Glen Haven

In its prime--a century or so ago--Glen Haven, Michigan, was more a commercial convenience than a true village; it was originally a logging port, then a location for D.H. Day's cherry cannery. There was a hotel, a store, a handful of homes, an enormous dock, and the wonderful beach I've shown once or twice before.

By the time I first encountered the place in the early 1960s, its main claims to fame were that it terminated Michigan's shortest state highway, and that it hosted the Sleeping Bear Dune Ride concession. Both are gone. There are still houses along the beach, but they seem more a part of the lakeshore than part of the village.