Many of eastern Michigan's old boomtowns and sleepy villages are faded memories. Nature reclaimed the ruins of some while progress paved over the rest. Discover the stories of lost communities hidden in plain sight or just off the beaten track. The vanished religious colony of Ora Labora fell into a state of near-constant inebriation when beer became the only safe liquid to drink. Lake St. Clair swallowed up the unique currency of Belividere along with the place that issued it. Abandoned towns still crumble within Detroit's city limits. Alan Naldrett delves into the fascinating history of eastern Michigan's lost settlements.

More than a century ago, Mason County was a much different, harsher place. Arriving by foot and boat to find a dense wilderness, hardy pioneers carved out tiny settlements stretching right to the coast of Lake Michigan. When the lumber industry arrived in Michigan, the settlements grew to boomtowns and new towns formed. To serve the lumber industry, the railroad spread across the county, and immigrants and settlers flooded in to have their chance at the American Dream. But when the lumber ran out, the mills closed down. Jobs disappeared, and so did these towns. Out of the thirty-nine settlements, only two cities and six fading villages remain today. Join local author Sandi Lewis-Malburg as she uncovers the towns that time forgot.

When Boone County was officially founded in 1799, a local population was already growing by the day. The Ohio River offered settlers access to this new frontier west of the Alleghenies, and soon many vibrant communities were established along the banks of the Ohio. Today, once thriving towns like North Bend, Belleview and Touseytown, built to last through generations, have all but vanished. The unforgiving current of the Ohio River washed many away, while modern transportation construction dispatched the remaining towns. Fortunately, through the efforts of editor Bridget Striker and a skilled team of local historians and archivists at the Boone County Public Library, these sunken homesteads have been unearthed. Peer into a bygone way of life through this comprehensive collection of vintage photographs and engaging historical accounts.

Montcalm County, Michigan, has had 56 sites that qualify as ghost towns, shadow towns or paper towns. This book provides history and context to each one of them, township by township.

When the bustle of a city slows, towns dissolve into abandoned buildings or return to woods and crumble into the North Georgia clay. In 1832, Auraria was one of the sites of the original American gold rush. The remains of numerous towns dot the landscape - pockets of life that were lost to fire or drowned by the water of civic works projects. Cassville was a booming educational and cultural epicenter until 1864. Allatoona found its identity as a railroad town. Author and professor Lisa M. Russell unearths the forgotten towns of North Georgia.

Monroe County is home to some of the creepiest, most haunted sites in Michigan. Soldiers killed in the Massacre at River Raisin in 1813 continue to march through those battlefields today. Just south of the battle-scarred fields, entrepreneur Jimmy Hayes haunts Angelo's Northwood Villa, a roadhouse with a questionable past. Down the road at Frog Leg Inn, once a bawdy house, the ghosts of the Licavoli gangsters still linger looking for a good time. Then, there's Lake Monroe, waiting for the next of its endless drowning victims. Join author Jeri Holland on a spine-tingling tour of the area's most paranormally active locales.

Based on the popular Lost In Michigan website that was featured in the Detroit Free Press, It contains locations throughout Michigan, and tells their interesting story. There are over 50 stories and locations that you will find fascinating.