Once Having Promise, the Village of Frost is Now a Ghost Town

Saginaw County has its share of ghost towns...towns that once were but have all but disappeared.

One of those towns is Frost...not to be confused with another ‘Frost’ ghost town just south of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Nope, this one is down here in the mitten, at the intersection of Frost and Lone roads.

Hard to believe just by looking at it, but this little bare intersection (except for a couple of structures) once held a variety of little shops, including a blacksmith and post office. This business section was doing very well in the late 1800s; popular belief says that the village was named after local resident J.S. Frost.

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The post office kicked in during 1880, with storekeeper John Shepherd as postmaster.

Frost was one of Michigan’s many lumber towns, with proximity to Swan Creek and the Tittabawassee River. When the lumber started to deplete, it wasn’t long before residents began to pack up and look for another place to live. With most everyone leaving to find jobs elsewhere, the post office had no choice but to close down in 1907. The people who stayed made their living in farming.

Another factor that made Frost dissipate was no train station. The railroad bypassed Frost in favor of other station locations. Without visitors and possible business investors, Frost died.

Visiting these little locations once you know a little bit about them makes a Michigan roadtrip even more enjoyable...and you can show other people traveling with you how knowledgeable you are! Now see some images of Frost in the gallery below.