Ghost Town Tuesday; Glen Haven, MI and M-209

Glen Haven is a ghost located on the Leelanua Peninsula on Glen Haven Road directly north of the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Glen Haven was founded as a company lumber town in 1857. The community stayed active until the early 1930s when the timber industry on the Leelanua Peninsula began to decline. At one point Glen Haven even had a narrow gauge railroad line that ran lumber to port via on Lake Michigan the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Glen Haven once had an active canning industry. The Glen Haven Canning Company building is still standing in the community.

Glen Haven was an active Coast Guard port from 1901 to 1941. As the community continued to decline it was eventually purchased by the National Park Service and annexed into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore in the 1970s. The remaining buildings in the community was gradually restored to their present state by the National Park Service.

From the north end of Glen Haven both South Manitou Island and North Manitou Island can be seen across Sleeping Bear Bay.

M-209 once ran from M-109 north into downtown Glen Haven on Glen Haven Road. M-209 was created in the 1920s and was for a time the shortest Trunkline in the state at 0.543 miles in length. M-209 was deleted in 1996, now M-212 is the shortest Trunkline in Michigan.

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