North Unity, Eton and Bodus are names that may or may not be familiar.

Schomberg, Port Oneida and Good Harbor, on the other hand, are more widely recognized.

All six place names designate Leelanau communities that were once thriving, bustling places.

But times change, and while other villages in the county continued to thrive – to the present day – it was perhaps inevitable that some did not.

Like much of the rest of northern Michigan, Leelanau County has its own share of “ghost towns” – communities that grew and became busy and then languished if they did not disappear altogether.

At their best, few of the ghost towns ever became that large anyway, although Good Harbor grew to about 300 residents at its peak. And 300 is a respectable number of people, even for a modern-day Leelanau community.

Most of Michigan’s ghost towns had their inception during the lumbering era of the late 19th century, although the Upper Peninsula also has a number of former mining towns that are little more than place names today.

The once-promising towns were often established by “captains of industry” who became wealthy and may or may not have cared about communities that sprang up as a result of their activity.

One of them was Eber Brock Ward, who was involved in a whole range of activity: shipping (he and his uncle, Capt. Sam Brock, were the largest shipowners on the Great Lakes), lumbering, mining and the manufacture of iron and steel.

E.B. Ward was described as “aggressive, impatient and ambitious.” He was a man who was “always alert to new possibilities for business.”

In 1872, Ward took control of the fledgling, and foundering, Leland Iron Company, which had begun operations in 1870. The shift seemed auspicious for an operation that hadn’t been doing too well. His mere acquisition of the operation was viewed as a positive step that could bode well for the future.

Unfortunately, Ward died unexpectedly. The iron manufacturing business in Leland, which was later sold again, eventually failed, and the company closed its doors for good after only about 15 years of operation.

Fortunately for Leland, it was now the county seat, and commercial fishing and tourism would also serve to help keep the community going in the years ahead.

David Ward, a lumberman and cousin of E.B. Ward, owned a 90,000-acre tract of land in northern Michigan which he estimated would take 20 to 30 years to lumber off. But before that happened, he died in 1900 and his will stipulated that his estate be settled in 12 years.

His heirs and executors decided that could be done and Deward, named in honor of the deceased, was established in northwest Crawford County.

A large mill, which was “operated night and day,” could crank out 200,000 feet of lumber in 24 hours. Deward was a “company town” of about 800 and was described as an “attractive lumbering town.” It even had its own baseball team – the “Bush Rangers.”

The land was cleared by 1912 and the mill was shut down and dismantled. A once bustling place became another ghost town.
Interestingly enough, elsewhere in Crawford County – even before the establishment, rise and fall of Deward – some men were looking forward to the future and established the Below Plantation immediately east of Grayling. It was a nursery consisting of a variety of trees that could be studied as they matured to provide information for re-planting.

Meanwhile, back in Leelanau County, David Henry Day, who was always looking to the future, was a major advocate of re-forestation. Ironically, his progressive ideas couldn’t keep his own “company town,” Glen Haven, going forever.

And today, it’s a very well-visited “ghost town” thanks to its location in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.