Burdickville, a Michigan Ghost Town Turned into a Roadside Park

An abandoned town doesn’t have to be creepy to be labeled a ‘ghost town’. A good case in point is the former village of Burdickville, once located on the east side of Glen Lake in Leelanau County.

Located in Empire Township, the village was named after William Burdick who arrived here in 1864 and built two structures: a grist mill and a sawmill.

In 1867, a post office began operating out of the newly built general store that was owned by John Helm, who also became Burdickville’s first postmaster.

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The town was growing, thanks to the lumber trade.....but as with so many similar instances in the 1800s, the mills burned down in 1870 and were never rebuilt. As residents began filtering ut looking for jobs and homes elsewhere, Burdickville eventually became a ghost town by 1912.

With everything gone, it appears that the only thing left is an old church - the Methodist Episcopal Church - sitting on the site that was once Burdickville. The old town is now a public park known as ‘Old Settlers Park’.

According to the park’s Historical Marker, in part it reads: “Residents of the logging community of Burdickville held a picnic on August 3, 1893, to honor two elderly pioneers, Kasson Freeman and John Fisher.....In 1905 they formed the Old Settlers Picnic Association and began raising funds to purchase a permanent picnic ground.....In 1912, with funds from the association, Leelanau County bought a five-acre parcel adjacent to the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was built in 1896. In 1917 the association funded the county’s purchase of the church, with the Methodists stipulating that the church “shall not be used for. dancing.”

It may be a short stop on your Michigan roadtrip, but now that you know something about it, it will be worth your while.