods and farms gather at the corner tavern on Saturday and discuss the week's accomplishments or failures, argue pro and con about the merits of the Conservation Department (Department of Natural Resources) and its impact on the fishing industry of the Great Lakes, regulation of deer hunting, diversion of streams for industry, etc.
