Check out the photos of Baxter, circa 1914!
Baxter, Michigan, circa 1914.
Town Name: Baxter
Population: 0
Reason for Becoming a Lost Town:
With the end of the timber boom, the railroad abandoned its this branch line. Baxter and many of the other camp towns along it soon disappeared as well.
Baxter Store, circa 1914.
Town History:
The settlement of Baxter was created at or just after the arrival of the Manistee and Northeastern Railroad River Branch was constructed from near Kaleva toward Grayling in 1909. A post office was established here on July 30th, 1910, at the railroad station and was open until 1920. The boxcar visible on the right side of the picture above, behind the foreground tree, might well have served as the station. It looks like the Manistee River is in the background.
Notes of Interest:
The location of Baxter and the railroad grade that ran through it is about a half mile north of Baxter Bridge on 29 1/2 Rd. You can see (with some imagination) where the old railroad grade cut through. Another interesting feature in this area - a north-south Indian trail passed 1 1/2 miles west of the Baxter Lookout platform on the River. It ran from Lake Mitchell through Meauwataka, across the river and up near Hannah (west of Kingsley), then up to West Bay. Another Indian Trail, Grassy Lakes Trail (North Country Trail) ran east from Manistee to Grayling (skirting the north side of the Manistee River much of the way.
Cache:
We noticed that the old Railroad town of Baxter was missing a geocache to recognize it as a Michigan Lost Town, so we put a cache to memorialize it's existence.
