This FORGOTTEN town in Michigan is America's SMALLEST village #forgottentowns

Now you can say, Sight Seers, you've been to Split Rock, Michigan. Which, by the way, marks your turn for Alpha, the location of today's adventure. Hey Sight Seers, Sight Scene Sally here. It has been a while since I've taken you anywhere exploring off the beaten path. So today I thought I'd show you around Alpha, Michigan. Alpha being the smallest village in America with, of all things, a brewery. I'm told though, however, that the brewery doesn't open till 3 p.m. and as it just so happens, it's shortly afternoon. So if we're here long enough, maybe we'll get to see the inside of the brewery. If not, there is always another time. To kick things off, I thought we'd start out by talking a little bit about how Alpha got its start and also where it is located on the map. Because, of course, you're not going to be able to get here yourself if you don't know where it's located. As I mentioned at the start, Alpha is in Michigan in what is known as the Mastodon Township in Iron County, not too far from places we've previously explored like Crystal Falls and Iron Mountain. Today we're checking out Iron Mountain. I decided to take a little bit of a road trip and I ended up in a historic Michigan town known as Crystal Falls. If you're still unsure, here, let me put up a map on the screen. You can see we're in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the UUP, or as we Wisconsinites like to call it, Upper Michigan. But I know some of you out there from Michigan will start hollering, no it's not Upper Michigan. But yes, to some of us in Wisconsin, it has and always will be considered Upper Michigan, regardless of how you want to call it. And look at that, there's a hummingbird that just came at me. It must be the hat. Anyways, as I was saying, regardless of how you want to call it, Upper Peninsula, Upper Michigan. We are in Michigan and the closest thing to a highway is Iron County 424, which is what you come in on to get into Alpha. If you're thinking that we're basically in the middle of nowhere, we are. Because when you get up in these parts, that's what it is. As for Alpha's early history, the village got its start like so many other towns and villages in the UP, thanks to mining. Iron ore, to be more exact. From what I understand, it was in like the late 1800s, 1880s, about when they started coming up to this part of Michigan to do some exploratory missions looking for iron ore and other precious metals. Of course, as you know, iron ore ended up being what they found up here and from what I understand, there were at least three, if not more, iron mines that played a part or a role in the creation of Alpha. According to what I read online, the post office opened in 1883 under the name of Mastodon. It ran for about five years and then it ended up closing for a while and then became re-established in 1913 as the United States Post Office of Alpha, Michigan. Now if you're wondering why the name changed, I don't know. It didn't say and my time for digging into it was a bit limited. But I can tell you that there is a really interesting story as to how the township got the name Mastodon and that is according to legend, while they were sinking a mine shaft down over at one of the mines that was being explored, they found, of all things, bones from a huge Mastodon. And you all thought I was going to say a T-Rex, right? Just kidding. Where those bones are today, I have no idea. They could be in the museum for all I know or perhaps in somebody's private collection. You really never know when it comes to those types of stories and actually if we have the opportunity to talk to somebody local, that will be one of the things I'll be asking them because when we were down in Golconda, Illinois, we were at the museum there and discovered that in their personal collection they had, I believe if I remember correctly, a tusk from a huge Mastodon that was uncovered when excavating for their dam and lock system. If you haven't seen that video, you'll definitely want to go check it out after this one. Anyways, getting back to Alpha and its early history. In front of me, you'll see what appears to be a roundabout. From what I understand, this circle is as old as the town itself, dating back to the early 1900s after Alpha became incorporated as a village in 1914 or perhaps even before then. The timeline is a bit fuzzy. The people who lived here put in this circle and it was known as the Civic Circle for a lot of years. If we look around the circle, we can see some of the historic buildings that are still in place. This here is the George F. Porter School. It was built in 1914, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and at one time they had different businesses. As you can see the sign that says Porter School Marketplace, I believe you could go in at one time and patronize some small local businesses. From the looks of it, that may no longer be the case. I had read online that a couple had purchased it and was looking to convert it into apartments or some other type of living facility. Where they are in that process or whether that is still the plan, I do not know. But it is a remarkable structure that still stands here in Alpha. Its sheer size should tell you a little bit of something about, sorry my tongue is getting all twisted up there. Its sheer size should tell you a little bit something about how big or how many people had once called Alpha their home. From what I understand, there's roughly six to seven hundred people that live in the Mastodon Township and of that there's maybe 150 to 200 people living here in Alpha today. But don't quote me on that with AI and the inaccuracies of the internet. I'm not confident that those numbers are even accurate. Before getting back to some of the other historic buildings around the circle, I just want to point something out here that caught my eye and it's this sign here stating that the Alpha Volleyball Court that we see behind it was established in 2024. Why this little sign even matters, sight seers, has to do with that Alpha, unlike a lot of the small villages and towns, forgotten places that we've explored in the past, Alpha is trying to do everything that it can to avoid becoming one of those. Jay's IGA is no longer serving Pepsi or ice. I say it like it's such a bad thing. One of those abandoned towns. You know, something like a snooty person would say. No, and that's not what I'm getting at. It's just Alpha is really trying to embrace its history and keep it from disappearing into the past. And as a result, you're seeing things like a new volleyball court, disc golf course, a nano brewery, and what used to be part of the old school bus garage of the school, which is great. I think bringing tourism to Alpha would be wonderful. However, and I hope the good people of Alpha are listening on this one. You may want to ensure that your tourists coming to town have suitable restroom facilities because I just went in there and couldn't use the bathroom because the water must be shut off or something. And somebody left an unmentionable in the women's toilet. And so I'm just going to mosey on and pretend like I didn't see that. And yet I'm blabbing about it here on YouTube, only with the hopes that they will remedy the bathroom situation because you definitely don't want a bunch of tourists coming to your town and not being able to use some sort of facility. And look, I think my bathroom troubles have been solved. Sorry, Alpha, but I'm having to give you a thumbs down on the bathroom situation because that's definitely one thing that'll make your town either forgettable or unforgettable, depending on your point of view. Moving on, you can see that my little bathroom excursion or my failed bathroom excursion led us to the back of the old school. Again, that is a massive building sitting there. Hopefully whoever owns it will find the funds and have the ability to do something with it before it's too late. It does appear that they have new shingles placed on the roof, which obviously is very important because stopping any leaks from causing any further deterioration of the inside is really important. Then across the street from the old school you'll find this little playground set up here and a ball diamond, which I'm assuming was once used for the high school, maybe the middle school kids, or even little league. As you can see we're now back in front of the school. I wanted to point out the village hall there. From what I understand that is also on the National Register of Historic Places. And you know what else would be on the National Register? That air raid siren on top. See it towards the front of the building right on the roof. When I seen that I instantly thought of you Marty. Still looking for one. Anybody's got a line on one let us know. Just so you know he is really cheap so it's gotta be. That'll be another future video on how cheap Marty is. Just so you know Sightseers, Marty's idea of cheap is free or nearly free in case you were looking to sell him an old siren. Moving on. I spy something with my little eye. Care to guess what it is Sightseers? If you notice the old fire alarm still sitting on the side of the building, you got it. The only thing missing from that is the glass. But that's a first. I haven't seen any of those on the side of a village town hall in any of the places that we've explored previously. I'm assuming that if you were experiencing a fire you ran over here and broke the glass and rang the alarm back in the day. If you know let me know because I'm not so sure about that and at this point I'm kind of just making that up. As for the rest of the buildings around the circle, there's an old church right over here that according to this sign is now the Alpha Mastodon Community Senior Center with the entrance in the back. There's also an interesting looking building right up over here. I believe it may have served as a bar or tavern for a while. You can see this sign here which if you read it backwards says Bud Light. There's also a Bud King of Beer sign up over here but none of those really matter because there is a sign in the window that says the building has been condemned. That's one way to eliminate your competition. Yeah I know some of the jokes are getting a bit cheesy but what do you expect? I'm from Wisconsin. Yo! The land of the cheese heads. So here we have what is known as a traditional cheese head standing in front of the Lambeau Atrium and it looks like he managed to attract a girl with this cheese head. Yeah I've never been a big fan of clowns. Getting back to the green one over here, apparently it's available for public auction. I don't know anything about its history or what it was used for. I do know from the research that I did about Alpha that back in the day they had a number of bars, taverns, pool rooms, a dance hall, they even had a theater, a couple of mercantile and grocery stores. They also had a First National Bank which is now the location of the Mastodon or excuse me the Alpha History Museum which of course includes the Mastodon Township. According to the sign you can get in by appointment. I'm going to try calling and seeing if we can get in. We're gonna get in today. Yeah probably not gonna get in today. There you go. Nobody? No nobody. I guess it's a strikeout today. Oh well. That's okay you win some you lose some and there's not much you can do about it. At least we tried. The last thing I'll say about the old First National Bank is that it is on the National Register of Historic Places all by itself. Their buildings, the school, the village hall, and what is now the more modern looking water tower. There used to be an old water tower there that was part of like what they called the Alpha Circle Historic Complex. These here are all on the National Register together. And in case I wasn't clear that also includes the Nano Brewery which as I said earlier is in what used to be the garage for the school buses. Fun fact about the brewery. What I read on Wikipedia, yes the Alpha Michigan Brewing Company has its own Wikipedia page. According to that inside you'll find remnants of things from around the town. What I mean by that is supposedly there's an old bar from one of the old taverns or drinking establishments. There may even be some stuff from an old church. My memory fails me at this point and since we can't get inside I really can't go on any further about that. Just that if you go inside you may discover more of Alpha's early history in there. Oh look at that! You can get some real estate here in Alpha. Why don't we go take a look-see to see what you can buy here in Alpha. Right after I point out that building there appears to be older. Probably one of the more historic buildings here in town along with this group of old churches here on this corner of 4th and 9th that have been converted into residences. Listen they're ringing the bell for us. How cool is that? They still have the old church bell in there in their house. That'd be a lot of fun I think to live in an old church. At least it would be definitely a conversation starter at a party. Oh where do you live? Yeah I live in this old church. Oh tell me more. At least that's how my mind works. Here's another view of the old church houses in case you wanted to see it. And then look at that! That house there is the one currently on the market here in Alpha. Looks like a cute home with a second story and very little sidewalk to shovel. Which if you hate shoveling snow that would be ideal if you want to live in the UP because they do tend to get more snow up in these parts. We're now over on one of the side streets and I apologize I didn't catch what the name of the street was but I just saw this sign on their garage that says Railway Express Agency. I believe I forgot to mention earlier in the video that one of the other things that came to Alpha early on was a train depot and I'm kind of wondering if that sign isn't from that original depot. Maybe, maybe not. I also wanted to point out the type of housing that's here in Alpha is very typical of Upper Michigan's or the Upper Peninsula's mining towns. And from this vantage point you can kind of see how the town is kind of set up on like the center of it is at the top and then as you go down the hillside you have the streets with the homes. Here you can see another older home over there and then look how the streets go up. It's almost like that old mining town we visited down in southern Illinois, Rosy Clare, where a lot of the town was built like on this massive hill and you'd have these really steep roadways going through town into the neighborhoods. I don't want to insult the people that live here. Some of the houses here though are pretty rough looking like this one here. There is potential here though. I mean look at this garden alongside that old building there. I'm not sure if that's a house or a garage back there but clean this up and now it just looks beautiful. I mean look at how big this yard could be if it was trimmed up and looked nice. There's an old apple tree back there. If the house, it was a house, I wasn't sure if it was a garage, but if you painted that a real cool color and did something with the yard I think that would be a fabulous little place to live. Especially if this wasn't your whole lot if you could get this other lot. I'm not sure where the property markers are but that would be a really nice place in the village to live at least from my perspective. Other people might have a different perspective but it's all about how you see things. Would you call this a forgotten town? Weigh in in the comment section below. And with that I'd like to give a quick shout out to a friend of ours. Fluby. Yep, Fluby or Flubias I think is how he pronounces it. And this is my friend Flubias Monroe. Met him in Roswell, New Mexico. He's a friend of ours that we met while traveling. I have a video coming out. I still need to finish all the edits but we ran into him while we were out on our last road trip and I had said that I wanted to do a collaboration with him and well finally getting around to getting that. Stay tuned because there will be more about Flubias in the future. And with that I'll bid you all adieu. Until next time.