Re-visiting the Ghost Town of Mentha, Michigan

Re-visiting the Michigan ghost town of Mentha is a treat I’ve been waiting for.

What’s left of Mentha is located in Van Buren County, about 14 miles northwest of Kalamazoo and about 3 miles east of Kendall. This is one of southern Michigan's coolest ghost towns, getting its name from the vast fields of mint that was grown there, thanks to grower Albert M. Todd.

Todd bought a bunch of swamp land in Pine Grove Township and made lemonade out of lemons – in essence, he turned “worthless” swampland into what many believe was the greatest peppermint producing center in the world.

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Mentha (Latin for “mint”) was settled in 1870 and organized when a station on the Kalamazoo & South Haven Railroad popped up. A post office didn’t exist until years later, when one finally opened in 1906.

The town achieved worldwide praise for the high quality peppermint that was cultivated. It was so successful, that Todd was swayed to move the entire operation to Kalamazoo in 1891. Even so, a commercial peppermint farm was kept in Mentha where they developed hybrid mint plants, among the many improvements and new techniques.

The post office closed permanently in 1954.

Although 90% of the entire world's mint oil came from Mentha, the town is now a ghost town. It really was never much of a town, having only one main road that held the businesses and houses. A few old houses still exist in what is left of Mentha, out in the middle of nowhere. Anything else that once existed is now dust in the wind.

Some homes that are still standing appear to be inhabited, whether by actual owners or not.

Michigan's mint output stayed strong into the 1970s until the plant disease verticillium wilt cut it short. Although nowadays most peppermint is grown in the Pacific Northwest, Michigan remains 5th in the U.S. for spearmint. If you wanna visit, the old railroad was ripped up and is now part of the Kal Haven Trail which you can walk or bike along.

By vehicle, you can take 18th Avenue to 23rd Street and turn north...and you're there. Scroll down and take a look at the photo gallery below.