Blaney Park: The Forgotten Resort of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

It's 2015, and my family is on a summer road trip through the Upper Peninsula for the first time. My parents have never been hotel people, so instead they've booked us a stay at a lodge on a random street in a silly-named town called Germfask. The Blaney Lodge Bed and Breakfast in Blaney Park was a large building with cabins nearby, plus a landing strip. 

Blaney Lodge in 2015. / Tommy McNeill, Townsquare Media

My family instantly fell in love with the place, the old couple who ran it, and its surprising history as a former premier destination through the 1900s. This lodge was hard to miss given its placement on M-77, and everyone going "up North" or heading to the Lower Peninsula passes by.

Blaney Lodge in 1939. / Schoolcraft County Historical Society via Facebook

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But these days, the cabins are run-down, and the lodge is just a heap of charred wood and metal after the 123-year-old lodge burned to the ground in 2018. But it used to be a massive resort that brought visitors from around the world.

Blaney Park Resort: The Prize of the Upper Peninsula

With a multitude of cottages, a heated Olympic-sized swimming pool, a dude ranch, a private lake, a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts, shuffleboard courts, 22,000 acres at the park including a bird and wildlife sanctuary, and an additional 11,000 acres on the Lake Michigan lakeshore, Blaney Park Resort was one of a kind. Click here for footage of the park.

Blaney Park Resort in the 1940s. / Schoolcraft County Historical Society via Facebook

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Blaney Park opened in 1927 and quickly became a hit. It survived the Great Depression and saw a resurgence after World War 2, until it eventually closed in 1964. The land was auctioned off in pieces, but the Blaney Lodge returned to its roots in 1990 after it was bought along with a number of the cottages and welcomed guests back.

That is, until 2018, when an electrical fire burned the historic lodge to the ground and damaged a neighboring cottage. Since then, the property and buildings owned by the lodge owners have fallen into disrepair.

The small town of Blaney Park is a shell of its grandiose self, but those who live there still love the area and hope it can regrow someday. For me, it's a nostalgic place to drive by on my way to Munising.