Town Name: Michelson- Shingle Town
Population: over 500 people. Former residents and
their families are rumored to still meet once a year at the
Reedsburg State Forest Campground to reunited and discuss the old
town and the logging history.
Reason For Becoming a Lost Town: As lumber ran low
in the area work in the sawmill and shinlge mill began to run out.
When mail service was stopped to the town, a series of people would
drive to Star City to get the mail. It was the closest point to
Lake City, where the mail came from.
Town History: From Lauren & Ruth Vanettan
(Cadillac) description of the village at it's peak (Lauren worked
in town and Ruth taught school)-
"To begin with, when Mickelson was a town, this flood waters
didn't exist. When we put up logs it was a nice wide stream of
fast-running, clear water. Just above the town is the mouth of the
Muskegon where it comes out of Houghton Lake. Most of our logs came
through there. The Mickelson mills were steam-operated and the
stacks towered above the highest trees. The main street was
half-a-mile long with houses on each side in straight rows all
painted white. They were rented to men with families. I came here
in 1912 just three years after the town was built and my wife came
here in 1919 to teach school. Schoolteachers didn't last long here!
The men outnumbered them about two hundred to one!" Vanettan said
there were three sections of town. The main street, which ran under
a high tramway of the shingle mill, and the company-owned houses
were called "Shingle Town". Near a large clearing where logs were
piled, peeled and sorted, other cabins and shanties were built.
this was called "Post Town". The business section and where the
boardinghouses were located was "Michelson"
A sign was erected on the site by the Conservation Department
that read "Site of Michelson, once a thriving lumber town of over
500 people. The Michelson family founded a large saw and shingle
mill, which operated here from 1909 to 0924. Pine and cedar logs
came from the vast dead stream swamp, now part of Houghton Lake
Forest.
Vanettan said, "The town has been dead and buried now of [over]
40 years, but it seems like only yesterday that the whistles were
blasting, saws echoed across the river, and people got married and
babies were born here"
Notes of Interest: Old foundations remain and
rows of giant trees, along the one-time streets, but the entire
area is now covered with pines planted in the 1930s
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!!
Special Thanks
to LiteOnCache for this cache!
