Town Name: Crofton
Population: 100?
Reason For Becoming a Lost Town: The lumber ran out.
Town History:
Crofton, Mi (N 44° 40.339' W 085° 14.218') is a Lost Town, located in Kalkaska Co, Boardman Twp. It was a tiny settlement of some 30 houses, a mill and a boarding house from 1875 until 1909. More than the everyday life of lumbering, trapping, shingle making, it also experienced the disaster of fire and the tragedy of diphtheria epidemic.
In 1877, it was almost completely demolished by fire. In 1887, when the diphtheria epidemic broke out it left only 4 or 5 children alive. Many who died had been ill only a day or two.
In the winter of 1868, a young trapper named Tom Crofton was scouting the area for beaver. Needing food he shot a deer. He thought it was dead, but when he went to stick it, it reared and pined him against a tree, where he sustained among other injuries, a broken leg. He made a crude cast and lean-to and survived the winter by catching trout & rabbits. The next March he was found by some Indians who took him to Fife Lake.
When Dexter & Noble bought timber and constructed a mill in the area it was called Crofton in memory of the trapper.A shingle mill was built in 1902 by Charles Stites. As the timber supply receded, Crofton began to fade from sight and is now just a spot in the road south of Kalkaska on US-131. (Condensed from an Al Barnes story in the "Traverse City Record-Eagle"
Cache Description:
The cache container is a black ammo can.
Original contents:
Tape measure key ring
Bag of paper clips
Key ring
Smiley lanyard
CrafterCat smiley's and rocks (including a piece of iron pyrite)
For the first and second finder prizes:
Hand crocheted lace book marks (made by CrafterCat)
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!!
This cache placed and maintained by a member of NMG.
Click here for more details.