Exploring the Thumb – Abandoned Places3 min read time

Abandoned places are truly interesting. I love the way that nature always wins the fight against man-made things.  This trip, we traveled to the Michigan Thumb region, looking for interesting sites and did not leave disappointed.

What’s the Thumb?

If you live in Michigan, then you are familiar with the state’s depiction as a “Mitten”.  When you ask a Michigander where they’re heading on vacation, often they’ll raise their right hand and point to some location on one of the fingers.

Kara and I joined with one of our Meetup groups, Michigan Photo Adventures, to explore the Michigan “Thumb” area looking for abandoned and historic places.  Our group organizer, Thomas Nighswander, did a great job as the trip leader and guide.  He had scouted out the area and discovered a number of great locations to lead our little group on this cross-country adventure.

The day started out as a grey, rainy fall day. The inclement weather was a little hard on the photographers, but it added to the dismal setting for the abandoned places we explored.

A History of Change

Some things are constant here in the Thumb – change and wind.  Once known as the nation’s powerhouse in wheat production, prosperous farms dotted the countryside. With easy access to transportation, wheat grown here was transported over the lakes and down the Erie canal to the cities of the east.

Now those days are past and the Thumb is transforming itself into a powerhouse of energy production.  With the constant winds coming off Lake Huron, windmills are able to generate enough energy for thousands of homes.

The scene above shows a suggestion of the traditional farms that made up the bulk of this area’s economy early last century, and now have given over to more modern usage.

Abandoned School

Further down the road we came across an abandoned, classic, one-room, schoolhouse.

Schools like this dotted the country-side, serving the farms and rural population until the mid 20th century. This particular one, by evidence of the reading books we found, remained in use until the ’70s. In recent years, the school districts have consolidated almost all of these students into their larger districts.  Amazingly enough, there are some hold-outs, and seeking out some of those will be story for another day.

Empty Places

Thomas also led us to a number of abandoned farmsteads and buildings that dotted the back roads.  Many of the buildings were disintegrating in interesting ways.

Others contained abandoned treasures.

Then there was the occasional hand crafted gem.  Look at that antenna. I bet they could get radio all the way from Buffalo on that marvel.

Just before lunch, we found some reminders of what it was like to live in the days before subdivisions and standard building codes.

The final leg of the trip took us up to the Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse at the “Tip of the Thumb”. I’ll follow up on that location in Part II of this post.

Where is this?