Gaylord, Michigan

The town of Gaylord started as Barnes. When the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad pushed through Otsego County in eighteen seventy-three, the new depot settlement took the name of Orlando Barnes, secretary of the railroad. Then in eighteen seventy-four, residents voted to rename it in honor of Augustine Smith Gaylord, the railroad's attorney, who had spent years clearing land titles and pushing the route north through Michigan.

Gaylord had earlier founded the Saginaw public school system and served in the Michigan House of Representatives. He never lived here, but the town kept his name. Today Gaylord bills itself as Michigan's Alpine Village, complete with Swiss-chalet style downtown architecture, sitting at the top of the Lower Peninsula where the highway drops down toward the Straits of Mackinac.