Town Name: Ola
Corners
Population: 0
Reason For Becoming a Lost Town: Ola lost its post
office when the rural carrier system was installed and rural post
offices became useless. When M-27 became US 127, it removed most
traces of the town's existence.
Town
History:
Ola is a little
station on the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railroad
running east and west through the southern tier of townships
in Gratiot County. The road is now a division of the Grand
Trunk. Ola is located on section 9, of Washington Township,
four and a half miles west of Ashley and two miles east of
Pompeii. It dates its existence from 1887, when the railroad
was completed. Passenger trains stop only on signal, as its
distance of only two miles from Pompeii precludes any
plausibility in the idea of considering it a regular station.
A small tract was platted December 17, 1888, by Alvin Shaver,
proprietor, and placed on record in Ithaca. The record
describes the plat as composed of the north half of the west
half of the southwest quarter of section 9, containing 40
acres, more or less. The railroad constitutes the northern
boundary of the plat.
Ola had a post office
as one of its conveniences for several years, but this had to
retire before the onward sweep of the rural carrier system.
Alvin Shaver was the first postmaster, appointed May 26,
1887. Then came —Fred E. Smith, March 26, 1890; John B.
Schofield, February 28, 1894; Samuel Leddick, November 25,
1895; Clark Kinney, January 8, 1896: Napoleon B. Bowker,
September 17, 1896; Frank McNitt, May 4, 1899; William H.
Smith, May 22, 1900; Frank McNitt, January 2, 1903.
Discontinued December 31, 1904, and mail thereafter
furnished from Pompeii. The place had always had a store for
the sale of general merchandise. This is now conducted by D.
B. Curtis who was been thus engaged here for two years. The
building was owned by Whitfield De Bar, of Ashley. Mr. Curtis
was successor to F. C. Lawrence.
A cheese factory was
located here, Peter Wolf & Son (Asa Wolf)
proprietors.
A blacksmith shop, with
W. H. Shepard as proprietor, was the other business institution of
the place.
Cache Description: A
small, unique container that holds small items.
Notes of
Interest: Located on private property, but with
permission. Please respect the place and the history associated
with it.
This cache is part of the
Michigan's Lost Towns cache series. Visit this
link to see the complete list and to
submit your own!!
Offbeat Michigan - Ola
Corners
What is this place? -
This is a place that is very interesting! Not only was this a place
that was a platted village over a hundred years ago, a sugarbeat
factory was once located here. Eventually, it went bankrupt and the
land was donated to the Randolph family, which is my last name! My
family owns this place! The building was a weighstation and was an
important office area as well. If you look around, you can still
see old power lines, foundations, cement piles, and the driveway
where thousands of tons of sugarbeats used to be stored every year.
Everything here is from the 1970's and is a testament to the
interesting events that have happened here over the
years!
How'd I find it? - My
family has owned it since before I was born! I've been making stops
here all my life!
Why is it interesting to
me? - Because I have been using this property for all kinds of
different things. I have had a geocache hidden here for over five
years, I enjoy a good hunt here of deer, birds, and other small
game, and this is an excellent area for paintballing! Not to
mention of all of the delicious history that my family happens to
own! As a history buff, it is great to own a piece of Gratiot
County history!
Why should it be
interesting to you? - The history and uniqueness of this cache's
area has pleased visitors for over five years. It's a cache that's
not like others in the area (especially my others) and could be
very interesting to people who are looking for weird places that
are right under their noses. The cache container itself is also
interesting and warrants some attention as
well!
This is the first of
hopefully more, I hope you enjoy finding this cache and think to
hide unique caches of your own!
This is an OffBeat Michigan Series
Cache! If you want to find out more about it or would like to hide
one of your own, visit this link today!
