MICHIGAN GHOST TOWN: Mandan, Abandoned in the Woods

Here’s one I went to not long ago…the completely abandoned, former mining town of Mandan in the Upper Peninsula. A tiny ghost town hidden within the forest off US 41, down a one-lane, slightly overgrown dirt road.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
“Mandan is a ghost town in Grant Township, Keweenaw County, Michigan, on US Highway 41, about twelve miles south of Copper Harbor. It was the site of the Mandan Mine and the Medora Mine, two copper mines which were organized in 1864 and worked intermittently until their abandonment in 1909.”

This town has NO residents whatsoever but still has a couple of old houses still standing…and – hidden among the weeds, bushes & trees –  are plenty of old building/home foundations where houses used to stand. A couple of these houses that still stand have been used as deer camps and occasionally a summer retreat.

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If you search, you can find where the center of town was: on the northern corner of what was once an intersection, hidden within all the bushes and underbrush, are the remains of what was once a general store…you’ll have to push through the shrubbery to be able to see it. Some pictures in the photo gallery below show the town in winter: old houses and foundations are clearly seen.

Mandan has NO legitimate, official signage…the only way you’ll know what tiny dirt road to turn down is a board that someone stuck in the ground with the name “Mandan” wood-burned into it, as you can see in the pictures.

Check out the photo gallery below…then take a hefty roadtrip to the Keweenaw Peninsula in the U.P. and visit this eerie tiny town for yourself! Be respectful.