Gregoryville

Gregoryville is a ghost town sitting on the shore of Torch Lake in Schoolcraft Township, Houghton County, Michigan, not far from the community of Lake Linden. Its origins are tied directly to the lumber industry — specifically the operations of Joseph Gregoire, whose business interests gave the hamlet both its name and its reason for existing.

What made Gregoryville unusual even in its active days was Gregoire's hiring practice: he employed almost exclusively French-Canadian workers, a preference so pronounced that he earned the informal title "Father of the French Canadians." The settlement functioned less as an organic village and more as a company town built around and dependent on those lumber interests.

Today Gregoryville is a quiet, largely vanished place. Visitors drawn to its history will find the Torch Lake setting is the main reward, along with the chance to reflect on the region's French-Canadian lumber heritage. Access is typical of rural Houghton County; summer and early fall offer the most practical window for a visit.