The Michigan Ghost Town of Redridge and Its Mammoth Steel Dam
Redridge sits in Houghton County in the Keweenaw Peninsula, along the shoreline of Lake Superior, in Stanton Township. Its genesis took place between 1895-1896 when a stamp mill for the Atlantic Mine was constructed.
The Atlantic Mining Company’s store was managed by Albert Everett, who also became the community’s first postmaster when a post office began operating in late 1895. This post office was dubbed ‘Redridge’, probably because of the red-tinted earth from iron and copper. By the time World War I rolled around, Redridge’s population was around 500 with a handful of shops. After a depletion of ore, the mine was shut down, but the post office remained open until July 1957.
From then on, businesses and residents slowly disappeared from the community, turning Redridge into one of the UP’s ghost towns.
Currently, the only neighborhood in Redridge can be found down an unnumbered, unnamed road. You’ll know when you’ve arrived at Redridge by the old former hotel sitting alongside Liminga Road (County Road 554).
The most outstanding site in Redridge is the steel dam on the Salmon Trout River. Before the steel dam was built, a timber dam had been erected on the same site in 1894. Unfortunately, the wood structure wasn’t doing the job that was hoped for, and a steel dam was built in 1901. The Redridge Dam is now considered an extraordinary structure, visited numerous times by in-the-know Michiganders.
So there are two reasons to visit this little out-of-the-way place:
1) It’s been labeled a ghost town (even though there are still a handful of residents)
2) Ya gotta check out the dam!
Take a look at the photo gallery below and see for yourself!