WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter any standing property you might find at this location. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property. 

This place is a definite ghost community...I hesitate to call it a town, because I'm not sure if it ever was an official town. A village, maybe? Or hamlet? It was definitely a community, complete with a one-room schoolhouse and residents.

Ridge sits in Alger County in the Upper Peninsula about six miles east of Au Train, out on a small dirt road intersection, tucked away in the wilderness. Michigan Place Names refers to Ridge as a “small cordwood and farming settlement”. It was settled in 1890 by people unknown.

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Looking at satellite maps, you can see foundations of former structures, most likely homes, as there is no definite proof of any stores. There very well could have been a depot or some kind of railroad station, as Ridge was right there along the South Shore railway line four miles west of Munising Junction.

There are ruins of structures within the woods, all overgrown with vines, weeds, trees, and bushes. Some of these are hard to tell if they were homes or stores...more than likely homes. Lots of rusted farm equipment are sitting all snagged and entangled in the brush. There are a couple of small cottage-like places that look like they could possibly be used as deer camps. Aside from those, you'll see that Ridge is pretty much desolate and isolated, with nothing else left...that is, unless you trek thru the woods and find those old foundations, which are definitely there.

The photos below show you the old barren 'town' area, some old still-standing fences, log cabin ruins, a rusted-out 1920s automobile, rusty farm equipment, old foundations, and the dirt road intersection that was once the hub and rail station of Ridge.

Wanna go see for yourself? Ridge is not on any maps, but the location is the dirt crossroads of Ridge Road and the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway Rail Trail.

The Ghost Town of Ridge

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