Town Name: Sharon
Population: You would have to count the passengers in your vehicle to get over a dozen. The day we visited, counting the neighbor's dog brought the total to four.
Reason For Becoming a Lost Town: When the trees were gone, the town died. The post office closed in 1921 and the last store was gone by 1950.
Town History:
Welcome to Sharon. At this spot Manistee River forks, the main stream flowing in from the east meeting the north branch. It was here the community of Jam One developed, named for that early spring day in the 1870’s when the logs representing the winter harvest of the lumber camps on the north branch poured down into the already filled main stream creating the largest log jam in the history of the river.
When Jam One applied to the state capital for a post office they were refused and ordered to select a different name from a list of available and acceptable place names. Sharon was chosen.
In the 1890’s Sharon was an important rail junction with a branch of what became the Pere Marquette coming through from the east and one of lumberman Louis Sands’ logging railroads coming from the south. By 1900 its population of 2000 qualified it as a boom town with six saw mills, a thriving business district and numerous saloons.
The major town in the center of as many as twelve lumber camps, when the weekends came Sharon was not a place for the weak or faint of heart. Stories are told of "shanty boys" coming to town for a shower and a shave and then giving the saloon keeper the remainder of their wages and instructing him to "just keep a pouring and load me on the train when the money’s gone".
Cache Description: The cache is a smallish (2 quart) camouflaged plastic container.
Notes of Interest: You can tell that the cache site was never developed or built upon by the century old remnants of white pine stumps, many of which support quite large trees with interesting root development.
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!!
