Just a Blip on the Michigan Map: The Ghost Town of Barnard

There's a little blip on the Michigan map that isn't even much of a blip. It barely shows up. It's a former village – now considered a ghost town – by the name of Barnard in Charlevoix County. It sits smack on the lower left corner of Marion Township.

Barnard got its start in 1866 and is believed to have been named after Barnard Burns, who became its first postmaster that same year. Burns also operated the local sawmill and eventually had to shut down the post office 15 years later, in 1881. Mail was later sent for pickup in Charlevoix.

The original population was fifty residents with much less in the 2020s.

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You'll find Barnard about six miles south of Charlevoix, with the dead giveaway being the church just off the main road on a hill.

Hardly any history has been written or recorded about Barnard, and there may be a building or two still standing or turned into a home that may have been an old store over 100 years ago.

See what Barnard currently looks like in the gallery below...