Seney ( ) 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 ...

in Schoolcraft County in the

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan—also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. or Yoop—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 of ...

, 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 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. It extends for along the shore of Lake Superior and covers . The park has extensive views of the h ...

. 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 Trail (NCT, officially designated the North Country National Scenic Trail) is a long-distance hiking trail in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Northeastern United States, Northeastern United States. The trail exten ...

). 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. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

's short story "

Big Two-Hearted River "Big Two-Hearted River" is a two-part short story written by American author Ernest Hemingway, published in the 1925 Boni & Liveright edition of ''In Our Time (short story collection), In Our Time'', the first American volume of Hemingway's sho ...

" 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 Leon Frank Czolgosz ( ; ; May 5, 1873 – October 29, 1901) was an American wireworker and Anarchism, anarchist who assassination of William McKinley, assassinated President of the United States, United States president William McKinley on Septe ...

, 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 Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

, 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" 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.

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