Rawsonville, Michigan

Rawsonville, Michigan (also referred to as Snow's Landing and Michigan City) is a ghost town split between Van Buren Charter Township in Wayne County and Ypsilanti Charter Township in Washtenaw County. The current location of Rawsonville lies mostly under Belleville Lake across Interstate 94 from Willow Run Airport. The village was flooded out in 1925 when the Eastern Michigan Edison Company built the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse on the Huron River.

Rawsonville, Michigan
Ghost town
Historic marker along Rawsonville Road
Rawsonville Location within the state of Michigan
Coordinates: 42°12′55″N 83°33′06″W
Country	United States
State	Michigan
County	Washtenaw and Wayne
Townships	Van Buren and Ypsilanti
Elevation	709 ft (216 m)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
GNIS feature ID	2649952[1]

Old Rawsonville Village Informational Designation
Michigan State Historic Site
Designated	October 27, 1983

The former community was dedicated as a Michigan State Historic Site on October 27, 1983.

History

In 1800, the first settler Henry Snow came to this location which was original called Snow's Landing. In 1825, Ambline Rawson and his father arrived at the village. The community plat, as Michigan City by Amasah Rawson and two others, was filed on January 7, 1836. On November 14, 1838, The Van Buren post office was move to Rawsonville and assumed that name.[2]

By the Civil War era, the village was doing well with grist mill, saw mill, a stove factory, and a wagon maker. With the building of the railroad, the community was bypassed hurting the industries there.[3]

On October 25, 1895, the post office was closed only to reopen on November 20, 1895 only to close again on February 28, 1902.[2] By 1900, there were few residents here. In 1925, a dam was put in place on the Huron River placing most of the village under water of the new Belleville Lake. The only visual sign that a village was here at one time is the historical marker in front of the McDonald's on Rawsonville Road and across from Grove Road.[3]

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rawsonville, Michigan
2. Romig, Walter (October 1, 1986) [1973]. Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities. Great Lakes Books Series (Paperback). Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. pp. 468, 569. ISBN 081431838X. ISBN 978-0814318386.
3. Bingham, Emily (October 26, 2016). "These 11 Michigan ghost towns are eerily intriguing". MLive.com. Mlive Media Group. p. 3. Retrieved October 26, 2016.