Crescent City, Michigan

The first settlements in Leelanau County were on the Manitou Islands. The islands provided natural safe, deep harbors for schooners and steamers and excellent fishing. Families living on both the North and the South Manitou Islands worked as fishermen, farmers or as lumbermen to supply fuel to the steamers. In 1844 Nicholas Pickard built wooden docks on the western shore of North Manitou Island. The site soon developed into a small settlement known as Aylsworth. In 1856 Edwim Munger built a sawmill in Aylswrth. As the village grew education for the children was deemed a necessity, and a school was built in what was then known as Crescent City, in 1909. The school was closed in 1917, as many settlers moved off the island to the mainland. Today Crescent City is nothing more than a memory with a few pilings of the docks left.