This Coast Town In the Thumb Is Michigan’s Venice

Caseville — The Thumb has a reputation for being one of the most boring parts of the state, and honestly there are good reasons. It's mostly just farmland and long stretches of road that somehow make your drive feel even longer than it already is.

Caseville and Port Austin are the two exceptions.

Both towns have groups of loyal defenders, Caseville especially. They'll point to the beach, bring up the Cheeseburger Festival, and give just about any reason they can think of to explain why Caseville is actually one of the best summer vacation destinations in the state.

But what most people have probably never noticed—even many of Caseville's biggest supporters—is that from a bird's-eye view, Caseville shares a striking resemblance with one of the most famous vacation destinations in the entire world.

Venice, Italy.

Now trust me, I know that sounds like a ridiculous comparison. Venice is one of the most iconic waterfront cities on the planet, while Caseville is a small town of only about 650 people sitting on Saginaw Bay. The two seem like they couldn't possibly be more different, right?

But take a look from above, and that's where the similarities start to show.

The historic center of Venice is made up of 118 islands, and almost every building sits directly on the water. Dorsoduro is known for its scenic waterfront promenades, while locals love Cannaregio for its wide canals and wine bars.

The houses themselves rest on wooden pilings driven deep into the mud, with waterfront walkways known as fondamentas running alongside the canals like sidewalks, creating entire neighborhoods built around the water.

And believe it or not, Caseville has something pretty similar going on, just scaled down and built for a different budget.

Just southwest of downtown, there's a network of canals that stretch inland from the Saginaw Bay. The Beadle Bay Canal System, Sandy Isles, and Lost Channel each make up neighborhoods where water runs right through the middle of the street.

These canals were originally built for boaters heading out to fish the walleye grounds on the bay, but it's the same basic idea that made Venice famous: houses lined up right along the water, boats parked where a driveway would normally be, and residents can step right off their back deck and out onto the water.

Now, of course, nobody is actually mistaking Caseville for Italy. There's no 600-year-old architecture or gondolas floating around here. There are no famous bridges or tourists arriving by water taxi, but that's what makes the similarities so much more fun.

So no, it's no Venice, but if you're looking through the lens of a drone, the oft-maligned Thumb can suddenly feel a lot more like one of the most beautiful places in the world.