You may wonder what took us so long to go on another adventure!  Or, if you’re from Michigan, you’re probably not wondering about that at all.  Obviously, spring and summer are the best times to go rambling around some of the most rural parts of our state, while winter would…challenging.  So now that this particularly malingering winter season is finally behind us, we hopped in the car and went for a ride!

Our first stop was Plainfield, MI, which is northwest of Pinckney.  To find what’s left, travel west on M-36 out of Pinckney, through the small town of Gregory, to the point where Bradley Road heads north.  We found a few old buildings, which were intriguing, and there are still a few families living in the area.

Plainfield, MI was founded in 1835 by three men from New Jersey, who named the town as such after the town of the same name in New Jersey.  It seemed to be a bustling town at one point, with blacksmith shops, saloons, mills, a general store, a post office, and two churches.  Now, only a couple of the buildings remain.

Just a little ways west down M-36 is the Plainfield Village Cemetery.  We were able to find the headstones for some of the town founders, and it was interesting to see that there were more recent burials (2014 was the latest we noticed) with the same family names as had been there for over a century and a half.

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There’s no real explanation available as to why this town didn’t ultimately thrive, while surrounding areas grew.  But we do know it is one of the loveliest cemeteries we’ve seen in regards to funerary symbolism and overall gorgeous headstones.

We then made our way northeast to the ghost town of Kensington, which is outside of Brighton.  It’s a little tricky to find, since there is hardly anything left.  We took Grand River Ave., south of I-96, and headed east.  On the northwest corner of the intersection of Grand River and Kensington Road lies the only remaining piece of the town, the Kensington Baptist Church Cemetery.  The church itself was razed in the 1950s.  We visited the cemetery and while it seems kept from a grass standpoint, many of the stones are damaged and could stand to be repaired or replaced.

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Kensington used to be a booming community that rivaled the other major towns in the area.  It was founded in the late 1820s and grew quickly, thanks to the Huron River and surrounding fertile land and abundant forests.  Kristina Austin Scarcelli did an amazing write-up on the town’s growth and ultimate demise, including a fascinating narrative about the development of a “wildcat bank,” which were common in the frontier areas of the country at the time.  Essentially, the Kensington Bank printed more bank notes than they had actual backing for, mismanaged what funds it had, and the notes ended up worthless.  Coupling that with the decision not to dam the Huron River–which caused a power shortage for the Kensington population–and the decision of area’s railroads not to include Kensington as a stop on the line, the town declined and died.

There were actually two cemeteries left behind, although the second one, located just a little bit further down Grand River Ave., is much smaller–only 30 interments listed, but even fewer stones that we could find.  It appears to be more or less abandoned and not well tended, although it’s in a beautiful spot.

Although we were running out of daylight, we decided to make one last stop.  This one we knew we wouldn’t find very much evidence of, as it’s actually underwater.  Rawsonville, MI now exists under Belleville Lake in Belleville, MI.  Founded in the 1830’s and booming during the Civil War era, apparently it fell victim to the failure of the railroad system, and then the state decided to dam the Huron River (as the citizens of Kensington had wanted!) and the city was abandoned to the resultant man-made lake.  All that exists now is a plaque in front of the McDonald’s on Rawsonville Road.

Even though there wasn’t much to photograph, we thought it important not to neglect this piece of Michigan history and honor what was there!

Although we stayed close to home, it was an excellent adventure in southeast Michigan!