unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. The historic community of Rawsonville lies mostly under
Belleville Lake
Belleville Lake is a fresh water artificial reservoir located mostly within Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A very small portion extends west into Washtenaw County. The lake was created from the construction of the French Landing Dam ...
French Landing Dam and Powerhouse
The French Landing Dam and Powerhouse is a hydroelectric gravity dam and powerhouse crossing the Huron River in Van Buren Charter Township in Wayne County in the state of Michigan. The dam and the powerhouse were completed in 1925 by the Detro ...
along the
Huron River
The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfield Township in north ...
.
Rawsonville was dedicated as a
Michigan State Historic Site
The Michigan State Historic Preservation Office is one of 59 state historic preservation offices established according to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that plays a role in implementing federal historic preservation policy in the ...
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, Amariah Rawson and his family arrived at the village.The community plat, as Michigan City by Amariah Rawson and two others, was filed on January 7, 1836. After a group of neighbors petitioned the State Legislature asking that the name be changed to Rawsonville, on March 22, 1839, the act formally changing the name to Rawsonville was passed. On November 14, 1838, The Van Buren post office was moved 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. It reopened on November 20, 1895, only to close again on February 28, 1902. By 1900, there were few residents. In 1925, the Detroit Edison company began constructing the French Landing hydroelectric dam on the Huron River and, just like that, the once-thriving village of Rawsonville was completely submerged, and landed at its final underwater resting place under the new
Belleville Lake
Belleville Lake is a fresh water artificial reservoir located mostly within Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A very small portion extends west into Washtenaw County. The lake was created from the construction of the French Landing Dam ...
. The only visual sign that a village was there at one time is the historical marker in front of the
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...