Banat is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Menominee County, Michigan Menominee County ( ) is a county located in the Upper Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,502. The county seat is Menominee. The county's name comes from an Ojibwe word meaning "wild rice eat ...

, and home to Holmes Township's Township Hall. Banat was named after

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

, in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

(then part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

) by

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

immigrants who came to the area in the mid 19th century. At Banat's peak, it had a two-room schoolhouse, church, cemetery, bus garage, township hall, tavern, inn, two general stores, gas station and a

railroad station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such ...

. The original industry was farming, though this was largely abandoned by the mid-twentieth century due to poor

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

and

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

conditions. The permanent population dwindled during the latter half of the twentieth century. The school house was closed and sold in the 1960s and is now a private cottage. The church was closed and demolished in the mid-1980s. The bus garage was sold off along with the school house and was eventually demolished sometime around 2000 to make way for a mini-storage facility. The tavern,

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

and gas station were closed and demolished following the death of the last owner, Mr. Hirsch. There is still a small permanent population, but many former residences are now used recreationally. Outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing are now the primary activities in the area; there is also a

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a m ...

course that opened in the late 1990s. A rental lodge, which recently opened, and a mini-storage facility, built on the site of the former bus garage, are the only apparent businesses within the traditional borders of Banat. With climate change, and the rising price of crops such as soy and corn, there has been a recent resurgence of crop farming in just the past few years, and there is at least one active cattle farm in the area. With the decline in farming, environmental protection laws of the 1970s, and wildlife reintroduction programs, wildlife has made a remarkable comeback in the area. By the 1970s there were no

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

s and very few

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

. There are now many nesting pairs of eagles in the area and a healthy bear population, as well as improvements in many other avian and small mammal populations.

Demographics

Banat has a population that is 95.8% Caucasian and 4.2% Other/Mixed Race.

Notable residents

Lou Thesz Aloysius Martin Thesz (April 24, 1916 – April 28, 2002), known by the ring name Lou Thesz, was an American professional wrestler and wrestling coach. Considered to be one of the last true shooters (legitimate wrestlers) in professional w ...

, professional wrestling legend

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Menominee County, Michigan Populated places established in 1909 Romanian-American history 1909 establishments in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan