The Remote Town of Carland: Shiawassee County, Michigan

Carland is another of those little Michigan burgs that gets overlooked. It's an uncompromising, friendly-looking little town that was one of the last places in Shiawassee County to be settled.

It was 1850 when the first white settler came to the area. It was heavily wooded and no roads whatsoever, and no trails, either.....just trees, trees, trees. Among a handful of establishments that were raised was a schoolhouse, constructed in 1855. The entire student body consisted of one boy and eleven girls. By 1862, the population had risen to include 50 sheep and three horse teams. And that was in the WHOLE township.

After being proposed in the mid 1870's, the Owosso & Big Rapids Railroad finally made its way thru that part of the county in 1884. By now it was called the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan Railroad and with it, Carland was born.

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Located in Fairfield Township, Carland became another of Michigan's many, many lumber towns. And as with most of the other Michigan lumber towns, Carland's heyday came to a halt when the timber was depleted and business went elsewhere.

There is still a nice handful of old buildings to see when you drive-through: the Carland Elevator, an old general store (or was it an old tavern/inn?), the old schoolhouse buried within the woods, an old church outside of town and a few other old storefronts.

Take a look at the photos below, then take a roadtrip through this little Michigan town; overlooked by many of us, but loved by the ones who grew up there.