Journey through the History of Benzie County

Sept. 29, 2011 - PRLog -- New from Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series is Lost Benzie County. In over 200 vintage photographs, local author Dr. Louis Yock shares the history of the area.

After the Civil War in the 1860s, veterans came to Benzie County and settled the farmlands, lumber companies began to harvest the timber, and railroads soon crisscrossed the landscape. Villages with churches and schools such as Nessen City and Aral came to life. Mill owners, workers and their families built company towns like Carter Siding, Averytown, and Watervale.

When the lumber died out, these towns virtually disappeared and the largest towns such as Thompsonville and Honor were reduced in size and population. But by then the Ann Arbor and Pere Marquette railroads were bringing tourists to the county and entrepreneurs turned mill towns, farmland and lakefront into Worden’s and Thompson’s Resorts on Platte Lake and Robinson’s and Pautz’s Resorts on Crystal Lake.

Today, they exist only in local lore along with the mill towns and lumber camps that preceded them and the railroads, ships and ferries that once transported Benzie County’s people and merchandise. Author Louis Yock is the director of the Benzie Area Historical Museum. As the lost settlements, resorts, railroads and ships fade from local memory; he draws on the museum’s collection of photographs and recorded histories to capture their images and stories.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com.

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With more than 7,500 local history titles published to date, Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Widely recognized sepia books feature hundreds of vintage historical images.