Central Mine Methodist Church

About Central Mine Methodist Church

A cream coloured wooden church with a square tower and a battlemented top is about the last thing you expect to come across on a back road in the Keweenaw. That is what the Cornish miners built out here in 1868, and it is still standing even after the town around it emptied out. The tower is quite eye catching and looks like it should be paired with a castle and not a rural chapel. Its flat top is notched like it should be used for lookouts. The whole thing stands on a foundation of black and white fieldstone, collected by the miners in the local area. Shoot it straight on from Old Stage Road lets you highlight the unique tower. Then make sure to walk around to the side where the row of windows and the long roof line give you a second frame, and step back far enough to get the wooded bluff rising behind it. There are a few of the miners' houses still sitting along the road, some restored and some not. These make a great wider streetscape with the church tower at the end of it. Pale cream clapboard is unforgiving at midday, so this is an early or late in the day shooting adventure, when low light warms the boards to gold and the brown trim throws shadow. The fall colours on the maples along the bluff puts red and orange behind the cream. Winter buries the road, so this is a summer and fall stop. The site is a Keweenaw heritage site with a small reception centre open during tourist season, and parking is free along the road. Once a year, on a Sunday in late July, descendants of the miners fill the church for a reunion service and the road lines up with cars. (Central, Michigan, United States)

Where to find Central Mine Methodist Church

Nearby Photo Spots