The Ghost Town Only 8 Acres Big: Vansville, Keweenaw Peninsula

In the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.P. is the ghost town of Vansville, just a half mile apart from each other.

Vansville, sometimes listed as "Vaughnsville", "Vaughnville", or "Vaughsville", is located 1/2 mile south of Phoenix, and a stone's throw away from the old Cliff Mine.

Vansville was named after Joel A. Vaughn who moved there in 1849 and began working at the Cliff Mine. He bought eight acres of land, platted it, and named it after himself: “Vaughnville”.

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He built five structures, which included a Commercial House, post office, and saloon. The grocery supplied many of the neighboring mining towns with food and supplies. The Cliff Mine shut down in 1873 and the Vaughnville grocery closed down in 1901, re-opening in 1927 as a resort. The town's name was eventually honed to "Vansville", even though Google Maps refers to it as "Vaughsville" with no "n".

Vaughn died in 1862, and his property was sold a few times until it landed in the hands of James Prideaux who established a grocery store in 1865. This little eight-acre town dwindled from then on, with not much left that showed there actually was a town.

Two old structures still stand, all that remains of this former mining town.