Rawsonville, Michigan


Rawsonville, Michigan is a ghost town split between Van Buren Charter Township in Wayne County and Ypsilanti Charter Township in Washtenaw County. The current location of Rawsonville lies mostly under Belleville Lake across Interstate 94 from Willow Run Airport. The village was flooded out in 1925 when the Eastern Michigan Edison Company built the French Landing Dam and Powerhouse on the Huron River.
The former community was dedicated as a Michigan State Historic Site on October 27, 1983.

History

In 1800, the first settler Henry Snow came to this location which was original called Snow's Landing. In 1825, Ambline Rawson and his father arrived at the village. The community plat, as Michigan City by Amasah Rawson and two others, was filed on January 7, 1836. On November 14, 1838, The Van Buren post office was move to Rawsonville and assumed that name.
By the Civil War era, the village was doing well with grist mill, saw mill, a stove factory, and a wagon maker. With the building of the railroad, the community was bypassed hurting the industries there.
On October 25, 1895, the post office was closed only to reopen on November 20, 1895 only to close again on February 28, 1902. By 1900, there were few residents here. In 1925, a dam was put in place on the Huron River placing most of the village under water of the new Belleville Lake. The only visual sign that a village was here at one time is the historical marker in front of the McDonald's on Rawsonville Road and across from Grove Road.