This Town Was Once an Old Native American Path: Ridgeway, Michiga

You can tell the little town of Ridgeway is historic, just by driving thru and looking around at all the awesome old homes and other structures. But there is hardly anything written about it, even in histories of Lenawee County.

Ridgeway sits in Lenawee County, was settled around 1826, and later became a stop along the Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Railroad. Nowadays you'd never know there was a railroad going through. The town is surrounded by up to 50 glacial lakes throughout the county, which made it more than satisfactory for the native tribes and settlers.

The area that became Ridgeway was occupied by Native Americans (“Lenawee” is Shawnee for “Indian”) and later became mostly farmland for later settlers. According to Michigan Place Names, an old Indian path came through here over a ridge that was surrounded by two valleys. When the white man began coming through, they called this route the "ridge way". One of those men, C. Lamberson, became the first person to build a house there in 1826 and named the area "Ridgeway". A post office followed in 1834.

Driving through Ridgeway, you'll see the old general store (now a home), many huge Victorian homes, and an apartment building that looks like it was once an old hotel. The old shops that used to be the downtown intersection at E. Monroe Rd. and Ridge Highway are now all homes.

There's an awesome old building that looks like it was once a one-room schoolhouse, now used as the Jonathan Hall Memorial Library.

By the way, there's an urban legend that says there is some kind of 'creature' and a poltergeist that haunts Ridgeway. You can read about that HERE.

You'll find Ridgeway sitting in the Lenawee County countryside on M-50, between Tecumseh and Dundee. Take a look at the gallery below!