Banat

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Banat, Michigan. Home of Holmes Township's Township Hall. Named after Banat, Romania by Romanian immigrants who came to the area in late 18th/early 19th century. At Banat's peak, it had a two-room schoolhouse, church, cemetary, bus garage, the township hall, and a tavern and general store with gas station. The original industry was farming, though this was largely abandoned by the mid-twentieth century due to poor soil and climate conditions. The permanent population dwindled during the latter half of the twentieth century. The school house was closed and sold in the 1960's and is now a private cottage. The church was closed and demolished in the mid 1980's. The bus garage was sold off along with the school house and was eventually tore down sometime around 2000(?). The tavern, general store and gas station were closed and demolished following the death of the last owner, Mr. Hirsch.

With the decline in farming, environmental protection laws of the 1970's, and wildlife reintroduction programs, wildlife has made a remarkable comeback in the area. By the 1970's there were no bald eagles and very few black bear. There are now many nesting pair of eagles in the area and a healthy bear population, as well as improvements in many other bird and small mammal populations. There is still a small permanent population, but many former residences are now used recreationally. Outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing are now the primary activities in the area; there is also a cross country course that opened in the late 1990's. A rental lodge, which recently opened, and a mini-storage facility, built on the site of the former bus garage, are the only apparent businesses within Banat. With climate change, and the rising price of crops such as soy and corn, there has been a recent resurgence of crop farming in just the past few years, and there is at least one active cattle farm in the area.

Among the more interesting places in the area, there is an abandoned cemetery directly west of the current cemetery across the Right-of-Way Road (shown as Cemetery Road/S-2 Road on this map). Unfortunately, very few stones or decorations remain; the site appears to have been looted in recent years. There are still a couple stones, and many of the grave sites are clearly visible as indentations in the ground. The stones were all in German and other central European languages and they all showed dates from the late 1700's, 1800's and early 1900's.