News History & Fun in Michigan
Six small Michigan towns once depended on two intersecting railroad routes. This Southern Thumb history hub brings together Michigan Moments videos, rare photographs and supporting articles about Marlette, Clifford, North Branch, Mayville, Kingston and Silverwood, tracing their shift from lumber settlements to farm communities today.
Silverwood began as Easy, became Rollo, then took its lasting name in 1892. Rail service, local businesses, churches and farm families shaped this small Tuscola County community.
Historic images show how iron mines, railroads, immigrant families, winter weather and busy downtown streets shaped Ironwood in Michigan’s western Upper Peninsula.
Watersmeet Michigan history begins with Lac Vieux Desert Ojibwa homelands and grows into a story of railroads, logging, hotels, fish hatcheries and forest recovery. This small Upper Peninsula town became a true crossing point of water, timber and steel.
Hillman, Michigan, grew from Brush Creek into a village shaped by timber, railroads, farms, fire and Lake Avalon. Its story includes department stores, hotels, grain elevators, service stations, resort cottages and a late-arriving railroad that changed the town, but did not define it.
Caro, Michigan, became more than a county seat. Its growth came from sugar beets, railroads, hospitals, public offices, electric power and the Caro Fair. This look back shows how one Thumb town became a working center for farm families, merchants and travelers.
The 1908 Metz Fire destroyed the village of Metz, Michigan, and killed 37 people. Hundreds were left homeless. The most painful chapter came when a Detroit & Mackinac Railway relief train derailed after intense heat damaged the rails near Nowicki’s Siding.
Rives Junction helped define Michigan’s land system in 1815, then became a busy rail crossing that never grew. This story explains why a place so important stayed small.
