History

Port Austin Street Scene Postcard from 1951

A colorful postcard view of Port Austin Michigan in 1951
Michael Hardyby Michael Hardy3
Port Austin Lake Street 1951

This Post Austin Postcard was found for sale online. The town was first called Byrd’s Creek, after Jeduthan Byrd, who built a sawmill here in 1839. Selling his firm to Rollin Smith, Alfred Dwight & P.C. Austin, it had been renamed Dwightville for Alfred Dwight in 1854.

Alfred Dwight put a street light on a pole for a lighthouse, the vicinity came known as Austin’s Dock, then Austin Port, and finally Port Austin. Rollin Smith became the primary postmaster in January 1856. The community was incorporated into a village in 1887.

If you’re looking for something new to do on your visit to Port Austin Michigan, we have some fantastic and unique ideas. Here 15 Amazing Things to Do In Port Austin Mi.

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Michael Hardy

Michael is the owner of Thumbwind Publications LLC. It started in 2009 as a fun-loving site covering Michigan's Upper Thumb. Since then, he has expanded sites and range of content and established a loyal base of 60,000 visitors per month.

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3 thoughts on “Port Austin Street Scene Postcard from 1951”

  1. Nice job Mike on the site. The wife and I will be checking things out in your area. We have since retired from down below and live in the Canadian Lakes area.

    Rick Allen

  2. Mike, super picture of Port Austin, Living in Bad Axe was great but we had a cottage two miles west of Port Austin on the lake , parents built it in 1945. Spent most of the summers at the cottage but if it was cold , my mother would say time to go home to Bad Axe to wash the clothes etc. and return later with all the clean laundry. 1951 I would have been five years old. but we all would get to go into town and have ice cream cones, or the drug store had a soda fountain which was neat. ( use to know a few of the owners of the stores. but spending 50 years with the cottage was a memory that i’ll never forget ,,,, long before they put in the break wall , or even the dock sticking way out…… Bird creek was beautiful and you could fish there and catch lots …. ( in high school we ice skated out to the lighthouse) it was so neat. my grandparents and great grandparents are located at the Port Austin cemetary east of the light. We enjoyed the roller rink in the N/E corner of the light. was really cool. I remember when PUTT, PUTT golf came to town. Thanks for sharing this picture and post…. The good old days of yesterday .

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