Stagecoaches played an important part in developing the Midwest. Michigan’s frontier “fever” peaked in the decade from 1830 to 1840 with a 600 percent population increase. Stagecoaches attempted to fill the demand for fast and relatively comfortable transportation.

The Polish refugees who immigrated to Dwight Township in the 1840s in order to escape Prussian domination worshipped at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Port Austin. In 1903, in an effort to retain their Polish identity, they established their own parish and built St. Mary of Czestochowa Church, named for “the Queen of Poland.”

Sebewaing Township was organized in 1853. In 1877 the board resolved to use “liquor money” to build this township hall. The atypical two-story town hall included voting booths, a courtroom, a jury room, a jail, and a meeting hall.

This chimney was built in 1858 by John Geltz. It is all that remains of the lumber mill established that year by William R. Stafford. Port Hope grew up around the mill. For a score of years, this town was a center of lumbering in the Thumb. It also became an important producer of salt.

The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse and Lifesaving Station aided mariners for over a century, beginning in 1847. That year the U.S. Lighthouse Service built the first lighthouse on this site to mark the turning point of Lake Huron into Saginaw Bay and to warn of shallow waters.

The Pigeon Depot was constructed in 1908 and served two railroad lines. In 1883 the Pontiac, Oxford, and Port Austin Railroad, a north-south line, had been extended to Caseville and a depot was built at Berne, one mile north of here.

In 1882, as three new railroads began to lay track in Huron County, two cousins from Saginaw, John G., and John S. Owen, bought land in the Columbia Swamp. The following year, they opened a sawmill to harvest the native oak.

In 1868 the Reverend Manasseh Hickey and twelve settlers organized a Methodist Episcopal church in Caseville. Services were held in a schoolhouse until the present church was built. Upon its dedication on November 15, 1874, the Gothic-inspired structure, with its 70-foot-high steeple, became a focal point for the community.

One of Sebewaing’s most prominent citizens, John C. Liken (1832-1920) came here in 1865 from New York State lured by Michigan’s bountiful forests, he opened stave and sawmills in Sebewaing, Unionville, Akron, and Fairgrove. His firm, John C. Liken and Company, dealt in a variety of commodities that the company’s fleet of ships transported to Bay City and markets in New York.

During the mid-1850s the firm of R. B. Hubbard and Company, which included Connecticut-born entrepreneurs Langdon Hubbard, his brother Watson, and cousin Rollin B., built a steam-powered sawmill on Willow Creek. The company town they developed was named Huron City in 1861.

Small fires were burning in the forests of the Thumb, tinder-dry after a long, hot summer, when a gale swept in from the southwest on September 5, 1881. Fanned into an inferno, the fires raged for three days. A million acres were devastated in Sanilac and Huron Counties alone.

Frank Murphy was Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court from 1940 until his death in 1949. His earlier career included service as a Judge in the Detroit Recorder’s Court and instructor in law at the University of Detroit in the twenties. In the following decade, he was Mayor of Detroit, U. S. Governor-General in the Philippines, Governor of Michigan, and Attorney General of the United States.

Built in 1907 by local contractor David Pierce, the Citizens Bank Block also housed a harness shop and a library. Albert Sleeper (1862-1934), who served in the Michigan State Senate and as governor, co-founded the bank with his uncle A. W. Merrell, taking sole ownership in 1900. Sleeper owned several other banks and extensive real estate.

Around 1857 Charles G. Learned purchased several thousand acres of pine land in Michigan’s Thumb area. With profits from his lumbering and farming enterprises, Learned enlarged and updated this house in the French Second Empire style. In the 1860s Ohio congressman, later president, James A. Garfield, a family friend, was a frequent guest here.

The village of Lexington and the local Masonic Lodge combined their efforts and finances to build this three-story Italianate structure in 1876. The village owned the first two floors (the fire department and the opera house); the Masons, the third floor.

The Port Huron & Lake Michigan Railroad, later the Grand Trunk Western, arrived here in 1870. The first depot burned in 1917, and makeshift quarters served for a decade. This depot was built in 1927, according to Grand Trunk’s specifications. In 1930 an addition was built on the west end of the depot.

One of the first brick buildings on Caro’s main street, the structure was built by businessman and philanthropist Charles Montague as a bank and general store. When the building was enlarged in 1887, the entire second story became the Masonic Temple.

Once known as one of the largest freshwater commercial fishing ports in the world, Bay Port retains a commercial fishery that operates much as it did in the past.

Our museum is located on South Main Street. It's housed in a local historical house which was moved to this location for the museum. We are always working to improve both the building and landscaping as well as the exhibits offered within.

The Imlay City museum is owned and operated by the Imlay City Historical Commission, which collects, preserves, and interprets the heritage of the Imlay City area and instills an appreciation of local history through exhibits and educational programs.