Let me just preface this post with the following. Crestview is a myth. Its simply a tall tale passed on from one generation to the next. A legend that tells of mission-inspired dance halls, picnic grounds, casinos, and grand views. Over the years the local peoples have attempted to cover up the truth, from creating fake pictures to going as far as creating what looks like an old rail line leading up to what looks like a clearing. But let me tell you, there’s no such thing. Just an empty field and an old supposed railroad grade. No views, no dance halls, no picnic grounds and definitely no casinos. Don’t be fooled like I have – Crestview does not exist.
That being said, we did manage to find something to make out trip worthwhile. Our favorite too – Ruins!
Sitting down hill from where they want you to think Crestview once sat, was these small collection of rock foundations. (check out the BIG PICTURE) These ruins are are somewhat of a mystery to me. The materials used and the style of construction would suggest an early mine – middle nineteenth century I would guess. The way the rocks are stacked “dry” without any mortar holding them together reminds me of the Cliff or North American Mine. Its location near the Eagle River makes me want to say these belong to the Phoenix Mill, but I believe that they sit too far to the north-west (and too high up the hill). But Phoenix is my best guess.
Most interesting item we found was this iron tube – which use to be a smokestack. At cliff we have seen these still embedded into their poor rock base, and at Copper Falls I found one very similar to this sitting along the edge of a ravine. Its position a good 10-15 feet from its base makes me think it was moved here and didn’t simply fall into this spot.
Here’s the base that once held that stack – although there isn’t much left. I think this was once much taller, perhaps by as much as another dozen feet. It leans precariously to one side, but its not going anywhere anytime soon. The smokestack suggests a boiler house – and I believe we found that sitting next door.
A pair of poor-rock walls sit right behind the smokestack base, forming what looks like two small buildings. Unfortunately these short sections of wall are all that remains. The rest of the building seems to be missing – either destroyed by time or by man.
The only other clues to this building’s purpose was these artifacts scattered about on the ground. The first looked like a small pail, and might even of been a more modern paint can. (who would be painting up here – no idea) The second was more interesting, a collection of porcelain pieces to a couple of tea cups. One of the pieces even had a blue stripe on it – perhaps from a fancy plate? Besides the porcelain there were a collection of other bottle pieces, one from the “Mohawk Brewery” whatever that is. None of these things seem to fit in with a boiler house, but they do seem to suggest a restaurant or pavilion of some type. Realizing that I knew they must have been planted. Crestview is a hoax.
Somebody even published a book in an attempt to perpetuate this hoax! CRESTVIEW BOOK
What’s this world coming to?
Man, “I bushwacked through Crestview and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” would be awesome. The shirt should come pre-torn.
Dale…
Books a fake. Saw it on Snopes.com.
Dcclark…
Thats a much better title for the post, wish I would of thought of it. I might have to start selling the shirts myself, they’d be HUGE. The shirt should be torn, have permanent sweat stains, some bug guts, and maybe a little fake blood.
Based on my own experiences, another good shirt would have “Hey, I have an idea!” printed on it, to ward off any good luck that might accidentally be headed my way. It would also come pre-torn, with copious blood stains.
Anyhow, thanks for warning me off of Crestview. It was on my outing list, now it’s… well, farther down the list.
Thanks Mike. I wasn’t going to do the Crestview thing, now I feel driven to schlep through the underbrush in search of a phantom. Should be fun
I guess I should of surrounded the first paragraph of this post in “sarcasm” tags since it appears some people thought I was serious. Don’t worry, I’m quite aware that Crestview did indeed exist.
However, that supposed “Cliff Mine” thing people keep talking about? A myth. Plain and simple.
You mean…Crestview really did exist???
The upper falls on the Gratiot River are also a myth. I spent most of a summer trying to find them, and trust me, they’re not there.
This is the first time I’ve heard of Crestview, either real or a hoax.
If a hoax, when did it get started and by whom?
What is the exact supposed location of Crestview?
Herb..
Crestview was a recreational park run by the Keweenaw Central Railroad, which ran an excursion train out to it atop the hill overlooking Eagle River. It consisted of a large pavilion and dance hall, along with some picnic grounds. It didn’t last long and was quickly demolished. Today there is nothing left of it to find, which is why I wrote this post. It’s almost as if there never was anything up there at all, and the whole thing was a myth. But its very real, I was just being overly sarcastic.
You can get more information about it from a short video that the Pastycam just featured this past weekend. They also had a daily post dedicated to the subject. You can find the post and videoHERE.
As far as its location, it sits up along the high bluff opposite Phoenix. The old railroad bed up to it can still be walked from the east side of M26 at Phoenix just after crossing the Eagle River. When the trail reaches its highest elevation, just before dropping back down the hill, you will have arrived at Crestview where you will find nothing.
Explorer,
Thanks for the info on Crestview. I’ll have to dig out my Monette book on Phoenix. Maybe he mentions Crestview.
Anyone know the old b&w movie called “Carnival of Souls”? This talk of the “mythical” lost Crestview sort of reminds me of that flick. Maybe because the Keweenaw is so ghostly and haunted to begin with and that movie in part takes place in a deserted amusement park.
On a sidenote, Explorer posted this reply a while back, but until now I could not locate it. Once the “new reply” falls off the page there is no easy way to track it down that I can see. If the site had a search function that would be a big help. Unless I’m missing something…
Herb,
Your welcome about the info. As far as catching the replies, when you write your message you can click on the option that asks if you want “email notification” just below the submit button. This will email you when someone replies to your comment. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for any specific comment thread by clicking on the option that says “subscribe to RSS Feed” under the comments header above.
As far as the search ability, you are exactly right; it is a feature that this site definitely needs and I am working on getting one together. This system I’m going to use relies on tags, which I have yet to add. Since I have over 400 posts on this site, it will take me some time to add the necessary tags to every one of them. Hang in there though, search is coming.
Actually Monette has a book on the Keweenaw Central and Crestview, number 52. I don’t think the Phoenix book covers it.
Rode through Crestview on the ATV, didn’t even know I had been there. Nice batch of trees and grass, thats about it
Hello Explorer. Crestview actually ran from 1909 until it burned to the ground in 1925. It was very popular during its hayday. Monette’s book covers it pretty well. Never been to the site myself, but probably later this summer.
Burned down eh? I didn’t hear that until now. That might make some sense considering the lack of ruins. By now charred remains would of disintegrated (or at the very least been covered by forest and debris). If you go up there just be warned – there’s nothing there to see. Its even worse now since they started logging up there. The old Keweenaw Central right-of-way has been widened to the size of a road, and the old railroad ties that once still sat in the ground have been torn up. Its actually lost a lot of its charm since the first time I went up there.
It’s mentioned in Monette’s book about Mandan.
Pssst…they called you out on the Pasty site for calling it a myth.
here’s a link on Crestview from Copper Country reflections
http://www.pasty.com/reflections/id292.htm
I have this 1931 Rand McNally atlas of the world and Gazetteer and it does show Crestview as a station.
Here’s a video about it
http://www.pasty.com/cam/2008/06/15/cameo/index.html
And the dicussion
http://pasty.com/discus/messages/3941/4352.html
And here’s where it is click on Crestview in the collection list
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=44.023938~-99.71&style=h&lvl=4&tilt=-89.875918865193&dir=0&alt=7689462.6842358#JmNwPTQ3LjI0MDgyMjQyODQzMjQlN2UtODguMzk5NTMxNzYzNjM3MyZjaWQ9NTQ2NDQ1MDdDQjQxQ0JGRSExMzI=