The Last Remnant of the Ghost Town of Harlan, Michigan

The Michigan ghost town of Harlan lies in Cleon Township in Manistee County, a few miles southeast of Copemish.

The first settler arrived in 1857 with a team of oxen from Benton Harbor. It became a station in 1889 on the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Railroad when it relocated and ran through town. Thanks to the railroad, the town began to prosper. The railroad originally went through the town of Cleon but scheduling that particular route was difficult, thanks to uphill climbs and sharp curves. The tracks were inevitably re-routed through Harlan.

At the time, the town was named Churchills, but when a post office was implemented on March 31, 1890, it was re-named ‘Harlan’. It closed in January 1906, restored in February1906, and permanently closed in July 1935.

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Harlan experienced an amazing growth in the 1890s. Within a couple of years, the town had a blacksmith, church, depot, two general stores, hotel, pickle factory, post office, potato storage warehouse, two sawmills, schoolhouse, and a telephone operator. By 1912 the population of Harlan was 75. But soon the prosperity began its decline.

After the post office shut down in 1935, the school and church followed in the 1950s and the main general store in 1959. In the 1970s, the Sargent Sand Company built a plant east of town, giving Harlan a little resurgence. But It closed down, thanks to the Ford Motor Company closing down its foundry in Flat Rock in 1982.

Nowadays Harlan barely shows up on any maps with just a smattering of villagers left in the area. The few, sparse remaining homes are lined in a small row along the highway that lead up to the old church, which is the only original public structure. It still stands as a reminder of what the town once was. It’s small, but makes for a quirky little historic roadtrip stop for some great photo ops.