I enjoy discovering Michigan’s ghost towns. It’s fun for me to find out about what some of these towns and villages used to be like: bustling little burgs that have disappeared or shrunk down to nothing but a building or two.

Some of the towns and villages that are listed in history sites are completely gone, where absolutely no trace remains. Many others aren’t even listed anywhere, having popped up for a brief period of time – like a year or less – and left nothing behind for us to remember them by…even a name.

One such town that has extremely little written about it is the postal station of Clinch, in Iron County.

From what I could find out about it, Clinch began as a post office station in 1899, with Emily Leece as first postmaster. A year later, 1900, the post office shut down and Clinch went with it. Obviously not a steady job for Ms. Leece.

Aside from the post office, the possibility of any other establishments would just be guesses. But it seems that there would be at least a little store or trading post, right? Looking at the satellite photos, there are some buildings there hiding in the bushes and off the road, but it’s too hard to tell how old they are.

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Located in Iron County’s Crystal Falls Township, there are three roads that meet up and lead into (what was once) Clinch:
Tobin Mine Rd.
Carpenter Rd.
Valley View Rd.

This Clinch is not to be confused with another Clinch that existed in Lenawee County up until 1842, when it, too, faded into obscurity.

Also, don’t confuse this with Clinch Township in Van Buren County. Clinch Township was named after Judge Clinch of Georgia after being organized in 1837. In 1842, the name ‘Clinch’ was dropped from the township, which split in two and re-named Waverly, the other part Almena.

Makes me wonder if the Clinches in Iron & Lenawee Counties were also named after this guy for some reason…

Good luck trying to locate Iron County’s Clinch on a map…your best bet would be to use the co-ordinates, which are 46°5'9.99" -88°21'29.99".

The gallery below shows some fuzzy ‘streetview’ photos of Clinch and how it looks in the 2000s. Any extra info on this forgotten place is extremely welcome.

The Ghost Community of Clinch, Iron County

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