You Can Visit the 1800s Just Outside Flint
Crossroads Village and Huckleberry Village have buildings, industries, and attractions from the lumber heyday
Just minutes outside Flint, a 32-acre open-air museum brings Michigan’s past to life.
This summer, Crossroads Village & Huckleberry Railroad is celebrating 50 years of sharing Michigan’s history through historic buildings, tradespeople, and an operating railroad that recreate daily life in the late 1800s.
What began in 1968 with the relocation of the 1854 Buzzell House, the oldest standing wooden structure in Flint, has since grown into a much larger preservation effort.
By 1973, as more buildings throughout the county were jeopardized by the development of downtown Flint and the construction of I-475, the project was officially designated Genesee County’s Bicentennial Initiative.
Just three years later, on July 4, 1976, Crossroads Village opened with 13 buildings. Today, the number of buildings has nearly tripled as the village expanded into a fully immersive experience.
The village is set in an era when lumbering dominated Genesee County—and much of Michigan—and carriage manufacturing laid the groundwork for Michigan’s booming automobile industry.
Unlike traditional museums, Crossroads Village is designed to let guests experience the lifestyle of past generations firsthand.
Buildings in the village have been carefully restored, allowing visitors to explore them at their own pace. Building interiors are furnished with period items, offering visitors a closer look at how families lived in a late 18th-century Michigan town.
Even today, Coldwater Road Chapel continues to host weddings, allowing visitors to create new memories in the historic setting.
Notable stops in the village include the Davison Depot, the Fowler Barber Shop, Masters’ Cider Mill, and the Charles W. Parker Carousel.
The hand-carved carousel, built in 1912 by Charles W. Parker, known as “America’s Amusement King,” features 36 horses and remains in operation today.
Right next to the carousel, you’ll find Parker’s Superior Ferris Wheel. Constructed in 1910, Crossroads Village is the only place in the world where you can find not just one, but two working amusement rides built by Parker.
At the depot, visitors can experience the height of rail travel and board the The Huckleberry Railroad. The 40-minute ride travels through the Genesee Recreation Area along Mott Lake and over a section of the original Pere Marquette Railroad constructed in the mid-1800s.
The line is powered this season by diesel Engine No. 12 and steam locomotive No. 152, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1920. The locomotives pull 11 original and replica wooden coaches, some dating back to the 1870s.
The Wisner Carriage Barn, where Flint’s first automobile was assembled, is just one of many buildings that illustrate the industries and daily routines of Michigan’s early history. Another is Atlas Mill, which is recognized as the state’s oldest-operating grist mill.
Buildings like the cider mill, blacksmith shop, and lumber company bring industries to life through live demonstrations. Blacksmiths heat and shape iron at the forge, printers set type by hand on working presses, and villagers carry out the daily tasks that once defined small-town life.
The village even offers free 20-minute performances held regularly in the Colwell Opera House on the second floor of the Horton-Colwell Building.
Yet, this is more than a tourist attraction. It represents a successful long-term effort to save and preserve some of Genesee County’s oldest and most historically-significant architecture.
Fifty years after opening, the village continues to fulfill both of its original missions: preservation and education. Its buildings stand as restored pieces of Michigan’s past, allowing new generations of Michiganders to experience it.