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In the ghost town (typical logging era victim) of Dighton, placed on private property with owners permission, but please limit this to daylight hours only. Also, be sure to look carefully at the OLD buildings around this cache, to appreciate the history of this place . . .
If you go into the current 'general store' there's a picture and diagram of the layout of the old town right by the coffee pot just inside the door.
The first Dighton was a mile north and east of the current town. There is at least one set of stone foundations at this location, just east of one of the Osceola County Road Commission's barns and visible from 20 Mile road. The town was named after one of it's first residents, Dighton Marvin, known locally by it's then residents, simply, as 'Dight'. It was a wild town in its beginnings - examples: the burning of a dance hall by a man who was thrown through one of it's drinking hall's second story window, and Daniel White, who was murdered in 1868 because he was black. There's much more about that last story in Larry Wakefield's book! The town moved to the current location (to be by the RR tracks, which we've not yet found leftover evidence of) in 1901. At this point, Dighton had grown to over 1000 people. The Manistee & Grand Rapids RR built track through here to take away the tall stands of maple and beech (for flooring and furniture). There were 3 lumbermills, at least one specifically dedicated to flooring, and 3 stores. It even had a telephone exchange at one point in time! In 1914, the flooring mill burned and was never rebuilt. The railroad was abandoned and the tracks were taken up in 1920. The remains of the side streets of the former town are overgrown with grass and weeds. Today, there is one (very cool and useful to the locals) store, originally the Davis Family Store, founded in 1887 (according to an inscription still seen near the top of it's false front) called The Dighton Store (under it's 4th ownership change during our 25 year residency in the neighborhood, and a few occupants (~50). It's now listed under other nearby town postoffices. The remains of another false front store, kitty-corner across the street are still there, once the first store, the Victor Rolfe General Store. There was once even a stage coach connection to nearby Tustin, which also still sports a couple of logging-era false front buildings, obviously not long for this world in their current conditon (look west of the current hardware store there). The old original 3-story brick schoolhouse also still stands on a hill on the outskirts of town. There's also an Historic Marker in the front yard of the Lutheran Church on the south side of the E-W main drag through town, just east of the current 'downtown'. The T.V. Repair shop mentioned in The Roy Dodge books about Michigan's ghost towns is now defunct. In another lifetime, in a galaxy far, far away, many moons ago, the Hillbilly used to sell them parts!
There is at least one family still living there, friends of ours, whose Great Grandfather lived here back then, and whose gravestone in a nearby cemetery is in the shape of a barn!
We'll upload some historic photos and paintings as we get them scanned and tweaked for online viewing . . .
Congrats impaladave1963 on FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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