A History of the Hale Area

Civics Class – 8th Grade
May 25, 1962
By Kathy Dorcey
cont, page 3

Provisions for Cultural Events and Recreation
The people of Hale hold true to May Petiole Poole’s saying “culture is what your butcher would have if he were a surgeon,” however, these people operate a Branch Library and a theater. These provide a type of cultural recreation for the residents.

Quite a few organizations claim the attention of the community’s residents. Some of these are: Boy and Girl Scouts, 4-H, Lions Club, PTA, Golden Agers, American Legion, and Health Council.

The lakes surrounding this area add an increasing amount to the recreational facilities. These provide summer water skiing, swimming, fishing and boating. Also, winter ice fishing, and skating Nearby Silver Valley provides winter snow skinning, tobogganing, skating and sleigh rides.

Transportation and Communication
Probably the first transportation in Hale was your feet, or a horse and wagon. The first railroad was built in 1886, and it was called the Loon Lake Branch running from Emory Junction to Rose City with a switch into Loon Lake. The principle freight was saw logs with a box car to hold passengers.

At the present time the principal transportation is motor vehicles owned individually by each family. M-65 serves Hale as the main street of town. It also brings sightseer sand summer vacationists.

Some of the newspapers are the Free Press and the Bay City Times, which are delivered daily. Received three times a week is the Huron Shore News and the “Tawas Herald.” The Grit is received weekly.

The Northern Telephone Company provides phones in this area. This is an independent company owned by Ernest Herzog.

Type of Government
The first township meeting was held in 1881 at the Esmond School House. It was held there for four years. By this time the township was becoming settled in range five. The township meetings were then held in the Gardner School House until 1889. They were then held in the N. F. Dean store for two years, and in 1891 they were held in the Township Hall.

In 1889 the site for the first township hall was purchased by Eli Graves for $25.00. At the regular township meeting held in the N. F. Dean store on April 7, 1890 it was voted on to raise money to build a township hall, and at a special meeting two weeks later a building committee consisting of Seth McKeen, and Nelson Graves was appointed. This building is now the Shell Gas Station [NOTE: present site is the NW corner of the four corners] operated by the Hendrickson’s. On April 4, 1892 the first election was held in the new Township Hall.

At the present time, the village of Hale is run by the Township Board. This board consists of a clerk, supervisor, treasurer, and two trustees. These hold regular meetings every month and an annual; meeting once a year.

State of Growth and Development
The community of Hale seems to be growing. In the past year some of the new buildings that have been added are a bank building, two gas stations, a barber shop, and a Laundromat. A few of these are still under construction.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This was written when I was 14 years old, and the only changes I have made in retying it are the NOTES enclosed in brackets for clarification purposes only. This was a project for Civics Class at Hale Area Schools, and we were given the headings and asked to write about them specifically.

I obtained the above information by visiting the oldest residents in the area at that time and listening to their stories. The government portion I obtained by reading through the old minutes in the township Clerk’s office.

Naturally, the comments I made were personal observations of a teenager, so please take them with a grain of salt, we probably had a page limit we were asked to hit and adding quotes from famous people helped to fill space. Even so, there is a lot of useful information here, and since it was written 42 years ago, it is kind of a snap shot in time of the events then. Please feel free to use it in any fashion you so desire to help preserve the history of Hale.

Best regards,
Kathleen Dorcey Sabala