Seney is an

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 hav ...

Schoolcraft County Schoolcraft County ( ) is a county located in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 8,047, making it Michigan's fourth-least populous county. The county seat is Manistique, which lies alo ...

in the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

, United States. State trunkline highway M-28 runs directly though Seney. The historic community of Seney began as a railroad stop in 1881. Soon after, logging companies moved into the area to lumber the white pine forests in the surrounding region. Seney quickly grew to over 3,000 people. During this time, the town gained a reputation for being rowdy and dangerous due its boom economy and numerous saloons. By the end of the nineteenth century, the forests of pine in the surrounding region were depleted, due to the logging and numerous fires, and the lumber companies left, shrinking the town considerably. It currently has less than 200 people. Today, the town is noted as a gateway to the region's recreation and tourism. It is located on the outskirts of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and it is a through way to the eastern end of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Seney is also the terminus of the hiking trail known as the Fox River Pathway (which connects with the

North Country Trail The North Country National Scenic Trail, generally known as the North Country Trail or simply the NCT, is a footpath stretching over from Middlebury in central Vermont to Lake Sakakawea State Park in central North Dakota in the United States; ...

). The town was featured in

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

's short story " Big Two-Hearted River" which Hemingway based on a visit to the town that he made in his youth; he also mentioned the town in his 1923 poem "Along with Youth." Leon Czolgosz, the man who assassinated President

William Mckinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in t ...

, lived in Seney during the boom years when he worked on the local railroad. Seney is located on the eastern end of the Seney Stretch. A "

Boot Hill Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the given name of many cemeteries, chiefly in the Western United States. During the 19th and early 20th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who " died with their boots on" (i. ...

" cemetery is located outside of town. The community is located in Seney Township, Michigan. ''Incredible Seney: The First Complete Story of Michigan's Fabulous Lumber Town'' (1953) is a nonfiction book about Seney's historic boom years written by

Lewis Reimann Lewis Charles Reimann (1890 – August 20, 1961) was an American author, camp operator, politician and football player. A native of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Reimann played college football for the Michigan Wolverines in 1914 and 1915. ...

References

External links

Official website for the Seney National Wildlife Refuge
Last updated: September 16, 2012

* * Unincorporated communities in Schoolcraft County, Michigan {{SchoolcraftCountyMI-geo-stub vo:Seney