ROADSIDE MICHIGAN: Michigan’s Own Boot Hill Cemetery
For those familiar with the old Boot Hill Cemetery in Dodge City, Kansas…well, there is a Boot Hill Cemetery right here in Michigan in the historic logging town of Seney in the Upper Peninsula.
This little cemetery is located on – what they say – is “the most boring road in Michigan” – Highway 456, also known as Old Seney Road. Most of the graves are over 100 years old and either partly marked or unmarked.
Seney was one of Michigan’s booming lumber towns in the 1800’s, with drinkin’, gamblin’, sleazy dealin’ and fightin’ just like you see in them thar old westerns on TV and became known as the toughest, meanest town in the Upper Peninsula. Lumberjacks eventually migrated north for more trees and soon Seney’s lumber business took a nosedive. Most of the old buildings have been replaced and this sleepy little town nowadays makes Mayberry look like New York City.
Good luck finding an actual ‘downtown’ area…but you can visit the historical museum and Boot Hill Cemetery, about a mile or two south on Old Seney Road.