Re-visiting the Michigan ghost town of Mentha is a treat I’ve been waiting for.
What’s left of Mentha is located in Van Buren County, about 14 miles northwest of Kalamazoo and about 3 miles east of Kendall. This is one of southern Michigan’s coolest ghost towns, getting its name from the vast fields of mint that was grown there, thanks to grower Albert M. Todd.
Todd bought a bunch of swamp land in Pine Grove Township and made lemonade out of lemons – in essence, he turned “worthless” swampland into what many believe was the greatest peppermint producing center in the world.
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Mentha (Latin for “mint”) was settled in 1870 and organized when a station on the Kalamazoo & South Haven Railroad popped up. A post office didn’t exist until years later, when one finally opened in 1906…