Lake Linden, Michigan

After a fire destroyed Lake Linden in 1887, most of the town had to be rebuilt. Today a great deal of the commercial architecture dates from the years immediately following the fire.

Interior of Lindell's Chocolate Shop

One of the great places to visit in Lake Linden is Lindell’s Chocolate Shop, an old style restaurant that still retains its 1920s décor.

One of the most famous businesses of the Keweenaw was the Bosch Brewery Company, which operated from 1874 to 1973. Most of the remnants, save a few collector’s items, are gone; however, there is a building Third Street and Schoolcraft that once was warehouse and still bears the name of the brewery. 

Gay, Michigan

The school house at Gay, MI

The town of Gay probably get more attention because of its name and of its local pub, “The Gay Bar,” than other towns in the Keweenaw Peninsula.  Yet, the city on the Eastern shore of the peninsula was once much larger and vibrant. The old school, built in 1927 and recently threatened with demolition, now serves as a repository of artifacts and memories of a town that once was. I imagine that children once look out the windows, daydreaming while staring at the impressive the 236-foot smoke stack of the Mohawk Stamp Mill. Soon after the school opened, however, the mines close in 1932 when tin prices collapsed. Deprived of the primary engine of growth, the town began hemorrhaging people. In 1922, the Gay boasted approximately 1500 citizens; today that number is less than 100. As the population declined, the school closed in 1961, train service ceased in 1964, and the post office was shuttered in 1988.

An old house on Main Street 

Hebard, Michigan

The small hamlet of Hebard can be found just south of Gay Mohawk Road in Keweenaw County Michigan, on a small gavel path that is only 400 feet long. The town was once a station along the Mineral Range Railroad and had a post office that opened in 1903. Today, it is a handful of derelict structures with only a sign along the road noting where a town once was.