Michigan’s “Atlantis”- Our State’s Underwater Ghost Town

Michigan has it's own underwater ghost town...the original village of Rawsonville...and it's not far away (see map on the right).

On the south side of I-94, across from Willow Run airport, the old ruins of the original Rawsonville lie beneath Belleville Lake, a man-made subsidiary of the Huron River
(see picture below).

Rawsonville was founded in the 1830's and began it's boom during the Civil War...by the late 1880's, it's businesses were failing thanks to a failed railroad service. People deserted the town.

Then in 1925, Detroit Ed built the French Landing hydroelectric dam, which wound up flooding the whole town, where it still lies underneath a man-made lake to this day.

The newer, rebuilt Rawsonville is located down Rawsonville Road and South Grove Street; the old Rawsonville village location is marked by an historical marker, found smack dab in front of the local McDonald's, where the old town's remains are submerged in the lake BEHIND McDonald's.

It's not so far...take a little roadtrip over there and check it out for yourself!