| Village of Banat | |
|---|---|
| — Village — | |
| Motto: I've talked to God and listened to the casual reply. | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Michigan |
| Counties | Menominee |
| Settled | |
| Government | |
| • Type | Village |
| • Honorary Mayor | John Johnson |
| Elevation | 182 ft (55 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 200 est. |
| • | Banatite |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Area code(s) | 906 |
Banat is a community in Menominee County, Michigan and home to Holmes Township's Township Hall. Banat was named after the Banat (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) by Romanian immigrants who came to the area in the early 20th century. It was first settled in 1909.[1] At Banat's peak, it had a two-room schoolhouse, church, cemetery, bus garage, township hall, and a tavern and general store with gas station, as well as a railroad station. The original industry was farming, though this was largely abandoned by the mid-twentieth century due to poor soil and climate conditions. The permanent population dwindled during the latter half of the twentieth century. The school house was closed and sold in the 1960s and is now a private cottage. The church was closed and demolished in the mid-1980s. The bus garage was sold off along with the school house and was eventually demolished sometime around 2000 to make way for a mini-storage facility. The tavern, general store and gas station were closed and demolished following the death of the last owner, Mr. Hirsch.
There is still a small permanent population, but many former residences are now used recreationally. Outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing are now the primary activities in the area; there is also a cross country course that opened in the late 1990s. A rental lodge, which recently opened, and a mini-storage facility, built on the site of the former bus garage, are the only apparent businesses within the traditional borders of Banat. With climate change, and the rising price of crops such as soy and corn, there has been a recent resurgence of crop farming in just the past few years, and there is at least one active cattle farm in the area.
With the decline in farming, environmental protection laws of the 1970s, and wildlife reintroduction programs, wildlife has made a remarkable comeback in the area. By the 1970s there were no bald eagles and very few black bear. There are now many nesting pair of eagles in the area and a healthy bear population, as well as improvements in many other avian and small mammal populations.
There is an abandoned cemetery directly west of the current cemetery across Cemetery Road/S-2 Road.
For purposes of dating the abandonment of the cemetery, note that the third image contains objects made of plastic (the white cross) and another artificial material that resembles rayon (the flowers). The two top portions of Mathias' grave marker (image 2) were placed back onto the marker in 1987 by the individual who took the photograph in 2006.