Great Indoor Folk Festival ~ Feb 12, 2012
Burdickville, Michigan
All that remains in the area of the once thriving town of Burdickville are three businesses. Laker Shakes, La Becasse and Trattoria Funistrada. Although both Laker Shakes and Funistrada are located in Burdickville, neither can claim that they are part of the history of the town. In the late 1850s William Burdick built a saw and grist mill. In 1876 John Helm built a general store. Not much more of the town is known other than the fact that one of the area's newspapers, the Burdickville Meteor in the 1870s was published in Burdickville.
What about La Becasse Restaurant? That's been in Buridickville for nearly 20 years!!
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Comment by Mary O'Neill — June 12, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Good point Mary - it's been added!
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Comment by Andrew McFarlane — June 13, 2008 @ 8:29 am
I grew up accross the "street" from what is now La Becasse. We moved there in 1963. There has always been a restaurant there! I believe it was called Mary's Kitchen for a long time, then Woodcock's for some time, then purchased by the O'Neill family who named it La Becasse (the woodcock). I worked for the latter two owners. The same type of history can be found for Trattoria Funistrada! And Laker Shake was originally a rock shop promoting the local petosky stones and other art forms, ran by Dorthy Lanham for many years. I knew Nan Helm when I was a child; I took her mail to her at her house on the hill overlooking Burdickville. There is a new "modern" house there now, just finished this past year.
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Comment by Mark Addington — December 31, 2011 @ 12:49 am
I grew up on Glen Lake. Burdickville, michigan was a ghost town during the depression. It also hosted 2 golf courses, and a chinese resturant. In addition it had a dairy, owned by the Daily family. My grand mother and her sisters were in vaudeville. Upon retiring my grand mothers sister Mary built a lodge on the lake. occasionally they invited show business personalities such as The 3 Stooges.
Lewis Warren was given an idea from my grand mothers sister Irene De Voll. She told him someday someone will put oversize tires on a truck, and take people for rides on the sand dunes. My grand mother Beulah Bexell was also a personal friend of Nan Helm. Nan Helms father who built the saw mill built a house above Laker shakes. He also owned all of the property from Burdickville to Maple City. This was purchased on the homestead rights. To continue earning a living he built a lookout tower in the local junk yard. He charged .10 cents for people to climb the tower. My parents Frank and Frances Blake were engaged at that tower. Contact me at (231) 325-0034. My name is Bill. Another area connected to Burdickville is called De Grauville. The saw mill is still in the woods. As a young man I manufactured moonshine and delivered it throughout the area...........
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Comment by william blake — January 24, 2012 @ 2:57 pm
Awesome Bill. Thanks for sharing these stories. I had no idea about some of the things!
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Comment by Andrew McFarlane — January 25, 2012 @ 1:48 pm