Just About a Ghost Town: Monroe Center in Grand Traverse County, Michigan

Monroe Center, settled in 1859 in the area now known as Grand Traverse County. The town is located 12 miles south of Traverse City with a current population of 200.

The village sits on top of Mason Hill, one of the largest in the county. It's also split into two townships: Blair on the east and Green Lake on the west, on the junction of Hilltop Road and County Road 633.

Back in Monroe Center's late 1800's heyday, the town had a blacksmith, boat livery, boot & shoe store, church, feed mill, general store, hotel, post office, a handful of sawmills, and schoolhouse. Nowadays it still has the church and the former Grange Hall, now a residence. A little ways south on County Road 633 is the cemetery (cemeteries are always a good place to get a feel for the early years of any town or village by the markers of old settlers).

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