Hell

When the weather makes national news, a place called Hell, Mich, is likely to get into it somehow. Last winter editors were not above informing their readers that Hell had frozen over. In the midst of last week's heat wave the Associated Press supplied its members with an item to the effect that Hell was fairly roasting.

There is no Hell in Michigan and officially there never was one.* In 1841 Storekeeper George Reeves and his brother-in-law, Timothy Allison, of Pinckney, Mich., bought a nearby section on a lake, set some 75 men to work building a dam, mill, distillery, house and store. Shortly after the distillery started, the Government ordered revenue stamps on whiskey. According to one legend, Squire Reeves snorted: "This is hell!" According to another, Squire Reeves, when asked to name his community, replied: "I don't care what you call it; call it Hell if you like." In any case, the name stuck, though the place was to be found on no map, never had a post office, a church, or an incorporated government. Fifty years ago much of Hell burned down. Later the distillery was abandoned, became a hogpen. Twelve years ago a real-estate firm acquired Hell, turned it into a tourist resort under the name Hi-Land Lake.

Oldtimers in Pinckney, which serves as Hi-Land Lake's post office, still call it Hell, still think jokes about it funny. An old favorite: "My grandfather helped raise Hell." Last week, Pinckney, with 102DEG, boasted that it was 2DEG "hotter'n Hell."

*The U. S. Postal Guide registers no Hell, no Hades, no Inferno, anywhere in the country.

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