Felt Plains: Ingham County’s Curious Little Community

There's an area in Ingham County's Bunker Hill Township (established in 1839) that has been called by four different names: Felt, Felt's, Felt Plains, and Felt's Plains.

What are we supposed to call it?
Ghost Town?
Unincorporated Community?
Lost village?
Forgotten, isolated, disappeared?
Or was it just a postal stop or train station?

It's hard to put a label on it when there's no record of it ever having existed. Or is there? I have checked the atlases from 1874, 1914 and 1939, but not ONE of those shows any signs of a village that once contained the name "Felt". It shows Bunker Hill and Fitchburg - both unincorporated communities but no Felt, Felt's, Felt Plains, or Felt's Plains.

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BUT! A map from 1873 does indeed show the area listed as “Felts P.O.” so that’s good enough for me.

The community was named after Dorman Felt, a settler who arrived here in 1847. Four years later, a post office was established with Alba Blake sworn in as first postmaster on September 19, 1851. It closed permanently on March 10, 1875.

This lost little hamlet is near the junctions of Catholic Church Road @ Meridian Road, and E. Scofield Road @ Meridian Road. There is a Felt Plains church and cemetery, and it appears that there was once a one-room schoolhouse, now turned into a residence. There's even a structure that appears to be an old gas station, south of 'town' on the corner

Currently, there is a Felt Plains Cemetery, the old Felt Plains church, and an old one-room schoolhouse (since converted into a home). There are no old shops, stores or businesses, but there is always the possibility that there used to be, just now turned into residences, of which there are many scattered throughout the countryside.

Was this community ever an official village or town? There is extremely little written about it, so I hope some Ingham County historians out there can shed some light on this area that was once, and still unofficially known, as Felt(s) Plains.