The Ghost Town of Shiloh: Ionia County, Michigan
Shiloh is a community that is now considered a ghost town. There are no more businesses there except for a church, but still a small handful of homes hidden off the main road.
Shiloh was settled in January 1877 as 'Smith's Crossing' when a post office began operating, with Charles Hoyt as first postmaster. You'll find Shiloh on the map in the upper right hand corner of Orleans Township in Ionia County.
On New Year's Eve 1877, the town name was changed to 'Shiloh' to commemorate the Civil War battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. By the 1890s, Shiloh had a population of 75.
During the late 1800s and into the 1900s, Shiloh had a barber, two blacksmiths, church, depot, doctor, dry goods store, general store, grist mill, grocery store, justice of the peace, planing mill, post office, potato buyer, two saw mills, schoolhouse, shipper, and shoemaker.
Nowadays, Shiloh is mostly an abandoned village with a few residents and a church. The old school still sits about a mile west of town.
Once the railroad was of no longer use, all businesses except the church disappeared. When the post office decided to pull out in 1933, that was it – basically the end of any future growth for Shiloh.
These days you can drive thru the area that was once a business district, but it's now just homes.
You'll find the old schoolhouse still existing in pretty good shape at the intersection of W. Long Lake Road & Decker Road.
Ghost Town of Shiloh
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